Moe Revenue » differentiating value

The Key Concept for All Selling

Carl Moe — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:10:00 +0000

A quick description of Differentiating Value can be heard in this short video interview I did recently with Jeff Fritz for his Accelerator Blog. There is no more important concept – it is the foundation of all successful selling. Please take a moment to watch the interview.

Defining your Differentiating Value – Where do I start?

Carl Moe — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:14:00 +0000

The first step moving from a features & benefits-based, go-to-market model to a Differentiating Value (DV) approach is defining your Differentiating Value. In B2B revenue models, the first question to ask is: How does my product / service improve the customer’s business? Forget the traditional quality, service and support pontifications. In B2B, quality, service and support are simply expected and all three are claimed by every competitor anyway so you get no differentiating points on these issues.

Look at the transaction from the prospect’s world and define how their overall performance is improved by having your product / service. That is your Differentiating Value and you can never have too much DV. Most prospects are already buying from someone else today so the more DV-based improvements your products deliver to the prospect’s business, the better platform you have for revenue growth.

The question always comes up…“What if they are happy with a competitor’s product and there doesn’t seem to be a benefit to making change?” This happens every day in sales. Our observation is one of two situations typically applies. If your product delivers substantial, compelling DV to your market and the sales rep has asked all the Critical Qualifying Questions for Motivation but the prospect is not responding, your rep is 1.) not connecting with the emotional buyer or 2.) the prospect is not a ‘fit’ for your DV. Assuming the prospect is not a fit for your DV, it is better to know that as early as possible in the sales cycle so you don’t waste time pursuing and forecasting dead end deals.

What Are You Selling?

Carl Moe — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:59:00 +0000

One of the major discoveries clients make in completing the DV exercise portion of our Revenue System is this:

What we sell and how we get paid are two different things!

Your Differentiating Value is what separates you from the competition and goes beyond core competencies like the typical quality, service and support platforms most companies promote. The Sales Revenue System 2.0 book example of the cinnamon sales rep is a typical illustration of this discovery. He was actually selling ‘time to market’ for new products but got paid in shipments of cinnamon and other spices.

The first step in our Revenue System implementation always starts with defining your Differentiating Value…and the discoveries that follow.