Here’s an example of how a professional service provider can apply the do-it-yourself guide for creating value propositions in 3 steps.    It uses the same formula as the green value proposition example I posted last week (immediately below).   This time, I’ve used it to describe the value I offer my clients as a B2B strategic marketing consultant (below the value proposition formula).

The value proposition formula

We help [your most promising prospects] that [need help with the pressing concern you address] succeed by [providing the material improvement you will deliver].  Unlike [the alternative solution], [your solution] [describe the reason why your company is a better choice] as demonstrated by [evidence that you will deliver as promised].

A B2B strategic marketing consultant’s value proposition

BB Marketing Plus works with [B2B companies that have long sales cycles] to [increase sales productivity].  Unlike [companies that make cold calls for you or develop lead generation campaigns], we use [our Revenue Accelerator Methodology] to[ help you get the right message to the right person at the right time about the right solution--and motivate them to act] as is evident from our [our clients' testimonials].  [Start today with a free consultation to discuss your situation and the marketing strategies and marketing programs] [it will take to speed the sale].

In the last post, I promised to elaborate on one aspect of the value proposition with each new example.  In that post I focused on how to ensure that your value proposition captures attention.  In this post, I discuss the importance of adding a call to action.

Motivate prospects to act to receive the value you offer

The purpose of your value proposition it to elevate your organization, and its solution, above the competition.  Nevertheless, your ultimate goal is to get your best prospects to self-qualify by “raising their hands”.

Use a call to action to get qualified prospects to “raise their hands”

Without a call to action, your value proposition is just information.  Your call to action accomplishes two objectives.

One is that it tells prospects exactly what you’d like them to do–and how they’ll benefit.  Providing people with a specific request increases the likelihood that they will act.

In this example, the requested action is that prospects “start with a free consultation to discuss their specific situation”.  The promised benefit is that they’ll get ideas about marketing strategies and programs that will help them speed the sale, thereby improving sales productivity.

Use your call to action to test your value proposition

The other objective that a call to action accomplishes is that, if you set up a way to capture their responses, you can use your call to action to help you test the efficacy of your value proposition.  If prospects don’t take the desired action, your value proposition may not be effective.

On the other hand, the problem may be with your delivery or with your call to action, rather than with your value proposition.  In a future post, we’ll discuss how you can use digital marketing campaigns to quickly get to the heart of the matter.

What’s your company’s value proposition?

Every successful business delivers value.  Please feel free to use the comment area of this post to test your value proposition and call to action.  I’ll post any comments that use the formula to describe the value that one business offers to another in a professional manner.

Looking to improve your company’s sales productivity?  Download 5 actions you can take today to generate sales-ready leads.

Related posts:

1. How to create a compelling value proposition: Do it yourself in 3 steps
2. Green value proposition example
3. Capturing buyers’ attention: What makes a value proposition compelling?
4. Software value proposition for prospective health care customers

Sales people and others responsible generating business for their organizations will find LinkedIn a valuable tool.  Unlike sites such as Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn tends to attract those looking to develop business relationships, as opposed to friendships.

But while many of us are familiar with the basic features of LinkedIn, we don’t always know how to best leverage them to drive sales. Here are five tips you can use to create a Linked In profile that will motivate prospects to come to you–without your having to “sell” them.

1. Position yourself as a thought leader

People buy from those they know and trust.  Especially when it comes to important purchases, people also want to buy from experts that are ahead of the curve.  LinkedIn offers multiple tools, many of which are discussed below, that you can use to demonstrate thought leadership and reinforce their confidence in you as a trusted advisor.

2. Get and give recommendations

What impression do you suppose a prospect will have after reading glowing endorsements about you from former coworkers, bosses, and, especially, clients?  While they may suspect those clients likely did not volunteer to write those recommendations, they also know that clients would not agree to do so if they did not feel comfortable legitimately endorsing you.

Get started by writing one for someone else.  Doing so accomplishes three things: one, it clearly flatters the person you write it for; two, it helps him or her look better to people viewing his or her profile; and three, it creates a desire to reciprocate.

2. Use polls to engage interest

People like giving their opinion about issues that are relevant or important to them–and reading what others have to say about topics that matter to them. Every so often (once a quarter or so) use LinkedIn’s polling feature to take a poll.

Moreover, your name will appear on their status updates, reminding your connections you’re out there, and in so doing, keeping you top of mind.  When combined with your other LinkedIn activities, it will increase the likelihood, they’ll remember you when they’re ready to buy.

3. Find and share news that will help others

Each group has a news section that contains news articles other members post, and increasingly, blog entries.  You never know what interesting tidbit you might come across that the difficult-to-reach prospect would appreciate receiving (and reward you for sending with a return call).

4. Demonstrate your value

Adding your experienced-based comments to existing discussions in the groups to which your clients and prospects belong is an unobtrusive, but powerful, way to demonstrate your thought leadership and your willingness and ability to provide value.

For example, I contributed to a discussion in one of the Mergers and Acquisitions groups. The very next day, I received an email from a boutique M&A firm on Long Island saying they “would like to learn more about my firm and services as they may be beneficial to his prospects and client base.”

5. Post documents, presentations, share what you’re reading

While you may not sell people on LinkedIn, your marketing materials may.  Use LinkedIn Applications such as SlideShare Presentations, Google Presentations, Box.net Files, and Reading List to passively communicate about your company and yourself.

I’ve used this to post my standard sales presentation, which promotes what I offer, and a couple of books I’ve read and recommend.  This helps others get to know me better as a person, effectively building my personal brand.  Others use it to establish thought leadership by posting white papers their firms have authored.

Bonus: Search for status updates for trigger events

In addition to these ideas, there are a few I’d like to share courtesy of a fellow business owner.  David Leaver of Opus Partners recommends that his clients identify some trigger events—events that, when they occur, will create a need for a product one sells—among the weekly updates mentioned above.  For Leaver, who provides sales training services, one trigger is when a VP of Sales changes jobs; often he or she will want to bring in a sales or marketing consultant to evaluate the staff being inherited.

Premium LinkedIn Extra: Target your most promising prospects

Premium LinkedIn users have a host of additional benefits that are beyond the scope of this article.  One that I’ve found extremely valuable is the ability to search for contacts using premium-only demographic criteria, such as company size, function, and seniority level.  This provides me with a reduced, and more targeted, list of prospects.  I can then zero in on the exact person or persons I want to reach, in the size of organization I want.  This enables me to send a custom, targeted message to those prospects via InMail, or, if I don’t have a premium account, via a connection.

Share your LinkedIn sales and marketing tips

As we have seen, there are a plethora of easy-to-use tools available to you on LinkedIn that can help you improve your sales results.  Start by picking one or two, and use them for about a week, until they become second nature.  (Nigel Edelshain of Sales 2.0 disciplines himself to devote 15 to 30 minutes each and every day.)  Then, gradually start using the rest of the features presented here, until you find yourself becoming a bona fide LinkedIn maestro.

Do you have other LinkedIn tips for generating sales?  If so, please share them here.

Looking for other ways to generate sales?  Download 5 actions you can take today to get more sales-ready leads

Related posts:

1. Are discounts a good way to increase sales?
2. Maximizing Sales Productivity Depends on Meeting Marketing Requirements

At that point, however, most buyers have a heightened awareness of the cost of delay–and are anxious to move forward. When they don’t, it’s a telltale sign that your product or service is missing the mark.

When interested buyers fail to purchase, after learning about how your solution will address their concerns, sales cycles stretch out as they seek a better match. If they find another provider that will give them exactly what they want, they’ll purchase there. Even when prospective buyers later purchase from your company, delays hold up your ability to recognize revenue—and may also run up your sales and marketing expenses as you try to close the deal.

In short, maximizing sales productivity clearly depends on your readiness to give prospective buyers exactly what they want, the way they want it. The question is, “How do you determine what that is?”

Effective marketing research is the fastest route to winning solutions

To design great solutions, you need a thorough understanding of prospective buyers’ most pressing needs and want. To get this information, it’s helpful to conduct primary marketing research by going straight to “the horse”, but not necessarily to the horse’s mouth.

One of the best ways to find out what’s most important to prospective buyers is to observe what sells and what doesn’t. One common mistake, however, is asking prospective buyers what they want. That’s because most of us only think we know what we want. We get it wrong, however, because we fail to take into account all the factors that come into play at the time of purchase.

We’re lousy predictors of our own behavior

Look at your own clientele. If you ask them, many would say they want an accountant who will find tax savings that they would otherwise miss. They might add that for this reason they seek out professionals with experience in their industry with a demonstrated track record of generating savings for others just like them.

Nevertheless when you look at actual buying behavior, many factors come into play—some of which ultimately end up taking precedence over the ones that are top of mind. Examples include availability when clients need to meet a pressing deadline, the ability to accept 90 day payment terms, a pleasant reception when they contact your office, or a plethora of other factors that prospective buyers are not fully aware are important to them until faced with a real situation.

Look to actions, rather than words

In our experience, the best way to find out what prospective buyers want is to look at their past purchasing patterns. That’s because we’re creatures of habit. We tend to do things the way we’ve always done them and maintain the same priorities.

One way to do that is to start with your existing clientele, specifically your best clients since they’re likely to be the best proxy for your most promising prospects. If, on the other hand, you’re losing the most promising prospects to the competition, start there with prospective buyers that chose to buy elsewhere. In either case, it’s important to focus on just your most promising prospects because you can’t be all things to all people.

Get at past purchasing patterns by reviewing your company’s sales history. If you maintain a lead tracking or contact management system, review your notes to determine:

* Which solutions did prospective buyers purchase right away?

* When they delayed why did they delay?

* What questions did they ask?

* What was the single most important reason they purchased?

* What concessions, if any, did you need to make to get their business?

* Under what circumstances were they willing to pay a premium and why?

* What caused them to select you over the competition?

* When they recommend your company, what do they say?

* If they went to a competitor, what was the reason?

* When you lost, what if anything could you have done to get the business?

If you didn’t record answers to these questions, it’s okay to go back and ask. Nevertheless, remember to focus on past purchases. As we discussed above, most people make far better reporters than analysts.

Worried about annoying people? Don’t! Most people are flattered that you’re interested in their insights and happy to share them with you if you are courteous and schedule an appointment in advance. If you’re just starting out, and don’t have any clients, interview your competitors’ clients.

Tip: Build your sales history as you go

At BB Marketing Plus we do a lot of marketing research to help our clients rank development priorities. Here are some tips your company can use to capture what is important to your clientele:

1. Implement a system that helps you map prospective buyers’ behavior including the stages of their buying process and:

* Who was involved at each stage

* What information each individual required

* What follow up questions each individual asked

* The time it took to move to the next stage

* The reason for any delays it took to move from one stage to the next

* Why you won when you won

* Why you lost when you lost

2. Ensure that you keep your system up to date, calling back buyers and prospective buyers to fill in knowledge gaps

3. Ask a lot of questions to get a sense of their entire situation and priorities, rather than just their immediate requirements

* Keep your questions open-ended, rather than making assumptions

* Ask individuals to report on past behavior, rather than to predict the future

4. Follow up regularly to assess satisfaction

* Ask about every aspect of your business interactions

* Find out what you’ve done well and what needs improvement

* Act on what you learn

* Thank people for their insights and communicate what you’ve done as a result.

Our clients find that they can learn a lot from the past. One of the findings that many find surprising is that while price is important, it’s generally not the deciding factor. Another revelation is that their clientele often has different perspectives—than they do–when it comes to defining quality. These are important insights when your goal is to give prospective clients exactly what they want and do it their way.

Related posts:

1. Shortening the sales cycle starts with getting into buyers’ minds
2. Getting top dollar depends on first determining who values your solutions most
3. Making the sale depends on addressing an urgent need
4. Shorten the sales cycle next year: Year end marketing planning