15 Mar

Enhancing Your Sales & Marketing Dialogue – Best Practice 3: Elevating the Customer Experience

Posted by IDC Sales Enablement In Jason Cunliffe 0 comment

Nancy_Selig_cropped M
By Nancy Selig
Vice President, Interactive Platforms Services

A critical aspect of transforming business outcomes begins with elevating the customer experience. A traditional product-feature sales pitch involved talking at the buyer. In a business value mindset, the focus shifts to engage the customer in an interactive conversation. There’s a lot of information available today, and customers have ample opportunity to educate themselves. An interactive conversation is different, in that it requires creating a compelling story that focuses on solving the buyer’s problem. In this scenario, think of the buyer as the main character of the story.
(more…)

Continue Reading
13 Mar

Enhance Your Sales and Marketing Dialogue – Best Practice 2: Quantify & Demonstrate Your Value

Posted by IDC Sales Enablement In Nancy Selig, Randy Perry 1 Comment

Randy Perry M                                          Nancy_Selig_cropped M
Randy Perry                                                         Nancy Selig
Vice President                                                         Vice President
Business Value Strategy Practice                        Interactive Platforms Services

In earlier blogs, we’ve established that IT is equipped to speak the business side about their goals. We’ve also explained why linking your products and services to business goals is so important. Now let’s turn to value and why you must quantify the value.  As businesses articulate their desired business outcomes, it is increasingly important that there is a dollar figure associated with those outcomes. If not, why would an organization invest in certain products or services? It’s your job to quantify that value.
(more…)

Continue Reading
08 Mar

Enhance Your Sales and Marketing Dialogue – Best Practice 1: Focus on Business Outcomes

Posted by IDC Sales Enablement In Nancy Selig, Randy Perry 1 Comment

Randy Perry M                                          Nancy_Selig_cropped M
Randy Perry                                                         Nancy Selig
Vice President                                                         Vice President
Business Value Strategy Practice                        Interactive Platforms Services

In our previous post, we outlined 5 best practices for elevating your sales and marketing dialogue with customers and prospects, which we will expand upon over the next several weeks. Our post today further describes Best Practice #1: focus on business outcomes.

Focusing on business outcomes sounds straightforward yet it doesn’t just happen. Here are three key strategies to help the process along.  First, talk to the business buyers about the outcomes they themselves hope to achieve. Second, link your products and services to their specific outcomes. And third, quantify the results.

(more…)

Continue Reading