You have done it all right…

You posted content, brought the suspect to two webinars, tracked them reading your blog, hosted them at a trade show where you engaged them and they asked for a proposal.

Your proposal was letter perfect.  You checked every box, you answered every question, you have great references, and rocked it with the final demo.

Your product is the industry leader, you shared your awards and had a very sharp pencil, since this is so important.  You need this deal to prove to Wall Street that this product and you are real.

Now you wait, the prospect grows quiet and you start to worry.

You are still waiting, but don’t want to seem worried or needy about this deal, so you keep waiting.

Finally, the buyer email shows up and the air goes out of you.  They are going a different direction.  They thank you personally, they praise your product and team, but they are going a different direction.

Your team reacts with words you can and can’t publish.  You do a debrief to understand why this leading product with a quality selling effort, has lost.  It is clear on every meaningful operational metric that your product is a generation a head.  Not only would the customer get more product value today, but for at five to ten more years, where the other products life, will be three years at most.

With your sharp pencil, you are price competitive today, but almost 20% lower over five and that increases beyond five years.

You wonder should you protest this deal.  Should you have your CEO reach out to their CEO, or even ask one of your board members to make sure there was no mistake.

The debriefing after the decision is more effort than the effort working toward the sale, yet there is little new learning.

This is where the second version of the customer’s problem should appear.  It really should have appeared in the planning before day one of the sales quest.

You and your team did a fine job presenting the product, answering the check boxes, and doing a technical demo.  The problem is that this is only one version of the story.

“What” you sell is important and costs a respectable amount of money.  The buyer is exploring your company and your product because the decision regarding your product will have an impact (for better or worse), and the buying team is betting part of their career on that impact.

The buyer’s business needs to be measurably better after buying your product, as well as its operational deployment more than before.  The buyer needs to be better enough to justify the purchase and all the effort that went into the purchase.

The buying team needs to be better enough to justify not only all the resources, but the risk assumed by change, from a known status to an unknown status.

The first version of the sale is called technical, operational, product, or engineering.

The second version is business.  This part is where the technical/operational realities come together with the business version to create business outcomes.

This second version is also about the steps from where the two organizations are today, to that point where they have achieved the business outcomes required.  That includes things like contracting, terms, warranty, training, ongoing service, installation, integration, and other IP or methodology that will get the buyer safely to exactly what outcomes they require.

If all you talk about is the operational side the buyer is forced to guess, or hope or build a way to assure the outcomes they require materialize from your operational offer.

If your competitor does a compelling job assuring the buyer of a fast deployment, with rapid benefits, at low risk, many of your industry leading technical/operational features deliver little and may seem risky, or expensive.  The result decreases your value to the buyer.

There are really three value elements.  There is the business outcome, the operational outcomes, and the engagement model combining those two versions, to assure those outcomes.  One person cannot be expected to carry this conversation for the sellers or the buyers.  Both organizations better be talking to corresponding stakeholders to effectively combine these three value elements.

DO NOT DO DEMOS!  Demos are about you and your operational asset.  With a demo, you force the buyer to figure out if what was in the demo, is a good fit, and if it can be made to support the required business outcomes.

Never us that “D” word again.  Do a Joint Scope of Work (SOW) to fully understand the business outcomes, and how they will be measured.  If the buyers with the sellers have explored exactly how the operational IP will support those business outcomes and both parties have defined who does what, by when, to get that all done – DO A PREVIEW (not the “D”) OF WHAT THE BUYERS WORLD WILL BE LIKE AFTER WORKING TOGETHER.

There are two versions of the problem with three parts to make a whole.

Design the three parts at one time.  Focus on the whole problem and how success will be measured.  Bring not one skilled person to the table, but at least two who work well together.  Finally, preview the outcome so the buyer doesn’t have to guess, hope, or worry; and the seller is sure of the value being delivered.

When the seller does this they remove risk, insure outcomes, teach the buyer how both teams will work together, and will win a lot more deals, in shorter times, with higher margins.

Make sure you solve two problems with one engagement, to give and get more value.