- Weekly Sales Reset
- Posts
- How to sell better by co-creating with your customer to deliver better outcomes
How to sell better by co-creating with your customer to deliver better outcomes
Making the change from selling conversations that COMMUNICATE value to conversations that CO-CREATE value
Hello Sales Reset Community
We all know that salespeople need to be excellent communicators.
But what if excellent communication skills are no longer sufficient?
Our topic in this Weekly Sales Reset is the HUGE difference between communicating value and co-creating value.
Here’s the summary: Stop trying to COMMUNICATE the value of what you’re selling. Instead, focus more on CO-CREATING proposals to deliver better customer outcomes.
In practice, using your product knowledge to ask great questions is best!
How you'll improve sales results this week
What is co-creation?
Co-creation is a collaborative approach involving multiple stakeholders working together to generate ideas and develop better ways to create more value.
Salespeople have limited time in conversations with customers. We should spend less of this limited time talking about what we’re selling. Without care, we can spend all this precious time answering customers’ questions about our products and services.
Instead, we should spend as much time as possible co-creating proposals that will enable our customers to achieve the outcomes they need with our products and services.
What should we co-create?
Here are some key things you can co-create with your customers:
Better Awareness: It’s safe to assume your customer has not thought through all of the implications of a potential purchase. You certainly don't FULLY understand their needs! Take responsibility for enabling everybody to understand all aspects of what is being discussed better.
Better Outcomes: Now that everybody is more aware, you can lead the collaboration with stakeholders to co-create better definitions of this customer's specific needs. Make sure these outcomes are summarised effectively in easily understood words.
Outcome Reporting Metrics: Now that you know the required outcomes, you can seek to co-create the metrics that will enable the reporting of evidence of progress.
Commercial Proposals: With all these steps in place, you’ve got everything you need to co-create proposals that explain how your products and services will achieve these reported outcomes!
How do salespeople co-create with customers?
Here are some of the best ways to co-create with your customers:
Coach: Ask great questions to COACH your customers.
Stakeholders: Extend the range of people involved to increase the range of perspectives and priorities. These can include stakeholders from your customers and stakeholders from your company.
Proposal Process: Instead of trying to perfect your proposal on the first attempt, create “first-draft proposals” and agree on a time to review and improve collaboratively with your customer.
Project Plan: Develop a clear plan in your thoughts and notes about how to move from where things stand currently to delivering your customer’s reported outcomes. Ideally, spell out this plan to all other stakeholders as part of your proposals.
Potential Challenges
The customer won’t engage in co-creation: For various reasons, your customers might not immediately engage in the co-creation we’ve described this week. The answer to this challenge is for you to become more skilled in co-creation!
Insufficient time: Co-creating greater awareness, better outcomes and compelling proposals takes time. You could conclude that an opportunity is too small to deserve this approach. Or you could seek to become more skilled to co-create in even the smallest opportunity!
Join Our FREE Sales Reset Together Community
If you like our approach to selling and want to learn more, join our free Sales Reset Together community.
It’s mid-September 2024, and we’ve been developing and testing all the major parts of our community with our Founder Members in recent months. We’ve just opened the doors!
Here’s what you’ll get as a member:
Community: You'll get immediate access to our private online community.
Practice: Join our LIVE! Practice sessions to practice coaching customers and co-creating proposals.
Online Training: Access to online lessons, including our Customer Success 3CSelling Quick Start course.
LIVE! Events: Join us in our LIVE! Events online and access recordings.
Proposal Reviews: You can request confidential proposal reviews with video feedback and recommendations for improvement.
Learning & Earning Plan: We'll help and support you in developing your learning and earning plan using your Sales Reset Mastery self-assessment results.
Support: You can ask questions and get support in our discussion forums.
End of Week - Reflective Practice
At the end of this week, ask yourself these key questions:
In my conversations with customers this week, what were the best examples of co-creation?
How do I expect this focus on co-creation with customers to affect my sales results?
What difference will co-creation make to the probability of my customers achieving better outcomes?
We hope you’ve found this Weekly Sales Reset valuable.
Have a great week!
The Sales Reset Team
Sales Reset Founder & Leader | Sales Leadership Coach |
How valuable was this issue of Weekly Sales Reset? |
Here’s a link to a page explaining how these weekly newsletters are designed to help you learn and practice your customer success selling skills.
Please feel free to unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of this email if these newsletters are no longer valuable to you!
Community of Practice
Ask Questions, Share Your Experience
If you have any questions or experience to share:
LinkedIn Group - Join our World-Class Customer Success Selling Group on LinkedIn to ask questions or comment.
Sales Reset Together Community - Click here to learn more about our private community of members committed to achieving and maintaining their Sales Reset.
Does your sales team leader or coach subscribe to our companion weekly newsletter, Sales Reset Leaders?
Every member of B2B sales teams should expect continual coaching and support. Sustained coaching is the key to effective practice, performance and results! 😃 | Subscribers to this week’s Sales Reset Leaders will learn how to help you co-create with your customers more effectively. Make sure to get time in your calendars for coaching this week! |
Reply