I’ve often found myself in roles at the intersection of sales, professional services and support (and as an extension, product, although not directly relevant to today’s post.) Throughout my career, my selling style has really evolved into the valued partner, solution expert who can help customers or prospects leverage whatever product/service I’ve been associated with to solve their problems. I’ve noticed recently that it’s much less about the product or service, and much more about aligning to the dream.

It used to be that I would leverage our core values to demonstrate how we can fill the gaps in each organization. As a general matter, this helped establish myself as an expert, but it didn’t resonate as well with my audiences because they would latch on to one or two smaller points rather than grasp the big picture. My next shift had me emphasizing truly meeting customers where there are to solve very specific problems and using that as a basis for a broader conversation of what solving those problems will enable them to do and how it will help them solve much broader goals. I think there is still another evolution in the language of value and being able to leverage your content, your demo, your expertise to enable your audience to truly connect your words and images with their dreams (realized or unrealized).

As I mull through this problem, I started some research and came across The Secret to Selling SaaS – Value vs. Product blog post that references this phenomenon as ‘crossing the chasm’ and states “a customer can go 57% of the way through the buyer’s journey, but still not understand what you’re selling.” And this is very much describes what I’ve been feeling like recently.

An extension of this problem is that the disconnected conversation often results into a directional shift focused more on price and feature/functionality versus really aligning to the audiences goals and vision. Ultimately these opportunities are smaller and less valuable to the customer.

I think my biggest take away so far is that I shouldn’t second guess my methodology and thought process around the importance of having discovery calls and understanding the problem we’re trying to solve before jumping right into to demos and technical discussions. Without it, you can lose your grip on the opportunity and can’t possible promote the right value proposition if you don’t fully understand the audience or their goals.