Value: The Thread that Binds Buyers & Sellers in a Virtual World

As the whole world is turned upside down by the Coronavirus (Covid-19), and people’s lives, careers and businesses are being profoundly affected, we find ourselves re-engineering and re-thinking social norms, behaviors, tools and information, in terms of how we live and work, and especially how we work together, i.e. collaborate. “Together” is a key part of combatting this crisis, and united, albeit physically apart, is the way we will defeat the global pandemic. Whether it’s working together to protect lives or to protect our livelihood, we seem to be embracing the “new normal” of living and working and adjusting accordingly.

We believe DecisionLink’s role in this New Normal, is to help in that social adjustment, and specifically to enable sellers and buyers to have productive conversations, no matter how flakey their Wi-Fi system is, or how slow the internet is responding, or how many times you get kicked off your video conferencing system. And we firmly believe the magical thread or link that will forge trust and strong working relationships, no matter the distance, is value. Specifically, the ability for sellers to crystalize their value in the exact terms the buyers can comprehend and appreciate. Frankly, anything short of a value-based conversation, in this world of lock-down, is really not a good use of time.

For instance, if you’re a sales professional, you are probably working from home and you’ve lost face-to-face access to your customers and prospects. If you’re in marketing you’ve lost some key channels to market like trade shows, conferences, sales events and user group meetings. With this ‘new normal’ setting in, what can sales and marketing teams do to keep the wheels turning?

And frankly 92% of buyers, according to Miller Heiman/CSO Insights, wanted to see your value proposition early when we were living in the ‘old normal’. Compare that to now, when they’ve been on a million Zoom calls and haven’t had time for a bio break, imagine their desire to hear what sellers have to say, crisply and concisely. Doing it over a pizza and beer, just isn’t going to happen, nor is the “bonding time” that creates. So, it’s really up to the seller’s ability to tell a qualitative and quantitative story quickly and ensure its compelling in order to get to the next step. Marketers are in a similar situation. Attentions spans drop daily; email campaigns better get to the point quickly or you will get thrown into the trash folder, before you can say ‘digital marketing.’

It’s likely that sales quotas aren’t dropping and the pressure is on to deliver results. So, what can you bring to the table, when you can’t come to the table?

Bring Me Value

Whatever question I am asked these days, I always seem to answer with one word, Value. Regardless of the selling motion or methodology, the most important thing to sell, and indeed to deliver, is value. Without it, we’re down in the weeds of function and features, and often on a slippery slope to discounts. Everything must have value to your customers, otherwise, why should they buy from you, or anyone else for that matter? And remember, you’re not only competing with an alternative provider. Now, more than ever, you’re competing with doing nothing or doing something completely different.

But how do you show a customer “value” when we’re working in the virtual world? And how do we scale and automate Value Management quickly?

DecisionLink been leading the Value Management crusade for several years now. For that time, our focus has been on developing enterprise-class solutions that facilitate the scaling and automation of Value Management, while evangelizing the importance of value throughout the entire customer lifecycle. We’ve not been a lone voice in the wilderness. Sales leaders now firmly believe in value selling and our stellar customer list is testament to that fact.

Without knowing what was coming, we’ve been building a solution that works as well remotely as it does in person. We’ve also created a route to automation that can be deployed and scaled remotely and quickly.

The DecisionLink Guarantee

To help alleviate the pressure that companies are facing, DecisionLink is proud to launch The DecisionLink Guarantee. The DecisionLink Guarantee pledges a complete reimbursement of the first year’s subscription fees for new subscribers to ValueCloud®, the company’s proven enterprise-grade Value Management platform, if they do not achieve objective goals. As part of this pledge, the company is also deferring 50% of the initial order payment for 120-days to help companies impacted by COVID-19.

In order to facilitate a successful implementation and onboarding, DecisionLink is further crediting 35% of the first-year subscription fees to the company’s proven Customer Onboarding Program, which delivers results in 30-days and Value Management excellence in 90-days.

Finally, DecisionLink also announced that it will commit 2.5% of its next 120-day revenue to Atlanta-based nonprofits, including Good Samaritan Health Center and Desire Street Ministries to support their work serving the city’s poor and homeless affected by COVID-19. The company’s founders, management, employees, directors, and shareholders have pledged to augment this donation by doubling the company’s total contribution amount.

When it all gets back to normal, don’t expect “normal” to be the same.

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is changing the world and once we’re past it, things won’t necessarily go back to the way they were. There’s the economic impact; when money is tight, discretionary spend goes down, which means if you’re not delivering value, you’re probably not delivering. We also shouldn’t expect business travel and events to restart as if nothing happened. Organizations need to plan for selling motions that are less around the table and more around a device for the foreseeable future. Lastly, all our habits have had to adapt, and some new habits will be formed and who knows… maybe they’re good habits.

Everything is very different right now, it’ll be different for a while, and in the end, when this is all over, it’ll still be a little different. But one thing we can say through these changing times is that value is key now, value will be key tomorrow and throughout this crisis, and value will remain the key to sales and business success in the future.

How are you enabling your teams to lead confidently with value in today’s “new normal”?