It’s hard to get the attention of your sales targets. Very hard. Anyone who has tried to sell something knows this. So, as David Tisch might say, “Don’t suck at it.” Here’s how I approach the challenge of clearly defining why someone should buy stuff from you.

1. Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes. This is the fundamental challenge in figuring out how to sell something. To make matters more complicated, you have to do this twice over: once for the target company as a whole, and again for the specific person you are approaching. From both perspectives, what matters? What challenges or opportunities do they see every day? How do they make decisions? What experiences have they had with similar products? Do not  fall into the trap of standing in your own shoes. You may think your product is great, that it has lots of neat features you should carry on about, and that anyone who doesn’t buy from you is a dunce. But, if you fall into this trap, you’re sunk.
   
   
2. Articulate the business need(s) or problem(s) that your product addresses. Does your solution make a company more profitable by boosting revenue, cutting costs, or increasing productivity? Does it help your sales target do more business, perhaps by reaching more customers or distinguishing its product in a crowded market? Does it make users more satisfied (or less dissatisfied), which ultimately leads to an increase in repeat or referral business? Does it help a company achieve another publicly-stated objective, such as cutting carbon emissions? (If you have a non-financial value proposition, you’ve got a lot of work to do.)
   
   
3. Weigh the perceived benefits and costs of your solution. Articulate the benefits of your product, keeping steps #1 and #2 in mind. Even if your product will significantly boost your prospect’s revenue, it may come with a boatload of perceived risks: being an early adopter of a new solution, sticking one’s neck out unnecessarily, etc. If you struggle with this step, find someone in a similar role or industry to use as a sounding board. “How would you react to this product pitch? What do you see as the benefits of my product?”
   
   
4. Address how you stack up against alternatives. One alternative option, of course, is for your prospect to buy nothing from you. Address that. If your target has never considered a similar product before, he or she will investigate your competitors as soon as your conversation is over. Address that. What makes your product the right choice? Why are you unique? The simplest answers are “better”, “cheaper”, and “faster.” Those may, however, be unsustainable advantages, particularly if your competition can catch up. Is there something unique about your team? Your approach to or understanding of the market? Providing a “total product” that your competitors can’t match? Other, intangible benefits?
   
   
5. Take whatever you wrote and cut it down by half. Wash, rinse, repeat. If you’ve written something as long as this post to spell out your value proposition, you’re done. If you can get someone interested in your product, you’ll have plenty of time to bore them with the details; in fact, if they’re interested, they’ll ask questions that give you the chance to share these thoughts. Keep it simple, and focus on what matters.
   
   
6. Bonus round: be clear, and remove jargon. Did I mention that you should tailor your approach to your audience? If your target will respond will to a jargon-laden pitch or a lot of industry-specific terminology, then have at it. But, remember that your audience doesn’t spend all day thinking about your product like you do. Although I wrote this post mostly for myself, the “audience” I had in mind is other BD/Sales folks at startups. As a result, I replaced almost every mention of “value proposition” with something a lot more clear and to the point. We’ll let the marketing people worry about the “value proposition.”

Happy hunting!