Getting quick wins with the front line
“We’re just starting out on our ‘value journey’ and need to get some quick wins with our front-line sellers. Where do we start?”
We asked the Value Dirsuptors to share at least one category in the chat: Must-Do Tactics, Must-Avoid Tactics, and “Extra-Credit” Tactics.
Must-Do Tactics:
1. Have some value champions that are pillars for the front line – top sellers who buy into the concept.
2. Identify Sales Most Wanted Account(s) aligned with Sales Executives with Value Selling Background. “Pilot” 3-4 value engagements with Business Case deliverables. Celebrate the Sales Win with AE and Business Value as the enabler in Sales All Hands.
3. Celebrate (and communicate) those quick wins.
4. Define the various versions of the term “value” utilized around the org and educate when in customer interactions each is best utilized.
5. You need to clearly define the rules of engagement. For example, what you will help them with, what you’re not going to help them with, and what you might be able to facilitate.
6. Integrate the Value Journey in the GTM process for everyone to follow and speak the same language.
7. Link to sales stage process in SFDC.
8. Quality must be the prevailing focus.
9. Provide hands-on coaching.
10. Get your first 3-4 value management hires right as they are going to represent the team.
Must-Avoid Tactics:
1. Don’t make the front-line seller go it alone at first, jump in with them to help them see how the process goes and help make them successful.
2. Perfect is the enemy of good enough – just get something out there and evolve from there. Otherwise, it takes forever to go nowhere.
3. “Hey, wanna do an ROI?”
4. Don’t try to force all front-line sellers to become junior members of the value team (learning all the nuances of value selling). Rather, respect they have a lot of other tools and processes on their plate and just make it simple and easy to pitch the value team and engage the team.
5. Go for it without a strong Executive Leadership Team sponsor.
6. “Mandating Business Value” in the early pilot. Instead, recruit a coalition of the willing.
Extra-Credit:
1. Do it early.
Our Value Disruptor cohort is dedicated to progressive leaders of the value discipline within their respective organizations, including members from top SaaS companies like Ecosystems clients Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, GitLab, Google Cloud, HP, Qualtrics, Red Hat, and more. Want to learn more from our Customer Value Community members? Register today to join.
