The Salesman.com Podcast

Few things are as foundationally important to sales success as your value proposition statement. In just one sentence, it captures who your buyers are, what problems they’re facing, how your product solves that problem, and so so much more. And when constructed properly, it should drive nearly every action and strategy of a business.

But when your value proposition is off, well that can spell huge problems for attracting the right buyers for what you’re selling.

Now before we get into the Value Proposition Design Framework, I want to point out that we’re going to be doing a brief overview. For those who want to dive deeper into each of these steps, I suggest heading over to Salesman.org. There you can find an article that talks about each step in-depth.

Alright with that said, let’s dig in.

So step one of designing your value proposition is to identify your value. In the framework, we call this filling out The Value Diagram. And it’s got three sections:

Your job is to fill out these three sections.

You can start by listing out all the products or services you offer. Try to be thorough here. Because the next steps are to fill out the perk producers and strain reducers of each.

What are the benefits your products add to your buyers’ lives? Do they outperform your competitor? Do they lead to a positive social consequence like boosting their reputation? Do they create cost savings? Write those down in the perk producers section.

And how do these products eliminate hardships your buyers go through? Do they fix frustrating solutions? Eliminate risk? Limit or get rid of common mistakes buyers make? List them out in the strain reducers section.

Finding your ideal buyer, a.k.a. the Buyer Breakdown. Just like in the previous section, this section consists of three steps:

And yep, that means we’re listing out each.

First, what are the jobs your buyers perform? The functional jobs (like work duties), social jobs (like proving they’re competent and worthy of respect) and emotional jobs (like feeling accomplished).

Next we’re listing out the perks—the benefits your buyers want to see in your product. There are four types of perks to consider here: required perks, expected perks, desired perks, and unexpected perks.

Be sure to head over to Salesman.org to read the article if you want to learn more about each.

And last, what are the strains your buyer’s facing? These are the pain points of your existing customer profile. What annoys them before, during, and after they’re trying to get a job done? What are the risks that keep them from working as efficiently as they could?

Now that you’ve got both your Value Diagram and your Buyer Breakdown filled out, we’re going to do some cross-referencing between each.

All you have to do here is determine which jobs, strains, and perks in the Buyer Breakdown the strain reducers and perk producers on the Value Diagram address. Go through each job, strain, and perk one by one, placing a checkmark next to the ones that fit. At the end, simply remove the ones that don’t have a checkmark.

After that, all that’s left is crafting your value proposition statement based on which elements are highest on the list of importance.

So, how do you create your value proposition statement?

Simple, you plug in the info you’ve just written down into this template:

So remember all the jobs, perks, and strains you matched before? Simply fill them into this template.

So for me at Salesman.org, it might look like this:

Our Selling Made Simple Academy (product) helps sales teams (buyer) who want to achieve higher close rates (buyer job) by teaching effective sales strategies (verb, perks) and simplifying the sales process (verb, strains) unlike traditional sales training programs (competition value prop). 

See how that works?

Now the trick here is to be flexible. Because after you’ve plugged all your info in, you still need to…

To settle on a compelling value proposition, you’ll need to test whether it resonates with your buyers. And that means you need to:

There are plenty of ways you can test your value proposition, including:

In the end, just be sure you’re continually re-evaluation and iterating on what you learned along the way. Remember, this is a process, not a one-time effort!

Look, everyone’s felt unmotivated at work at one time or another. But salespeople in particular struggle with a lack of motivation the most. And if you’re not motivated to sell, you’re not motivated to earn.

So how do to stay on the course to success, even on those “blah” days? You sell by the numbers. You can start by creating your very own One-Page Plan. And today, I’ll show you how.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…

“By a massive long shot, salespeople's biggest pain point is motivation.” – Will Barron’s Interview with HubSpot’s Kim Walsh timestamp [30:00]

Which is why today we’re covering the best motivation system I’ve found to keep me going—selling by the numbers—breaking down your yearly goals into smaller monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

How does selling by the numbers boost motivation in the first place? Well, there are actually four reasons why this approach to sales works so well.

First, it’s a single path to success. Compared to the “winging it” approach, selling by the numbers gives you clear, weekly (and even daily) goals so you can quickly know when you’re winning and when you’re falling behind. Achieve those goals, and you’re making progress. Simple as that.

Two, it’s easy to communicate to your management. When you’ve clearly defined your goals, it’s easier to get your supervisors behind a plan. And with their support, your 10X more likely to stay on track.

Third, selling by the numbers forces you to decide what you want. This framework moves backward, so you’re defining what your goals are right at the start. And as long as you’re following the plan each day, you can rest assured you’re continually working towards those goals that actually matter.

And four, selling by the numbers lets you walk away from bad leads if you want. With this framework, you can easily refer to your plan, see if you need that buyer to hit your numbers, and if not, walk away from all the trouble.

And that is something every sales rep would love to do.

Alright so the question is, how does the Selling By the Numbers Framework work? Essentially, this five-step framework starts from the end and moves backward to define how to reach your goals.

Defining your wants.

What do you want your life to look like in 5, 10, 20 years? What do you need to achieve that?

Now don’t go straight for the income figure. Because money in and of itself isn’t a want. It’s a means to an end. And we’re going to be dealing with it specifically in the next step.

Instead, a want is something like being able to send your kid to college. It’s that shiny new Corvette. It’s that safety net to keep your family safe during an emergency.

Get it?

So step one, determine your want. And then…

Step two, set your income goal to achieve that want. How much extra dough do you need to earn to be able to afford that want?

Now for tangible goods you can buy right now like that new car, that’s easy. You know the price. But for wants that you don’t need fulfilled right away, you’ll have to work out a savings plan.

For example, say you want to be able to send your kid to college in 15 years. Tuition is around $225,000 so that breaks down to an extra $15K saved per year. Make sense?

Determining your starting point. This one’s simple, where are you now compared to your income goal?

All you have to do here is take what you’ve earned already and subtract it from the final goal. Then you need to take into account the givens for this year. Do you have recurring revenue from certain accounts? Are you losing any long-time customers? What kinds of sure-things are out there this year?

Take it all in when determining where you’re at now. The more accurate you are at this stage, the easier it’ll be to achieve your income goals on schedule.

Step four is where the magic starts to happen. Because this is when you start creating quarterly, monthly, weekly, and even daily goals.

Let’s say we’re aiming for the extra $15K per year to afford our kid’s college. What we’ll do here is go backwards from that. If the average commission of a closed deal is $1,000, that means you need to close an additional 15 deals each year.

Now it’s time to look at your close rates on each step leading up to a sale. How many proposals turn into a sale? How many demos into proposals? And so on and so on.

So breaking that all down, your data may look something like this:

So if you make an extra 2400 calls this year, you’re on your way to earning that extra $15K. Now with that info in hand, it’s time to break these numbers down into quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals. Which would look like this…

And voila! You now have the ultra-specific goals you need to complete each day to achieve your final want.

Creating your one-page plan.

This one-page plan summarizes it all: your want, your income goal, your starting point, and your quantitative waypoints you need to achieve—and it’s all on one single sheet you can look at every day.

If we’re sticking with the extra $15K example from before, your one-page plan will look something like this:

My One-Page Plan

Want: To have enough money saved up over 15 years to pay for Molly’s tuition in full. 

Income Goal: $150,000 per year

Starting Point: $130,000 + $5,000 recurring yearly revenue (additional $15,000 per year needed)

My Waypoints:

All that’s left is sticking that one-page plan somewhere you’ll see it every day. I put mine right next to my monitor so I remember to stay focused all day long.

And that, my friends, is how you keep up your motivation by selling by the numbers.

Over the past six years, The Selling Made Simple Academy has EXPLODED. 2000+ academy students, $992M earned by our members, more than 20 proven frameworks—and we’re not showing any signs of slowing down either.

And it’s all thanks to how we make selling simple.

Today we’re breaking down our unique sales methodology step by step. And with it, you can start simplifying your sales process and leveling up your career today.

So let’s start things off by answering one simple question…

Why use frameworks at all? Well first and foremost, one of the biggest problems I’ve seen with my students over the last few years is that they’re confused. They’ve got a million different methodologies pulling them in a million different directions. And instead of taking steps forward, they’re just going around in circles.

The problem? They’re overcomplicating things.

What’s great about using step-by-step frameworks is all the guesswork and confusion get taken out of the equation completely. Instead of wondering what to do now, your next step is specifically outlined. And that means you can keep pushing forward.

Alright now let’s talk about The Simple Selling Method. This method is built on 20+ proven frameworks. Frameworks that’ve helped more than two-thousand of our students earn nearly $1 billion in revenue. And frameworks that’ve given reps just like you the skills they need to level up their career.

Now we’re going to do a quick overview on what these frameworks cover. But if you really want to dive deep, head over to Salesman.org for a closer look.

Okay so the first set of frameworks involve…

Understanding the market. If you don’t know who you’re selling to and why people buy, you’re going to waste tons of time selling to the wrong customers at the wrong time.

If you want to master understanding the market, you need to know how to…

One, sell by the numbers. Sales is a numbers game any way you cut it. And the better you are at leveraging those numbers, the more consistently you’ll be able to hit your goals time and time again.

Two, proper value proposition design. Your value proposition dictates your messaging your clients, your process, and just about everything else you do as a sales rep. So how do you create one that resonates?

Three, the buyer’s journey. This framework helps students understand how their buyers move through the five stages of awareness and shows how to map your product’s unique buyer’s journey.

And the fourth skill of understanding your market is building a prospect list. How can you keep bringing new, qualified buyers into your sales cycle? What does it take to break into new markets and tap into new lead sources? There’s tons of valuable info we cover here.

Now, the second skillset is…

Getting in front of buyers. Now depending on your marketing department, you might already be getting a good amount of inbound leads. But if you want real control over your success and earning potential, you need to be able to generate outbound leads as well. And that takes…

One, knowing how to build sales cadences. And that means understanding the essential elements of a cadence and what cadence templates to use in every situation.

Two, you have to be an effective cold emailer. How do separate your messaging from the thousands of other emails your buyers receive every day? And don’t worry, there’s a framework for that.

Skill number three here is cold calling. Let’s face it, cold calling isn’t every rep’s favorite part of the job. But guess what? It’s downright necessary if you want to be a high-earner. That’s why we developed our five-step cold calling framework for proven cold calling success.

And last but not least is social selling. This framework shows you how to develop a flywheel lead generation system that practically sells while you sleep. And maybe even lets you *gasp* take a vacation once in a while?

Whoa.

Alright now skillset number three is a big one. Because it’s all about explaining the value. This one’s made up of six different skills…

First, running a diagnosis call. More leads doesn’t necessarily mean more sales. You’ve got to have the right customers if you want to get the most bang for your buck. And that means running a proper diagnosis call first.

After that, you need to know how to conduct a demo. A product demo is one of the most powerful tools in your sales toolbox—when you do it well. And this framework takes out all the guesswork.

Number three is mastering the art of the upsell. Your existing customers are some of the best opportunities you have for making serious bank. After all, they already know you can deliver value. All it takes is following our proven upsell framework.

Skill number four is taking over competitor accounts. Now this is a tricky skill to learn. But once you do, you’ll open up the door to leads that already understand your value and may actually be easier to close than any other lead type.

And speaking of closing, there are plenty of misconceptions out there about what closing is and what it should be. But in this lesson, we cut through the bullshit and look at a closing method that not just works like a charm, but is simpler than any other strategy out there.

And last but certainly not least, do you know how to consistently earn referrals from satisfied clients? Guess what—it’s easier than you think. All you need to do is follow this four-step framework.

So there you have it! Secrets revealed, mysteries solved—you now know exactly what it takes to become a sales industry success story.

Pop quiz hotshot—what’s your best channel for bringing in quality leads? Is it cold calling? Or email? Maybe LinkedIn? [Buzzer sound] Bzzzzzt. Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. These are all okay sources. But they’re far from the best.

It turns out it’s your own buyers that are the most superior source of leads. Because they open up the door to the holy grail of all lead types—the referral. The question is, do you know how to earn those referrals without alienating your clients?

What’s so great about referrals anyway? Well simply put, referrals are just plain better than any other type of lead. Here’s why.

First up, they’re the easiest leads you’ll ever uncover.

According to a report from Social Media Today, more than half of marketers (54%) say referral marketing generates more cost-efficient leads compared to other marketing channels.

Referral leads bypass all that time-consuming rapport-building right off the bat. And that means they’re more likely to convert.

Marketo found that referred leads have a better conversion rate than any other channel—at 10.99% from lead to opportunity, 3.74X the average rate. Compare that to sales prospecting (0.90%, 0.31X), inbound (3.82%, 1.30X), paid marketing (2.98%, 1.01X), and email (0.55%, 0.19X).

Referred leads are easier to close.

70% of sales leaders and 69% of frontline sales reps report that referrals close substantially faster than traditional leads according to Influitive and Heinz Marketing.

Nice.

Plus, referrals spend more.

The Wharton School of Business found the lifetime value of referral customers is 16% higher than your average customer.

Referral leads bring in even more referrals. With each referral you bring in, you’re not just earning a single new customer. You’re also expanding your network of potential referrals and boosting the odds that you’ll bring even more of these high quality leads.

Because according to Invesp, referred customers have a 37% higher retention rate and are 4X more likely to refer more customers to your brand than non-referrals.

Alright alright, enough with the stats. Let’s get to the meat of it all…

The More Referrals Framework. How do you ask for referrals in the first place?

And that means you have to deliver real, tangible value for your customers. But if you have delivered, all you need to do to earn a referral is follow this four-step framework…

One, Confirm Your Value. Basically, this is where you prove to your buyer that you’ve earned some serious results for them. And to do that, just follow this mini-framework we’ve put together…

Ask “Who Else?” Who else is in their network that you can help?

No need to overcomplicate here. Just follow this simple script…

Then you shut up.

No kidding—don’t say anything else. Let the buyer think about it on their own and don’t help them out. Don’t point them in the right direction. Don’t say a word.

It might be awkward for a minute or two. And that’s okay.

But remember—you’ve made a promise and delivered value to the buyer at this point. They’ve agreed to it. And now it’s time that they do you a favor in return.

After the buyer gives you a name and their contact info, don’t give up there. Instead, say:

Don’t be satisfied with just one name. Keep going until the buyer really has tapped out of potential referrals they can introduce you to.

After you’ve got multiple leads to reach out to, it’s time to…

Make a Specific Ask—get your buyer to set up a quick introduction.

Here’s the difference between a regular ask and the specific intro we should be aiming for:

See the difference here?

The best way to make this step more successful is by doing a lot of the work upfront. And that means passing on this template the referral source can use.

Hi [NAME],

I’ve been working with [YOUR NAME] and [he/she] has helped us with [COMMON PROBLEM].

I know they have really useful content and insights that they can send over. 

Does it make sense for me to introduce [YOUR NAME] so they can see if they can help you out too? 

Thanks,

[BUYER]

Nothing complicated here. But the goal is to make everything as easy as possible for your buyer.

And once you’ve made the specific ask, you can move on to…

Using the 1-1-1 Follow Up method.

You can’t get lazy after you’ve gotten buy-in from the buyer. Because most of the time, they won’t act unless you do a bit of pushing. That’s why it’s up to you to create a system that ensures your buyer is making good on their promise.

I’ve found the 1-1-1 Follow Up method is the best way to stay on top of your referral sources. Check it out…

That’s all there is to it!

So if you’re not getting the results you want with normal prospecting, turn to mining referrals.

[spp-player]

All professionals use frameworks.

A framework is a step-by-step process to achieve a predetermined goal.

Well-defined frameworks separate professionals who win, from hacks that can only dream of success.

A surgeon doesn’t guess their way through an operation. They follow a framework to remove the tumor.

An engineer doesn’t use a hunch to decide how deep the foundations need to be. They follow a framework to calculate the correct depth.

For salespeople, frameworks are the key to reliably beating quota and making serious money.

There are selling frameworks to convert competitor accounts and selling frameworks to connect with potential buyers. Frameworks to become more assertive and frameworks to generate more referrals.

There are 27 fundamental selling frameworks in total.

But if frameworks make winning that simple, why doesn’t everyone use them?

The biggest hurdle to using frameworks in sales is intuition.

Selling culture has embraced the intuitive seller.

We don’t talk bout the salesman who worked 9-5, followed the frameworks and reached 140% of his sales target.

We do bang on about the seller who followed their passion, went above and beyond for their buyer or who used some new psychological trick to close a deal.

Salespeople stress when their manager asks them about their pipeline progress. But they bustle with excitement when they share a gut feeling about a deal.

If selling frameworks make you nervous, it’s probably because they threaten your reliance on intuition. It’s time to get over it.

If you want to beat quota and make some serious money, start using frameworks. It’s time to become a professional.

Ready to get started? I’ve outlined all 27 of the fundamental selling frameworks a free training video and workbook. You can find it for a limited time at Salesman.org/Training.

[spp-player]

Make more calls. Send more emails. Knock on more doors. Use more technology. More!

It doesn’t work.

The problem for most salespeople isn’t that they need more.

The problem is that they don’t know how to sell.

At a certain point, giving a racing driver more power, more grip, more downforce doesn’t make the car go faster.

Skill becomes the limiting factor.

Would I beat Lewis Hamilton in a race if my car had 20% more horsepower?

Heck no.

Would I be able to keep up with Lewis if I had an instructor next to me and another additional 50% horsepower?

Nope.

If your buyer doesn’t care about your story and the value that you deliver to the market, then it doesn’t matter how many times you reach out.

More isn’t the solution to your problem. Getting better at selling is the answer.

“So, Will you big smart arse, how do I get better at selling them?”

There are four steps –

More interruption is lazy. It’s lazy because if you really did know how to sell, you’d impact your prospects rather than send them more crap.

When potential buyers start walking away from a deal, most reps do one of two things. 1) They re-emphasize the value of their product. Or 2) they offer a discount. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

But there’s a third option here too. And that’s down-selling. Down-selling is one of the most underutilized tools in a sales rep’s toolbox. And when you know how to do it right, it can mean a serious boost to your monthly earnings.

How to down-sell the right way so you can salvage more deals, boost your numbers, and bring in a fatter commission check.

Sound good? Then let’s go.

What is down-selling anyway? Well let’s start with a definition we can all agree on.

Down selling is the art of strategically closing prospects when they are on the way out of the door.

When you down-sell, you close sales that otherwise would have gone to your competition. And when you down-sell, you’re getting deals done even if they are less profitable than what you would have liked.

It’s not ideal, sure. But it’s better than the alternative—no sale at all.

Now if you aren’t down-selling your prospects, you’re wasting all that time and energy you spent on winning the sale.

Think of it like this – not down-selling is like buying a show-bound pedigree puppy. You’re spending a fortune feeding, grooming, and training the dog. Driving them to a dog show, all happy and content that you’re going to win some awards… and then leaving them in the car as you watch in the stands.

You’re throwing it all away!

Clearly this would be bad for the dog, and you’ve wasted a lot of time and energy as well.

So make sure you’re down-selling the buyers who might get away.

Now let me give you a couple of examples of down-selling –

Let’s say that you are selling SAAS (or software as a service) to the engineering industry. You might have multiple tiers of service that you can offer.

Say a buyer engages with you. So you then go through the entire sales process with them, and you know that they should be on your premium tier service. However, at the last minute, something changes within the prospect's organization, and now their budgets have been slashed in half.

At this point, you have invested considerable time into the deal. So with all that spent time and effort, it’s definitely worth down selling them on a different tier service so that you can still recuperate some of those costs.

Another example of down selling would be reducing your minimum contract length on a monthly service product and giving the buyer a little bit more freedom to leave if the service does not sue them.

Of course, you don’t want to start the sales process by offering discounts, pitching cheaper services, or making contract concessions. But if that’s what it takes to stop a deal going to your competitors, then sometimes biting the bullet can definitely be worth it.

So other than getting the deal done, what are the benefits of down-selling the buyer?

The biggest benefit to down-selling a buyer is that you build trust. When you show that you’re willing to work with an organization to implement your service at a price they can afford, you build trust in the organization. And that means once the deal’s closed, you can then upsell to help recoup costs.

Often called the “land and expand” approach to selling, this is often the best way to close very large service accounts.

When I was selling medical devices, I would often down-sell a customer in the first instance so that I could get a deal completed very quickly. Then I would sell larger deals into the account over time because they already had our company approved as a supplier within the procurement department, and they already trusted us to deliver on our promises.

The other major benefit to down-selling a buyer is that you manage to claw some revenue in that otherwise would’ve disappeared into the market. Although it might be disappointing for you to get the deal you want originally, down selling can often help cushion the blow and keep your commissions coming in strong.

And last but not least, it maintains customer retention. You don’t just have to use down-selling when working with new prospects. You can even use it on existing customers. If during an annual call, for example, your customer’s budget or needed features have changed, you can offer a lower-tier service to keep them around. Who knows, maybe their needs will change, and you can upsell them back up to a better package!

Now last but not least, let’s talk about how to down-sell.

The process of down-selling is actually simpler than you might think. All you need to do is go into every sales conversation having a BATNA…

Negotiation researchers Roger Fisher and William Ury first came up with the term. And it’s basically your plan B in case your plan A of closing the bigger deal doesn’t work out.

Is there a lower-tier product that already matches up with 75% of your client’s needs? Come to the sales call with that information in hand. Got a finicky buyer that seems unwilling to commit to a long-term partnership? Work out how long you can shorten your contract with your employer first. That way you can come to a meeting knowing what you can offer before they run off.

See how that works?

Now it’s important not to discount at the beginning of the sales process. And don’t ever offer concessions on your service or contracts the first time a buyer asks for them. But always have a BATNA ready to down-sell your buyers if the original deal starts to fall apart.