27 Two Paths: Value vs. Solution

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can

take you there.

—Alice in Wonderland

At some point in the sales process you will come to a fork in

the road. Two paths will diverge, and you’ll have to choose

one. Occasionally the choice will arise in an initial cold call,

but more often it will come up during a second or subsequent

call.

One fork is the solution path. The other is the value path.

The Solution Path

The solution path is all about what you can do for your

prospects How will you help meet their needs? How will you

help them solve a problem or seize an opportunity? How will

you help them implement what you are selling so the result is

happy customers?

You love the solution path. It’s in your sweet spot. You get

to have a features/benefits discussion—and that’s what you’ve

been trained to do. You’re good at it.

You know you’re on the solution path and progressing

nicely when you hear the prospect say things like:

_ This sounds great, tell me more.

_ How can you do what you’re describing?

_ Can you do it this way?

_ How would your solution fit into the “box” we’ve been

defining?

_ What does your new model do that this year’s model

can’t?

There’s nothing wrong with the solution path. But sometimes

the sale needs to move in a different direction.

The Value Path

Most salespeople are far less comfortable with the value path.

For them, it’s an uncharted trail, outside their experience and

training. So they tend to miss or ignore the signpost and

continue trudging ahead on the solution path. But the value

path is the one that vice presidents (Russians) and C-level

executives (Greeks) want to go down. (See also Chapter 9.) If

you miss the turn, you will leave them behind. Or rather,

they’ll leave you.

On the value path the focus is not so much on your product’s

specific features and benefits as on the business issues

surrounding them: return on investment, time, risk, and

brand. Comments you will hear from prospects who want to

go down this path include:

_ How will this save me/make me money?

_ How much time will this service save me?

_ What risks does this decision raise for the rest of my

organization?

_ How does this fit with our branding strategy?

_ What makes you a vendor we’d want to partner with?

When to Use Which Path

Like salespeople, most prospects below the vice president

level have been conditioned only to go down the solution path. And everyone, including executives, travels the solution

path to some extent. It’s a perfectly good path. You just need

to know when to leave it behind—because both paths are often

required to make a sale.

Use the solution path when:

_ You are dealing with lower-level managers or product

users.

_ You are exploring something the prospect has never

done before.

_ You need to build rapport or excitement about the product

before you can start down the value path (which is

where you know you’ll eventually have to go).

Use the value path when:

_ You are dealing with vice presidents (Russians) or senior

executives (Greeks).

_ You want to gain access to senior executive (i.e., when

you want lower-level prospects (Spaniards) to push

you up the decision-maker ladder).

_ You are getting interest on the solution path, but you

need to establish another front.

_ You know price is an objection.

_ The prospect has a current process in place, and

they’re evaluating whether to change.

Ben was excited. After his initial thirty-second

speech and some questions, the prospect had gotten

seriously interested. She opened up and told

him quite a bit about her plans. It sounded as if his

products definitely could fit into her plans. Then the

conversation hit a snag.

“It sounds quite interesting, Ben,” the prospect

said. “Why don’t you send me some literature and

we’ll go from there?”

Fortunately, Ben recognized the classic “buyer

takes control” line, and he was up to the challenge.

Knowing that the prospect was a senior VP

(Russian), he chose to turn the conversation onto

the value path.

“I’ll be happy to do that,” he said. “I have another

quick question for you. What risks do you see

in implementing a solution like this, and what might

the return on an investment look like for your company?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, most companies like yours look at what

we offer from both the product-fit side, and the business-

value side. I would also like to send you some

information that will help in our next conversation. It

shows the risks other companies have looked at

when they implemented a solution like this and also

some of the metrics they’ve used to measure ROI. If

you look it over, then when we meet again you’ll be

in a better position to determine if this makes financial

sense before we really dive deep into the functionality.”

That’s an example of a case where a salesperson chose to

take a cold call down the value path in order to stay in control

of the next step in the process. Ben will have plenty of time to

travel the solution path with this vice president and with any

specialists or submanagers (Spaniards) she may bring into the

discussion.

Most often you’ll hit the fork in the road during your

second or third call on a prospect. But if you get an early

opportunity to take the value path with a executive, be proactive

and take it. It will shorten your sales cycle, keep you at the

executive level, and let you sound like a potential business

partner instead of just somebody peddling his wares. Willie

Loman had no clue about the value path. But you do.

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can

take you there.

—Alice in Wonderland

At some point in the sales process you will come to a fork in

the road. Two paths will diverge, and you’ll have to choose

one. Occasionally the choice will arise in an initial cold call,

but more often it will come up during a second or subsequent

call.

One fork is the solution path. The other is the value path.

The Solution Path

The solution path is all about what you can do for your

prospects How will you help meet their needs? How will you

help them solve a problem or seize an opportunity? How will

you help them implement what you are selling so the result is

happy customers?

You love the solution path. It’s in your sweet spot. You get

to have a features/benefits discussion—and that’s what you’ve

been trained to do. You’re good at it.

You know you’re on the solution path and progressing

nicely when you hear the prospect say things like:

_ This sounds great, tell me more.

_ How can you do what you’re describing?

_ Can you do it this way?

_ How would your solution fit into the “box” we’ve been

defining?

_ What does your new model do that this year’s model

can’t?

There’s nothing wrong with the solution path. But sometimes

the sale needs to move in a different direction.

The Value Path

Most salespeople are far less comfortable with the value path.

For them, it’s an uncharted trail, outside their experience and

training. So they tend to miss or ignore the signpost and

continue trudging ahead on the solution path. But the value

path is the one that vice presidents (Russians) and C-level

executives (Greeks) want to go down. (See also Chapter 9.) If

you miss the turn, you will leave them behind. Or rather,

they’ll leave you.

On the value path the focus is not so much on your product’s

specific features and benefits as on the business issues

surrounding them: return on investment, time, risk, and

brand. Comments you will hear from prospects who want to

go down this path include:

_ How will this save me/make me money?

_ How much time will this service save me?

_ What risks does this decision raise for the rest of my

organization?

_ How does this fit with our branding strategy?

_ What makes you a vendor we’d want to partner with?

When to Use Which Path

Like salespeople, most prospects below the vice president

level have been conditioned only to go down the solution path. And everyone, including executives, travels the solution

path to some extent. It’s a perfectly good path. You just need

to know when to leave it behind—because both paths are often

required to make a sale.

Use the solution path when:

_ You are dealing with lower-level managers or product

users.

_ You are exploring something the prospect has never

done before.

_ You need to build rapport or excitement about the product

before you can start down the value path (which is

where you know you’ll eventually have to go).

Use the value path when:

_ You are dealing with vice presidents (Russians) or senior

executives (Greeks).

_ You want to gain access to senior executive (i.e., when

you want lower-level prospects (Spaniards) to push

you up the decision-maker ladder).

_ You are getting interest on the solution path, but you

need to establish another front.

_ You know price is an objection.

_ The prospect has a current process in place, and

they’re evaluating whether to change.

Ben was excited. After his initial thirty-second

speech and some questions, the prospect had gotten

seriously interested. She opened up and told

him quite a bit about her plans. It sounded as if his

products definitely could fit into her plans. Then the

conversation hit a snag.

“It sounds quite interesting, Ben,” the prospect

said. “Why don’t you send me some literature and

we’ll go from there?”

Fortunately, Ben recognized the classic “buyer

takes control” line, and he was up to the challenge.

Knowing that the prospect was a senior VP

(Russian), he chose to turn the conversation onto

the value path.

“I’ll be happy to do that,” he said. “I have another

quick question for you. What risks do you see

in implementing a solution like this, and what might

the return on an investment look like for your company?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, most companies like yours look at what

we offer from both the product-fit side, and the business-

value side. I would also like to send you some

information that will help in our next conversation. It

shows the risks other companies have looked at

when they implemented a solution like this and also

some of the metrics they’ve used to measure ROI. If

you look it over, then when we meet again you’ll be

in a better position to determine if this makes financial

sense before we really dive deep into the functionality.”

That’s an example of a case where a salesperson chose to

take a cold call down the value path in order to stay in control

of the next step in the process. Ben will have plenty of time to

travel the solution path with this vice president and with any

specialists or submanagers (Spaniards) she may bring into the

discussion.

Most often you’ll hit the fork in the road during your

second or third call on a prospect. But if you get an early

opportunity to take the value path with a executive, be proactive

and take it. It will shorten your sales cycle, keep you at the

executive level, and let you sound like a potential business

partner instead of just somebody peddling his wares. Willie

Loman had no clue about the value path. But you do.