Sales Fundamentals

Too many promising companies never realize their potential because they never figure out how to prove their product’s value or run an organized sales process. Founders give demos that don’t progress. Companies hire sales reps who don’t sell anything.

How does this happen? Most startup sales conversations show prospects what the product does instead of showing them why they should buy it. To do better, we need to give our sales teams a way to systematically prove value.

Proving value comes down to defining the prospect’s problems, showing that you can solve them, and identifying the business impacts you’ll deliver. These three kinds of messages are connected: Problems lead to Solutions which lead to Impacts (P - S - I, hence P.S.I. Selling).

Good sales conversations focus on these kinds of messages regardless of the subject matter of the call. A good software demo is about how you solve the prospect’s Problems and identifies the resulting business Impacts. A bad software demo is about how you have seven different workflows, twelve integrations, and a million fancy features (with many more on the way!!). 

This article will show you how to define your key value Themes, ensure that your conversations focus on those Themes, and tailor your Themes to each prospect you sell to.

We’ll then discuss how to use these Themes to build each of the major types of sales conversations that go into an effective sales process. You’ll also see how to keep the process moving forward by having a clear plan for what happens next and a clear case for why it’s worthwhile for both sides to stay engaged.

Mastering these lessons unlocks your company’s potential: Higher close rates, bigger deals, and more revenue.

Defining Value Themes

If you sat in on a typical software demo, you’d see a sales rep showing the prospect how to use the product. The prospect would be friendly, ask a few questions, and then never talk to the sales rep again.

The problem is obvious: The sales rep is selling features rather than value.

Here’s what’s interesting: The rep knows they’re supposed to sell value. But they’re still not doing it.

Why?

Solutions That Don’t Work

Many companies try to help their reps by giving them a sales methodology like MEDDICC. The trouble is that these methodologies are often really about deal qualification. They give a manager a checklist of things to look for to confirm that the deal is real. But they don’t give a sales rep a framework for having effective sales conversations.

Almost every company has their marketing team create sales assets that communicate the company’s messaging. These are typically exquisitely designed and thoughtfully produced. But they usually can’t be customized to a specific prospect because the sales team doesn’t have access to the right design software. 

That becomes a problem as the deal progresses. The rep learns more about the prospect but can’t incorporate that information into their sales assets. Sales assets that are only 70% on point aren’t useful. Prospects don’t want to spend their time reviewing collateral that’s partly irrelevant or talking to sales reps who seem to be discussing some generic customer rather than them.

Many companies use marketing messaging frameworks to think through their overall positioning. These frameworks are useful for that purpose but are too complicated to guide a live sales call. A framework might have 20+ boxes for different types of messages and arrows everywhere showing the relationship between them:

Add it all up and here’s where we are: Despite our best efforts, we don’t give sales reps tools they can actually use to prove value. Reps respond by doing what comes most naturally: They show prospects the product and cross their fingers. 

Let’s do better.

Persuasive (and Usable) Messaging

Good sales messaging makes a strong case for value rather than just saying what the product does. It’s built around Themes, not features.

Three kinds of Themes are critical:

Problems show the need for action and shape the search for a solution. They discuss the Problem’s magnitude to show that it’s urgent to solve it and share an insight about the Problem that leads prospects to look for a Solution like yours. 

Solutions explain how the product resolves Problems. They also show how your product is different from alternatives, such as the prospect’s status quo and competitors.

Impacts identify the types of business value you create, say how you create it, and estimate the magnitude of each benefit.

The best Themes relate to issues the prospect is already thinking about. A Problem might address a challenge the prospect is aware of but add extra urgency showing its unexpected consequences and add an interpretation that leads to your product. 

Themes should link to and reinforce each other. Problems set up Solutions which set up Impacts. Create three Themes of each type (for a total of nine) to cover all major aspects of your product without overcomplicating your messaging:

Now we have to make sure that these Themes appear in real sales conversations.

Our most important tool for doing that is Summary Slides. The idea couldn’t be simpler: We create an editable sequence of three slides, one for Problems, one for Solutions, and one for Impacts.

Sales reps lead off most calls by presenting the Summary Slides. With these Themes fresh in everyone’s mind, it’s natural for the sales rep to tie the rest of the discussion back to them.

This transforms calls. Instead of being a blizzard of features, our demo is now an organized discussion of how we resolve the prospect’s Problems and drive business Impact:

Tailoring Themes to the Prospect

We also need to customize our discussion for each deal so that the prospect understands our product’s value in their context.

The first step is to understand the prospect better by using Summary Slides as a foundation for discovery, which is the process of learning about a prospect so we can sell to them effectively. 

Basic discovery is easy once you have Summary Slides. Reps present each point on the slide and ask the prospect to confirm if it’s on target. If it is, they ask the prospect to elaborate and focus on it during the rest of the conversation. If it isn’t, they steer away from that point during the call.

Problem discovery is the most important, particularly early in the process. If the prospect doesn’t have the Problems you solve, you shouldn’t sell to them at all. If they do, you need to understand which ones are most important and why so you can speak specifically to them throughout the rest of the process. If the prospect seems impatient, it’s OK to defer questions about Solutions and Impacts. But reps always need to ask questions about Problems.

The second step is to build our sales process around a customized set of Themes by updating our Summary Slides after each call. This prompts the rep to tailor each successive conversation even more closely to the prospect. The rep leads off the next call by sharing the customized Summary Slides, reminding them to focus on exactly what matters most to this prospect.

The Summary Slides get more and more customized until they become an unbeatable overview of your product’s value for that specific deal:

The third step is to use the Summary Slides to influence the prospect’s internal deliberations. Many important conversations about the deal happen when you’re not there, such as when your champion meets with their VP and their CFO to request budget for the purchase. 

You can influence those conversations by coaching your champion to use the Summary Slides as a set of talking points for those internal discussions. 

Overview Presentations

Slide-based overview presentations are a good way to start your sales process if you have a complex product. Overview presentations help you qualify the prospect to see if they’re a potential fit, build the prospect’s interest in your product, and set the agenda and participants for future calls. 

Overview presentations stay at a high level: You’re sharing enough information to see what’s worth discussing further, not trying to cover every topic in depth on the first call. If you have a complex product, it’s impossible to cover everything and trying to do so will leave everyone confused. That said, overview presentations aren’t a universal requirement. If you have a simple product, you might skip it and start with a software demo. 

Good overview presentations follow the Problem - Solution - Impact structure. Good sales reps use them to facilitate a discussion about each of the major value Themes by asking appropriate questions during each section:

After completing the overview presentation, you’ll know what to focus on when you do your software demo and you’ll have good reasons to ask additional members of the prospect’s team to attend.

Software Demos

Effective software demos show that your product can solve the prospect’s Problems. They’re built around Solutions, not features.

Lead off the demo with a set of Summary Slides to state the main Themes and refresh your discovery. Build the body of your demo around the three major elements of your Solution. 

Each Solution section is designed to put that part of your product in the context of the Problems it solves and the Impacts it delivers:

The talk track within each Solution section looks like this:

• Orientation: Give a brief overview of this Solution section. Use the phrase "What you're about to see is...." 

• Link to Problem: State a Problem they validated during discovery. Use the phrase "This relates to...."

• Demo Solution Element: Show the part of the product that solves the Problem you’ve mentioned. Tie what you’re showing on the screen back to the Problem you’ve identified. 

• Draw out Impact: Draw out the business impact of this solution element. Use the phrase “The benefit of this is….”

After the Demo

Many deals die after the software demo. Sometimes that’s because the prospect wasn’t really interested.

But often it’s because you’re proposing the wrong next steps. 

Some reps ask for heavyweight next steps, like evaluating the product with a free trial or reviewing a detailed proposal. Prospects may not be ready for that after a demo. Other reps ask for vague next steps like a follow-up discussion without a specific agenda. Prospects usually don’t see the point of that kind of call.

To do better, let’s start by defining what we’re trying to accomplish. We want to keep the prospect engaged by offering something of value to them. We want to continue the process of proving value as it applies in their context. We want to get consensus for the deal by engaging with all of the relevant stakeholders. And we want to grow the deal by exploring other use cases, user audiences, and product modules.

Here are three ideas for post-demo calls that satisfy these objectives:

• Application Demo: Do a customized demo that’s focused on their situation and use cases.

• Application Presentation: Present ideas for exactly how they’d use your product and what the outcomes would be. 

• Case Study Presentation: Show how a similar company successfully used your product.

You might do separate post-demo calls for each use case, user audience, or product module that you want to sell. 

It’s also important to tailor your conversations to the audience. You’ll be engaging with multiple types of stakeholders over the course of a deal. Each has different interests and you need different things from each of them. Here are some examples:

• Team Manager: You need their active support to drive the deal forward. They want to see that your product helps their team do its job, meaning both that it solves business problems and that it’s easy to use on a day to day basis. 

• Vice President: You need their active support to get budget approved. They’re focused on whether the product solves business problems and is a good use of resources, but they care less about day to day usability. 

• Users: You need to be sure they don’t block the purchase. They care most about your product’s day to day usability. They care less about big picture business value.

• IT: You need to be sure they don’t block the purchase. They primarily want to be sure your product doesn’t create risks or lead to technical problems. They care only a little about its business value.

Use the right medium for each audience. Stakeholders that focus on the business outcomes tend to prefer presentations and written business cases. Stakeholders that care about usability tend to prefer demos and trials.

If your sales process involves offering a free trial, keep these points in mind:

• Trials need to lead to a decision. Both sides have to put in a lot of effort to do a good trial. It’s not worth anyone’s time to do the trial now if the prospect is still far from a decision and the trial won’t go well if you try to force it to happen sooner than it should.

• Trials need clear success criteria and a clear scope. That means you should be synched up on what the prospect needs from the product and agree on what will and won’t be covered in the trial.

• Trials need to be organized. Have a kickoff call with the participants, a mid-course check in, and a post trial debrief or survey. Don’t just give them a login and hope for the best. 

Proposals

Bad proposals just share a price. When prospects get a proposal like that, they ignore it. 

Effective proposals are part of a process to make the case for value and manage the evaluation to an imminent conclusion. These are some of the key steps:

• Brainstorming Call With Champion: Chat with your champion to refine your value Themes and discuss their purchase process

• Proposal That Proves Value: Craft a proposal that advocates for a purchase and includes a plan for completing the evaluation

• Live Proposal Call: Present the proposal to as many stakeholders live as you can

• Champion Sells Internally: Your champion uses the proposal to make the case for a purchase with the stakeholders you weren’t able to talk to live

• Deal Planning Call: Review where you are on the evaluation plan and make any needed adjustments 

The proposal itself typically has elements like these:

• Value: Include an updated set of Summary Slides

• Differentiation: Say why competitors don’t solve the prospect’s Problems as well as you do

• Pricing: Covers the purchase options you’re offering and say what's included in each

• Not Included: Call out any items you’ve discussed during the buying process that are not included

• Decision Plan: Lay out the steps that will take you from this proposal to a final decision

  
  

Negotiate and Close

The more expensive your product is, the more likely it is that prospects will try to negotiate the price. The foundation of a good negotiation is a good sales process. A good sales process creates a clear perception of value and uncovers information about the prospect’s situation. It’s hard to negotiate effectively without these things. 

You may talk about pricing with different kinds of stakeholders under very different conditions. Customize your approach to the stakeholder and the situation. Here are some examples:

• Early conversation with a manager: Curious about pricing structure, not empowered to make deals. Don’t make bold offers, just provide general information.

• Procurement analyst: Just trying to get discounts. Don’t waste time on creative ideas; get past them while giving up as little as possible.

• Department VP: Open to creative, win-win negotiations. They understand the underlying business interests and can make a deal.

Your negotiation strategy should fit the setting. Here are four questions to consider before each interaction:

1. What is our goal? Your goal specifies the deal terms you’ve got to have in your favor and the ones you’re willing to be flexible on as part of a trade to get what you really want. 

2. How strong is our position? Consider how well you’ve proven value, what alternatives the prospect has, and how each player on the buyer’s side feels about your product.

3. How many rounds remain in the negotiation? Don’t give procurement all the concessions you can offer if you think you’ll have to negotiate the deal again with the CFO.

4. What pricing should we offer? Consider what you want to offer in the next interaction, potential compromises you might accept, and how to set yourself up for any future interactions.

Once you have agreement on the business terms, you need to project manage the deal to signature. This can be a complex process involving specialized tasks. You may need to work with staff on the buyer’s side who don’t care that much about when the contract gets signed.

Effective project management is therefore a combination of being organized and keeping the prospect motivated. Here are some good steps to take:

• Create a joint close plan with your champion. The goal is to get all the action items on the table and work on them simultaneously where possible instead of one after the other.

• Set target dates for every action item. Don’t just request something and hope it gets done.

• Drive urgency by linking back to the prospect’s business needs, calling in relationships with senior stakeholders who want the contract completed, and potentially offering discounts for speed. 

• Get the experts to communicate directly. Insist that their legal team share written redlines rather than general comments or questions. Use expert-to-expert calls if written exchanges aren’t working, such as having your security team talk to their security team. 

  
  

Conclusion

Building a sales process that proves value unlocks your company’s potential. It makes prospects want to talk to your sales team and gives your sales team the tools to close deals that will power your company’s growth. You can find additional free resources for mastering the principles you’ve just read about on our content page.

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Want to train your team to use the methods you've seen here? Check out our free series of sales training videos. You can find our other resources on building a sales process that proves value and a team that can execute on our content page.

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For more about the author, check out Mike's bio.