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I’ve been thinking about our customers again. Every customer that’s intent on growing needs something. Oh, the particulars are different from one to the next, but in essence, they are all trying to find their way from point “A” to point “B.” They need a bridge.

Value Creation in Sales

Sometimes they are already thinking about what’s wrong and what to do about it; sometimes not. Either way, it strikes me that there’s a couple key subjects we can talk about that will make our time together extremely valuable. This may seem simplistic, but getting back to basics is important from time to time right? – especially when it comes to value creation in sales.

5 Key Elements of Building a Bridge in Sales

1. First I need to understand what’s troubling my customer and why. How did they get where they are, where does it hurt and how bad does it hurt? (read: $ revenue impact $) If there’s no pain, I have a chance to help them think about the future in a different way. Perhaps there’s am opportunity they missed while they were busy running their business.

2. Then I need to know where they want to be. What’s the ideal? What does success look like for them and who cares? What are the business objectives that they want to achieve and what will that do for them strategically, corporately, individually? How do they frame the potential their business possesses?

3. Then I need to build a bridge that gets them from where they are to where they want to be. Once I build that bridge, I need to articulate it in a way that is simple, elegant and actionable.

4. Then I need to find a way to measure success or failure of a solution using their metrics and their language. Once this bridge is built, how will we know it is working properly?

5. Lastly, I need to execute successfully on this solution with them in such a way that my customer is so happy, they are telling all their friends how cool we are! That’s my point “B” by the way – happy customers who have nothing but good to say about me.

What’s your point “B”? …and how are you going to get there? Build your customer a bridge and they will get you there.

Photo Credit: Christy Little on Tumblr.