The Future of Sales and Marketing:

Building Aligned Value Based

Processes that LastMIKE VANIER AND JIM ALLEN

Who Are We?Jim Allen – Founder/Principal of Value Based, Inc.

• Founder, President and Vice President of 4 companies

• Author of:

- Value Based Selling – A Consultive Sales Methodology

- Value(s) Based Marketing

- Value(s) Based Enrollment Methodology

• Expert in designing, deploying aligned and predictive sales/marketing processes

• Known for attracting, recruiting, training and mentoring high performance teams

• Passion to foster the development and use of integrity, ethics-based selling practices

• Married with 3 adult children, 1 grandchild and one on the way

Value Based, Inc. • 5,500 sales/marketing professionals trained in US, Canada & Europe

• Focus on manufacturing, technology and higher education sectors

Manufacturing Clients

Acumed, Hillsboro, OR. – Manufacturer of orthopaedic medical device solutions –

produce 90% of all implants in the US.

SR Smith, Canby OR. - Manufacturer of unique pool slides, starting blocks, lane line

storage reels, diving boards and safety equipment for swimming pools.

Schebler, Bettendorf, IA. – Manufacturer of prefabricated stainless steel commercial

and industrial chimneys, heavy-wall engineered stacks, and food service grease ducts

serving the healthcare, hospitality, technology, government sectors.

PaperWorks, Buffalo, NY. – Manufacturer of paperboard and packaging solutions –

16 plant locations worldwide.

Astec Industries – Chattanooga, TN. – Designs and manufactures heavy

equipment that serves the highway & civil construction, mining & quarry, oil & gas,

forestry and industrial site industries.

Who Are We?Mike Vanier – Director of Business Development, OMEPPast Employment

• Oregon Mattress - President - Led a struggling manufacturing company into profitable acquisition.

• Consultant - specializing in managerial efficiency, operational optimization, technical system integrations, merchandise management, brand management and supply chain enhancements.

• G.I. Joes Sports and Auto Stores – Associate Vice President

• Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream – Director/Sales Manager

• Thrifty Payless Drugstores – Director

• Campbell Soup Company, Sales Group – Sales Manager

Education

• California State University, Hayward, CA.

Major: Business Administration, Marketing and Public Relations

Minor: Speech Communication

Questions We’ll Answer Today

u WHY are aligned value based sales & marketing processes important to your future?

u WHAT are aligned value based sales and marketing processes & what do they offer?

u WHEN should you deploy and use aligned value based sales and marketing processes?

u HOW can aligned value based sales and marketing processes be integrated with your existing people and processes?

Business/Economic Landscapeu Small Businesses Face Challenging Times

u Increased national/personal economic demands

u More manufacturers competing for fewer prospects

u Limited resources

u Businesses are changing strategiesu Some old sales & marketing methodologies no longer working

u Many manufacturers are re-engineering their sales/marketing processes

u Many manufacturers are investing in and adopting in-bound permission based marketing automation systems

u Messaging & Training are Different u Manufacturers are focusing on discovering and messaging their product &

service’s value more than ever

u Manufacturers are training their sales & marketing team’s ability to listen for “value-need” and articulate “value-given”

u Manufacturers are integrating value-based, consultive selling best practices with their current sales processes

WHY are aligned value based sales and marketing processes important to your future?

¤ We have the highest priced product inour category. We have to sell on value

¤ We have a better value proposition thanour competitors

¤ We need to improve our margins andbottom line

We would like to sell on valuebecause:

Equip Your Salespeople

u Train salespeople to better qualify & present value

u Equip them with value messaging

u Investment in people improves performance and reduces turn-over – success breeds success

u Expand/energize your sales and marketing culture by investing in performance-based not learning-based training

u Create a safe place to fail

Why Isn’t My Current Process Working?

u Out-dated Processes & Technologiesu Lack of, un-adopted and/or cumbersome CRM software

u Old-school cold calling techniques alienate and put off prospects

u Intrusive marketing and lead generation techniques/methodologies are expensive and ineffective

u Not tapping into new business intelligence resources

u Decreasing Sales and Marketing Process Efficiencyu Average duration of Inquiry-to-Close cycle is longer

u Our sales cycle proficiency rates can be better

u Ineffective and/or Expensive Outsourced Servicesu List procurement and prospect qualifying services are

increasingly expensive, less effective and less controlled

Achieve Your Sales / Marketing Goals u Increase qualified leads and sales levels

u Onboard & ramp-up new salespeople faster

u Decrease staff turnover

u Emphasize & reward creativity and innovation Caution: Competent and compliant cultures often produce compromised results

WHAT are valued based sales practices and what do they offer?

¤ Yes

¤ Somewhat

¤ No

Our company’s marketing and sales messaging are aligned and articulate our product/service’s value well.

Value Based Sales Practices Change Your Business For the Better

u Create and use value-based messaging

u Allow prospects to disqualify themselves – using

customized discovery/qualification questioning

u Improve salespeople’s proficiency rates (SPRs)

u Understand and adapt to the prospect’s decision

making/buying process(es)

u Anticipate and confidently respond to

objections/challenges with value-based responses

u Close with comfort, courage and confidence

Value Based Messaging trains Salespeople to…

u Avoid the feature/benefit trap, rather, use an issue/solution approach to represent your product/service.

u Draw out your prospect’s desired future state, outcomes and value needs.

u Use curiosity-creating correspondence (emails, voicemails, texts) to gain access to key decision-makers.

u Initiate/sustain value based dialogues and conversations throughout your sales and marketing processes.

Value Based Tools help your Salespeople to . . .

u Practice as much EQ as IQ – EQ leads to advancement.

u Create a “value flow analysis” that summarizes the value of investing in your products/services.

u Honor each and every prospect & customer by reinforcing and rewarding transformational not transactional prospect/customer relationships (ie: Use personality/temperament adaptation models)

Value Based Marketing Trends & Tools…

u Emphasis on education-rich, non-intrusive, permission-based marketing (traditional and digital).

u Personalize your “prospect’s path” from both the prospect's and marketer's perspective.

u Define your target audience through persona creation and target prospect research.

u Define the essential components of a successful website and blog that attracts prospects.

u Establish consistency and personalized messaging throughout your content.

u Create & maintain a digital presence by optimizing various social media channels

u More effectively reach your target audience with your content through organic and paid search

u Quantify your results by collecting and interpreting analytics

u Define key metrics and apply them to your new marketing campaign

Utilize Value Based Trends and Tools To…

Aligning Sales and Marketing ischallenging, but possible

THE DISCONNECT

SALES Perspective … MARKETING Perspective …

…believes that email and/or direct marketing creative themes are mis-aligned with the desired target markets, and as a result, fail to engage key buying influencers.

…believes Sales lacks the necessary skills to gain access to, and have influence with, key prospect decision makers, and as a result, are ineffective in their lead follow-up.

…believes if Marketing better understood and articulated the product’s value proposition in product literature and on the website there would be fewer price objections from prospects.

…believes if the Sales team sold on value, instead of price, there would be less margin-eroding discounting and price concessions.

THE DISCONNECT

SALES Perspective … MARKETING Perspective…

. . . thinks Marketing doesn’t do the research on product, positioning, and pricing needs and as a result: a) New products that are launched lack innovation and do not meet the needs of prospects; b) Products are positioned in the wrong category; and c) Pricing is not competitive.

. . . faults Sales for not providing timely market and competitive product information in order for them to design products that sustain their innovative and competitive advantage.

. . . lacks confidence in the lists that marketing uses for direct marketing campaigns and as a result doesn’t prioritize lead follow-up.

. . . accuses sales of poor and untimely lead follow-up costing the company valuable sales and market share.

Aligning Sales and Marketing ischallenging, but possible

THE DISCONNECT

SALES Perspective … MARKETING Perspective…

. . . thinks if Marketing produced more compelling case studies and solicited more client testimonials the resulting increase in credibility would result in more sales.

. . . thinks that Sales needs to do a better job of gathering the stories and communicating client successes to them so they can be published.

. . . thinks if Marketing produced more compelling case studies and solicited more client testimonials the resulting increase in credibility would result in more sales.

. . . thinks that Sales needs to do a better job of gathering the stories and communicating client successes to them so they can be published.

Aligning Sales and Marketing ischallenging, but possible

Correcting the Sales and Marketing Disconnect

u Improve communication and alignment through strategy meetings

u Ideally headed by a person to whom both managers report

u It’s important that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing and both sides buy-in

u Identify the viable target market segments

u Develop product/service value propositions and messaging together

u Address and resolve competitive product issues together

u Create closed loop marketing and sales sources and tracking with analytics that reveal successes & failures;

u Develop marketing campaigns, setting desired lead levels and closed sales objectives together

u Adopt combined CRM and Marketing Automation Platforms that have seamless integration of sales and marketing prospect intelligence

u Work with both marketing and sales personnel to create a knowledgebase of product/service solution and value statements

u Train the sales and marketing teams to message and articulate these compelling statements to their different vertical (target) markets

u Design & deploy proven & predictable “closed loop” sales & marketing processes that track and report best lead sources

u Build and deploy channel partner sales and marketing initiatives that ramp-up newly recruited channel partners fast and increase the sales levels of “middle-tier” performers

Correcting the Sales and Marketing Disconnect

WHEN should you deploy and use valued based practices?

¤ Always

¤ Sometimes

¤ Never

Our sales team offers discounts and/or price concessions…

Determine Your Company’s Trajectory – Danger Zone, Even Keel, Growth

Unpredictable Sales Levels

Predictable Sales Levels

SteadyLead Flow

Predictably High Sales Levels

Danger Zone Even Keel GrowthMODE:

MARKETING:

SALES:

Low Lead Flow

LargeLead Flow

When Should You Introduce Your Team to these New Best Practices/Processes?

u First week of on-boarding for new salespeople

u During non-peak selling periods

u Deploy using multiple mediums, over time with periodic reinforcement

u Emphasize role playing with multiple reps – creating a “safe to fail” culture

u Establish and measure levels of competency of the value-based best practices

When is the Best Time to Implement? u When there’s messaging misalignment among

departments – especially between and among the sales and marketing teams

u When budgets are tight - Think “Return on Training Investment” (ROTI) – Can be as high as 30:1

HOW can you integrated value based sales practices into your existing process?

¤ Our salespeople are accustomed toselling on price, not value

¤ Our value messaging is weak

¤ Our product quality is weak and needs to

improve first

It Will be Difficult for Us to Sell and Market Based On Value Because:

Achieve optimum buy-in andadoption

u Must have blessing and buy-in from all levels Management (Executive & Middle) & Sales Team (especially veterans)

u May require budget sharing - Marketing

u Involve sales management & veteran salespeople in the selection/decision-making process

u Train & equip your first line sales managers as sales process coaches

Customize and enhance existing process(es)

u Enhance, don’t replace – do not discard current practices/processes that are working

u Discover and develop value based messaging for all your products/services

u Integrate and blend product knowledge and sales training curriculums so your team learns to sell your specific product/service to your target market(s)

u Develop “rifle shot” not “shot gun” sales strategies –Personalization!

u Integrate new value-based practices/processes within your CRM and marketing automation systems

Plan for the Long Game

u Deploy and execute training over an appropriate period

of time u Create bite size pieces, presented through multiple

exposures, using different mediums

u Frequent and convenient reinforcementu High touch: Periodic group & individual coaching/mentoring

u High tech: Daily use within mkt automation & CRM software

u Schedule and conduct collaborative learning opportunities with peers

u Think: Sustained and measureable results

Desired

17%

64%

92%

28%

100

17

11

10

Current

19%

85%

30%

100

19

16

1590%

Before

Value(s)-Based Representation

Value(s)-Based Qualification

Value(s)-Based Closing

Salesperson Proficiency Rates

Customers Customers

Qualification

Close

4.5%Lead to CloseRate: 2.8%

After

Prospect

Qualification

Presentation/ Proposal

Prospect

Close

Presentation/ Proposal

Competency Don’t Know Know “Can Do” Mastered

Prospect Stage 5 Practices/Processes X

Qualification Stage8 Practices/Processes

X

Presentation Stage7 Practices/Processes

X

Proposal Stage7 Practices/Processes

X

Close Stage6 Practices/Processes X

Total Value Based Enrollment Practices - 33

“Can Do” Competency

• Increase Lead-to-Close rate by 2%.• 100 prospects = Additional 2 new customers. • Average sale = $10,000.• 2 new customers = $20,000.

ROTI - Return on Training Investment

TAKEAWAYS

Remember…u Improvement is possible

u Value-based, consultive sales has made big differences in many businesses and organizations

u Level the playing field with digital technologies u Take advantage of the many digital technologies

available to build your brand, increase your inquiries and qualified leads, increase market share, and improve lead-to-close rates

u Value based sales and marketing can fit your company’s existing modelu Allows your sales and marketing teams to enhance their

existing sales process while representing your companies products/services in a natural and authentic way without compromising the culture of your company

u Rapid ROI

u Integrating aligned, value-based sales and marketing practices/processes are the least expensive, quickest way to increase your company’s sales and margins.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS