Creating Value Propositions for Large Companies

Your product demo just lost another deal. Not because your software isn't good enough. Because you're only selling 33% of what buyers actually evaluate. Most reps think value proposition = product features. Buyers assess three things: People, Product, and Process. Here's how the illustrious Kemyell Rieves, who led a Sales Assembly course this week on competitive differentiation, encouraged folks to think about it: 1. Product = What you build. - Features and functionality. - Integration capabilities. - Performance metrics. 2. People = Who delivers it. - Expertise of your team. - Quality of support and onboarding. - Industry knowledge and insights. 3. Process = How you work together. - Implementation methodology. - Communication cadence. - Internal workflows that impact customer experience. Take Slack as an example. Their value prop goes beyond "workplace messaging." It's: - Product: Simple UI with 2,000+ integrations. - People: Community-driven sales with strong onboarding teams. - Process: Viral bottom-up adoption that drives org-wide stickiness. All three. Every conversation. Meanwhile, you have lots of reps leading with: "Our platform has advanced analytics and real-time reporting..." 🤦♂️ Feature lists don't win deals. Your competitors probably have similar features. But they DON'T have your people or your process. Sell the complete experience! "Here's what you get with us: The technology to solve X, a dedicated CSM who knows your industry, and a proven 90-day rollout process that gets you to value faster." That's one integrated pitch, not three separate conversations. Always remember that your prospect isn't buying software. They're buying confidence that you'll deliver the OUTCOME they need. Give them all three reasons to believe you.

"We've been working this deal for 8 months and it just went dark." (Ouch!) Last week, I had three different sales leaders tell me versions of this same story. Big enterprise deals that seemed "sure things" suddenly stalling or disappearing completely. Here's what's really happening: You're selling like it's 2015, but buyers have fundamentally changed how they make decisions. Seriously, the old playbook is dead: → Build relationship with one champion → Demo your product extensively → Negotiate on price to close → Wait for their "decision timeline" Why this fails in modern enterprise selling? #1 Committee-based buying Average enterprise deal now involves 6-8 decision makers. Your single champion can't drive consensus alone, no matter how much they love your solution. #2 Risk-averse buyers Post-2008, post-COVID, buyers are terrified of making bad decisions. They'd rather stick with status quo than risk their careers on your "game-changing" solution. #3 Budget complexity Money exists, but it's trapped across departments. Your champion in IT loves you, but the budget owner in Finance has different priorities. Here’s how elite enterprise sellers win these days: A. Multi-thread from Day One Map the entire buying committee before you pitch anything. Identify the economic buyer, technical evaluator, user champions, and potential blockers. Build relationships with each. B. Sell business outcomes, not features Stop talking about what your product does. Start quantifying the business impact of not solving their problem. Make the cost of inaction higher than the risk of action. C. De-risk the decision Provide case studies from similar companies. Offer pilot programs. Create implementation roadmaps. Give them ammunition to defend the decision internally. D. Control the process Don't ask "What's your timeline?" Tell them "Based on your goals, here's the optimal implementation schedule." You drive urgency, they don't. Here’s a real life example: One client was stuck on a $400K deal for 6 months. We mapped 8 stakeholders they'd never engaged. Built business cases for each department. Deal closed in 45 days at $650K. The difference? They stopped selling a product and started orchestrating a business transformation. Enterprise deals aren't won in demo rooms. They're won in boardrooms, budget meetings, and implementation planning sessions. Sales leaders, how are you implementing this across ALL your reps? Want to talk about how we could help? Go here: https://lnkd.in/ghh8VCaf

Last month, we won a deal at $120K when our closest competitor quoted $31K. Here are the 3 strategies we use to win 90% of our head-to-head deals in enterprise (even when we're 4x the cost): 1. Make Discovery Valuable for the Prospect Most discovery calls are filled with endless checklist questions that only benefit the vendor. Discovery should be buyer-focused and help the prospect to understand if you are a good fit for THEM. Questions should only be asked if the answer helps you provide value to them. Good discovery is literally a differentiator because most AEs run through a checklist given to them by leadership. The questions all benefit the seller, not the buyer. If you truly understand the prospect’s problem and have enough market/product knowledge to get them to their solution, you’re already ahead of 95% of sellers. In this deal, the prospect literally said “Oh my god. Vendor X just kept asking questions and we couldn’t get a glimpse of the product. They didn’t understand our problem and were more worried about our timeline and if we had budget. I feel like you all truly understood our problem and were helping us solve it as if you were a part of our team.” Don’t be the sales rep that prospects hate because you waste their time on calls. The bar is insanely low here. 2. Secure Executive Buy-In Early and Build Multiple Champions From the start, we involved key stakeholders from four different teams and their CMO. I was close with everyone, was on text with 4 people (including procurement), and had separate Slack threads with different teams who were involved. To the point where we felt like friends and conversations were casual and enjoyable. Everyone was bought in except one person. But all the champions let me know this, what the concerns were, and we worked together to get them on board because we all had a common goal. This could easily been blocked behind the scenes if this was not the case. 3. Show them what it is like to work with your team BEFORE the Contract is Signed The prospect mentioned that they learned a lot during the sales process. They refined some of their processes even before the contract was signed. We helped them understand what was possible with the product and helped them with strategies that improved their processes whether they went with us or not. We brainstormed ideas, experiments, and growth channels. They knew partnering with us meant not only a premium tool, but a premium team that was fully invested in their success. They kept having us meet more and more people on the team to talk through ideas, which also built stronger and stronger consensus. TAKEAWAY: DO NOT COMPETE ON PRICE. It will only get you so far. Price, free trial, POC, etc. are not real differentiators for enterprise. Differentiate in product, support, sales process, speed of innovation, level of partnership and UX. Not in price. What are the best strategies you’ve seen success with in enterprise?