A salesperson recounts a chaotic RFP evaluation where multiple consulting firms presented simultaneously. From the buyer perspective they distilled three essential questions every seller must answer to stand out: (1) How are you different? (2) Why does it matter to the buyer? and (3) How can you prove it? The speaker argues that failing to answer these leads vendors to appear identical and lose deals except on price, and advises sellers to prepare buyer/persona-specific answers and proof points.
One of the best ways to learn about selling effectively is to be on the buying side, to get the experience from the buyer perspective. And I learned a lot about sales by being on the buying side of one of the craziest RFP evaluations I can imagine. So I want to walk through the story and then one big learning that you can use to sell more effectively. The background is we were evaluating sales methodology, consulting firms. We had a long list of that turned to a short list after discovery. I remember sitting through discovery call after discovery call, answering all the same questions across tons of vendors. Eventually, we had enough to shortlist to, I think, seven competitors. And the unique thing about the final round is our SVP at the time wanted to have all the competitors come to our office at the exact same time. And so imagine you go to a presentation at a company and you walk into the lobby to check in, and you have to wait in line behind two or three of your competitors, waiting to also check in to go give a presentation. I'm just remembering the awkwardness of this, and it was absolutely, absolutely hilarious. But we took the groups of evaluators, there was quite a few of us, and we divided those teams into different groups, and we all sat in our assigned conference rooms, and the vendors literally rotated conference rooms every hour until they had presented to every single group. So we had several competitors and we had several back to back hours of presentation. So again, imagine you're wrapping up a presentation in a conference room with these glass walls so everything can be seen, and your competitor is waiting outside the conference room for their turn. So the awkwardness of this story, while it was absolutely hilarious, is not the point of the story. The point of the story is what I was experiencing during every presentation as these presenters would go through their talk track, the logos they worked with, their approach, what they cared about, how they ensured success. All I wanted to hear was, how are you different? Why does it matter to me? And how can you prove it? And none of the vendors answered those questions. They just went through their slides, they asked their questions, they shared their customer stories. And I just remember thinking, this is so boring and it all sounds the same. And so after we went through all these presentations, the evaluators agreed. They all say the same, they all sounded the same. And so the result of that is none of the competitors won the bid. We ended up not spending any money that we had budgeted because none of them stood out. And I had a very long, boring day. Fortunately, though, it wasn't a complete waste of time because I Took away those three questions and it completely changed how I sell. How are you different? Why does it matter? And how can you prove it? I promise all your buyers have those exact same questions. When they get on a call with you, whether it's a discovery call, a demo call, they want to know as quickly as possible, how are you different than my status quo? How are you different than competition? How are you different than the next best alternative? Why does it matter to me? Because different alone is not always good, right? Like, if you have unique differences that don't matter to the buyer, those differences feel expensive, not valuable. And so how are you different? And why does it matter? Is a key and important succession to take in order. Because if they don't know why the differences matter to them, then it might be cool, it might be interesting, but it's not worth investing in. And then finally, the skepticism piece. As I hear all these promises and guarantees of results, what I really want to understand is, look, I understand that you think you're different, you think you can help me, but how do I feel confident based on how you've helped somebody like me with a similar problem? Which is why the how you can prove it question becomes so important. The sellers that effectively answer these questions consistently through the deal cycle as new stakeholders are added, here's how we're different, here's why it matters to you, here's how I can prove it are going to stand out to the buyers. The sellers that are unable to do this get washed into the long list of these were all the same. And as soon as you get washed into that all the same group, the only way you win is through price. And so if as a seller, you're frequently getting pushed on price, or hey, your competitor has the same offering, but they're cheaper, that's a great indicator that you're not answering those questions. Your buyer doesn't understand how you're different, why it matters to them, or they don't believe that you can prove it sufficiently that you can actually execute on it. So what I want you to do this next week as you're prepping for your calls, write out for each buyer, how are you different for them, why does it matter to them, and how can you prove it for them? Now, keep in mind, this is going to change based on who you are selling to, because not all your differentiators matter to all your customers. Why it matters to them changes based on the Persona and based on the problem they're solving. And even the proof points have to change because how you help somebody completely different at a different scale of company, different industry and different problem. Doesn't matter, doesn't prove anything to a buyer. And so go prep those questions. How are you different? Why does it matter? How can you prove it? And as you execute on that, your buyer is going to see that you're different, that the differences matter to them, and they're going to be confident that you can actually deliver what you claim. And I suspect you'll have much more engaging conversations. If you found this video helpful, let me know I'm going the right direction by leaving a like on this video. Then if there are any questions or topics you want to make sure I cover in a future video, leave me a comment. I read all comments and I love recommendations that will help me help you sell more. Finally, don't forget to subscribe and subscribe. That way you won't miss any of my upcoming content that I'm creating to help you improve the way that you sell.
