Holden Advisors Blog

The purpose of "big data" is to give managers a clearer vision of something so they can make decisions about products, pricing and distribution. In pricing, it is generally around how customers buy.  It uses statistical techniques to group customers into definable segments and helps you figure out how to sell to those segments.

You are sitting across the table from an important influencer within your customer’s buying center. You scheduled this meeting to outline how your new product helps the customer’s teams improve performance. You present one customer value prop after another, so many in fact, there’s no way you can lose.

How Well Does Your Sales Team Harvest Value?

As the understanding and communication of value matures in a sales organization, the payoff to a company’s profit increases.  This truth is widely accepted, like that fire is hot or rain is wet.  If the fact that value creation and harvesting has profit implications is no surprise to anyone, why do so few sales teams reach a level of value maturity and fewer still are able to maximize it when they do get there?

Every company that we have worked with wants to grow. They set growth targets and communicate it to their shareholders. Achieving these targets can mean make or break for the organization. At times, we see companies become overwhelmed with options in their pursuit of growth and while under immense pressure from shareholders, seem to be standing still versus moving forward. If you are in a company in a mature industry, chances are there aren’t many green fields left to grow. Faced with this situation, what can a company do? How can a company exceed market expectations and drive shareholder value?

Congratulations! You just inked a major deal that you’ve been working on for the past six months. You carefully worked the deal through a complex buying process, beating out your major competitor in the process. Your quota is almost clinched for the quarter. Time to focus on those other prospects that you have shortchanged recently in the hope of making it over the finish line.

We all like to believe we understand the value our products and services will bring to our customers.  We study our products and link the benefits of what our company delivers to our customers and their respective business; believing we can make a positive contribution.  However, why is it the messages we work so hard to develop often fall on deaf ears?  Why does it seem the value message we believe in, comes short of getting passed our immediate contacts?