Security Sales & Integration May 2021 - 57

EXECUTIVE DECISIONS

Business Fitness by Paul Boucherle

Delivering the
Difference (Part 1)
Ask the right
business
questions to
discover the
real business
value you
deliver, then
validate that
understanding
with other
customers.

Paul Boucherle, Certified
Protection Professional
(CPP) and Certified Sherpa
Coach (CSC), is principal
of Canfield, Ohio-based
Matterhorn Consulting
(matterhornconsulting.
com) and an SSI Industry
Hall of Famer. He has more
than 30 years of diverse
security and safety industry experience.

▶ WE ALL FEEL OUR COMPANIES and
people are unique and the best in the industry.
So why don't prospects and customers see us
the same way? Why can't they differentiate the
business and security value we deliver with commitment and passion? The age-old question that
keeps people in the marketing business busily
employed and thriving. Want the secret?
Not all customers are created equal, think the
same nor hold the same value system. While you
struggle to understand why a prospect would
not recognize your high quality, yet competitively priced proposal is, well, because you made
assumptions from a biased perspective - your
own. How can you correct this glaring weakness?
Start with defining a more realistic point-ofview, specifically your customer's or prospect's
view of the world - their world. The harsh reality is they only care about their business, not
yours. So, the natural question would be, what do
you really know about their business? Could you
summarize that understanding of their business
in five concise sentences and with confidence to
differentiate your company? If the answer is no,
please consider some sales coaching points from
an industry sales veteran.
Sales efficiency rule number one is the qualification of time investment disciplines, skills, experience and a process. A warm body that accepts
a meeting is NOT a qualified sales opportunity.
You may think this is an opportunity to " sell "
your company, right? Wrong. It is an invitation
to waste sales time, tie up valuable company resources, create a false positive on a sales funnel,
create quota hopes that will always disappoint,
create emotional and useless rationalization, and
end in disappointment. The result?
Sales turnover and loss of momentum and
brand integrity while driving up your cost of doing business by $50-$100K depending on how
long it takes you to make a change and incur hiring and onboarding costs. Rinse and repeat for
your bottom line. Want to change?
Start with better communication in your company, with your leadership team and with your

securitysales.com

SS2105 pp56-57 Monitoring Matters-Biz Fitness.indd 57

paul@matterhornconsulting.com
@swisssherpa

best customers. Leave your POV and ego at the
door to learn and grow. Encourage different
points of view and facilitate a SWOT analysis to
drive deeper self-awareness. Ask your customers
why they do business with you and you will receive polite platitudes, and while sincere, are not
insightful. What is better?
Asking a deeper question of how your relationship impacts their day-to-day business life can be
more revealing. Capture their exact words and
then clarify for details. A response you might get,
" I don't have to worry about you guys getting the
work done. " Dig in deeper to qualify what business value that statement has and means. Does it
mean they can concentrate on more critical goals
rather than supervising your work? That has a
dollar value. Take their salary and benefits and
divide by the hours you save them on a project or
on maintenance or service.
What other departments are impacted? How
so? Can you quantify or qualify that impact? It
could be as easy as asking, " How do we make it
easier for you to do business with us? " Do you
understand their culture, buying processes and
payment procedures (a secret golden nugget for
the sales teams is to ask how you can make it easier for the customer to pay your invoices)? Why?
Because it will help you establish a smoother relationship, get paid faster and make people's lives
easier. That equals a valued supplier! What is a
side benefit to this?
You will build your business acumen. Do this
with your leading vertical market customers.
People like to work with people that know their
business. That makes you different and builds
confidence and trust from a customer's perspective. They are more likely to promote you and
your solutions to other departments and the boss.
Ask the right business questions to discover the
real business value you deliver, then validate that
understanding with other customers. Do that and
you can drive the following strategy. " Our customers tell us we save them ... " The result of this
extra sales effort?
Your sales team can qualify sales opportunities
more accurately. Not all customers will buy or
pay for the business outcomes you can deliver.
Treat prospects like your investments. Invest in
the ones that will deliver the right returns.
I will continue to share more thoughts on
communication differentiation next month, so
stay tuned!
MAY 2021 Security Sales & Integration

4/16/21 11:56 AM

http://www.securitysales.com

Security Sales & Integration May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Security Sales & Integration May 2021