When I worked for Mike Murphy, VP of Value Practice at Zscaler, we were working together on a huge deal that Mike had painstakingly prepared a business case for. At the time, our business cases were very manual and Mike had worked many hours with his champion to understand the project’s ROI.
Things in the sales process had been moving along smoothly, but when the deal unexpectedly shifted to the CFO for final sign-off, it likely would have died, but because the business case was rock-solid, the CFO had no excuse not to sign off. If it hadn’t been for Mike’s tireless efforts to arm his champion with what he needed to win the ‘internal sale’, and because Mike was proactive in helping to build the business case, that deal closed with very little pushback from the CFO.
Now, Mike is championing every rep at Zscaler to include a business case on every deal through ValueCloud. Without a business case, Mike wouldn’t have been able to convince the CFO that scaling and automating cases to the rest of the reps was vital and because of that deal, he’s been able to amplify the entire organization’s adoption of selling by aligning to their customer’s strategic goals and business outcomes.
Submitted by: Matt Sweet
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Throughout the summer, DecisionLink is honoring the Value Heroes of organizations as a part of “Value Heroes: A Summer of Recognition.” We are sharing these stories on our blog, submitted by value heroes themselves or by the sales professionals that they have supported.
Our celebration of Value Heroes concludes after Labor Day with our “Value Heroes Summit,” a town hall, virtual forum where value and sales professionals can connect, share stories and best practices and engage with like-minded professionals.
So, share your value selling stories and join the conversation!