Aligning Your Communication of Value

“And if you use our tool,” said the salesperson, “you’ll save millions every year!”

 

The response from the prospect team was indifferent, even quietly hostile. Why?

 

The group were all individual contributors, and in response to the salesperson’s claim they were thinking, “Sure, and we’ll never see any of that money…!”

 

There are three interchangeable expressions of value: time, people and money. These are simply three ways of expressing the consumption, redeployment or liberation of resources associated with solving a problem. Generally speaking, people at different levels of an organization perceive value through different filters, aligned with these three parameters:

 

ü  High Level (e.g., C-Suite, SVP, VP): These people are typically most interested in gaining or saving money. Senior management needs to see an ROI analysis before they will agree to move forward with a major software purchase; intangibles are rarely applicable.

 

ü  Middle Level (Sr. Directors, Directors and other middle managers): While arguable, these folks are generally concerned with people resources. For example, at budget time most middle managers will say, “I need more staff members to meet my objectives…!”

 

ü  Low Level (e.g., staff and individual contributors): “I just want to end my day on time…!” Individual contributors’ main concern is time. Time saved so that they can focus on other, more productive tasks or projects, for example.

 

So, when discussing value, we need to articulate it in alignment with the people we are speaking with.  

 

PS: It is even worse when the salesperson says to lower-level folks, “And if you use our AI tool, you’ll save millions every year!”

 

Now, not only is the group thinking, “We’ll never see any of that money…!” but they are also worrying, “And that AI may be taking our jobs!”