Nobody Wants Your Product
What they want is the outcome you will produce.
People do not buy a B2B product or service for fun, or to do their vendors a favor. They buy solutions to problems, they buy improvements to processes… in other words: they buy the effect a product or service produces for them.
Regular readers of this blog will know what is coming next: It’s not me, it’s you.
Make it about them
A strong value proposition will bear this in mind.
And yes: your value proposition is about you in that it is your unique selling point, the thing that makes you stand out from the competition. But if it is not directed at the client, the “value” part of a “value proposition” is missing. Perhaps you are the only vendor in your space with green eyes; that is not likely to have an impact on people buying from you over a competitor.
Connect your value with your client. Consider their return on investment when purchasing from you. How will your client’s life and work improve by working with you?
Speak the right language
Can you explain what you do without ever mentioning your product or service?
Try to talk strictly from the point of the view of the client. What is the problem you solve for them, how do you solve it and how do they come out at the other end?
This is a first step in truly learning your client’s priorities and starting to use their language rather than your own.
To Do
- Write down the typical description of what you do or sell.
- Take the industry words you have used and cross a line through them.
- Now describe your service again, without using any of those words. Suddenly you will start to visualize what your clients are doing when they call you in, and what they want to occur.