Sales Is Not a Four-Letter Word

by Barbara Finer, Principal
QuiVivity Marketing Partners

When you're excited about something, you talk about it. Whether your product is you or something your company makes, your enthusiasm demonstrates your belief in your product. That's how word-of-mouth marketing works, and it's the basis for effective selling. If you are excited about your product, you probably have good reason to be - these reasons are the product's values. Marketing's job is to make sure those values are articulated well. Your job in sales is to make sure your target customers have the needs that those values serve and can appreciate how those values meet their needs.

Good sales people ask open-ended questions and listen. There's an old proverb about people having two ears and one mouth - effective communicators use them in that proportion.

The key for founder-technologists who are the default sales department is to figure out the prospect's needs and communicate how your product addresses them in terms the prospect understands. Sell values, benefits and advantages - not specs and not science -unless you are selling to another scientist. Even if your target is technical, there are always other constituents involved in the buying process. Know to whom you are speaking and what they value. This requires asking questions first. Typical constituents in the buying process include:

  • The User. Values intuitive operation and ability to do their job more easily or quickly.
  • The Economic Buyer (may be the CEO). Wants to know payback period or return on investment (ROI); typically measured by quality improvements, increased throughput, or better margins.
  • The Technical Constituent. Wants to understand if the specs are met or exceeded.

For those new to sales, a helpful framework is Features-Advantages-Benefits and Evidence (FABE). For example, if we are selling a highend laptop PC targeted at a claims adjuster or sales agent with Acme Insurance Company, the decision process also includes, to varying degrees, the IT director, sales manager, service manager, and field personnel. The FABE for this example might look like this:

  • Features: weight 2.5 pounds, high-end 10 GHz processor, shockproof 8 GB disk, high-resolution monitor, $2200
  • Advantages: more capabilities for the weight at 10% less than nearest competitor's product
  • Benefits: relieves back strain and workers' compensation claims; removes the need for field personnel to use cumbersome rolling carts; insurance agents have the capacity to reliably store more than 500 policies and related tables without need to backup to disk; claims and policies based on complex data sets and statistics are processed faster.
  • Evidence: Zed Insurance Agency reported 10% fewer days' absence per year and 4% more claims processed by the agents who used this product. Pay-back period: eight weeks.

It takes time to develop succinct messaging that resonates with the constituents in your buying process. Once you do this, prospects will engage in conversation with you and the dynamic becomes more of a relationship.

Barbara Finer is a Principal at QuiVivity Marketing Partners, a marketing consultancy focused on helping technology companies get products to market, and is currently serving as an Executive-in-Residence in Emerson College's Integrated Marketing Communications and Global Marketing Masters programs. She can be reached at barb@quivivity.com.