© 2011 Corporate Visions, Inc. All rights reserved. Corporate Visions, Power Positioning and Be Different. Where It Counts. Your Message. are registered trademarks or trademarks of Corporate Visions, Inc.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Executive Briefing: Creating and Delivering a Differentiated Customer Conversation

Last bastion of differentiation

9% 19% 19% 53%

FIELD

PRODUCTS

PRICE

BRAND

Customer conversations have more impact than all others combined

Your Desired Outcomes are at-risk and here’s how you can fix that

Status Quo Threatened

Identify New Needs

Define Solution

-3

Sell the Problem

Identify Viable Vendors

Review Approaches

Make Decision

65

-1 +1 +2 +3

“Why Change?” “Why Us”

Why our offerings are better than the competition

Sell the Product

35 % % Buying Vision Bake-Off

-2

Messages Tools Skills

Customer Conversations

DEVELOP Messages

that Matter

DEPLOY Tools that Get Used

DELIVER Conversations

that Win

Integrated Approach

MARKETING SALES

A customer conversation system is needed

Documented Experience and Impact

65 35 % % o Building a Buying Vision

o Creating a Conversation System

Relevant to Your

Prospect

Unique to You

14% Only 14% of “benefits” promoted create commercial impact

Failure to create impact

86%

10%

Only 10% of sales calls are worth executive’s time

Not adding value

90%

The impact of parity

You

Them

Status Quo

Bake-off Sales Call

20-60%

They don’t see enough reason to do something different

Re-thinking your approach

You

Them

Status Quo

Bake-off Sales Call

6

2.5

1.5

20-60%

Your real competitor is

“Status Quo”

Haven’t got time for the pain…

Your new conversations

You

Them

Status Quo

Bake-off Sales Call

Challenge Assumptions

Re-Define Needs

Align Solution 20-60%

St

? ? ? ? ? ?

? ?

? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

?

Traditional Discovery

Salespeople “Play 20 Questions”

Customer

Based on customer response configure a solution to identified pains from

among the product portfolio

Customer Status Quo

Buying Vision

Outcome at Risk

Outcome at Risk

Outcome at Risk

Pre-Determine Executive-Level Outcomes

Reveal threats, risks, problems and missed opportunities that put each outcome at risk

and need to be solved

Threat Problem

Miss Problem

Miss

Threat Problem

Miss

Threat

Align strengths of products, services, programs to solve the re-defined needs

and “engineer“ desired outcomes

Your Solution

Your Solution

Your Solution

Did you know you had a music problem?

Deal Creation NOT Discovery

EXCITE Customer Stories with Contrast

EXPLORE Define the Pain and

Re-define Needs

FRAME Challenge Status Quo

AGREE

20 Questions

You Need a Distinct Point of View

Distinct Point of View

© 2011 Corporate Visions, Inc. All rights reserved. Corporate Visions, Power Positioning and Be Different. Where It Counts. Your Message. are registered trademarks or trademarks of Corporate Visions, Inc.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The Hero Model

The Hero Model: based on The Hero with A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

• The world is normal

• Something changes

• Hero struggles

• Enter: the mentor

• Hero accepts the quest

145 115 Deals Closed

90 10 Previously

Stalled Days

X

ROI

Documenting impact

100 11 Hit

Number

90 1 Missed

Quarters Days Thing

changed

Documenting impact

%

Distinct Point of View

Typical Brain Activity

Information about you

How the customer is helped

70%

20%

100% - ---------------------

HOT OPENING SPIKE IT! HOT CLOSE

Typical Brain Activity

70%

20%

100%

Grabbers get attention

o Number Plays

-Make numbers tell a story that disrupts status quo

-Tell them something they don’t know that makes them want to know more

Distinct Point of View

CONTEXT: Give them enough reason to do

something different

Context Creates Urgency

New Brain vs

Old Brain

Messaging for information vs messaging for a decision

Which would you choose?

A guaranteed gain of $75,000 An 80% chance of gaining $100,000 with a 20% chance of getting nothing

Which would you choose?

A certain loss of $75,000 An 80% chance of losing $100,000 with a 20% chance of not losing anything

o Documentation

o Visualization

Pain and Impact

Distinct Point of View

The need for contrast

Big Picture • Make the

complex, simple

• Make the abstract, concrete

Contrast

Proof

Proof Points • 3rd party testimony

validates story

• Outside research that corroborates your story

Distinct Point of View

65 35 % % o Building a Buying Vision

o Creating a Conversation System

Messages Tools Skills

Customer Conversations

DEVELOP Messages

that Matter

DEPLOY Tools that Get Used

DELIVER Conversations

that Win

Integrated Approach

MARKETING SALES

A customer conversation system is needed

Customer Status Quo

Outcome at risk

Threats Problems

Misses

Solution Solution Solution

Outcome at risk

Outcome at risk

Threats Problems

Misses

Threats Problems

Misses

New

Nee

ds

New

Nee

ds

New

Nee

ds

New End State

New End State

New End State

Conversation Roadmap

• Structured process • Customer-focused • Sales-ready • Repeatable

Conversation Roadmap

Most important corporate asset

Your iTunes library

Roadmap is your Source Document

Messages Tools Skills

Customer Conversations

DEVELOP Messages

that Matter

DEPLOY Tools that Get Used

DELIVER Conversations

that Win

Integrated Approach

MARKETING SALES

90

40

Percentage of marketing

content that go unused

Hours a month salespeople

spend creating their own

Possible number of different

messages being delivered

and effort being wasted

SALES ACTIVITY

Buying Cycle-Relevant Tools

Status Quo Define a Need Determine Solutions Review Options

BUYING CYCLE

Creating Demand Qualifying Solving Closing

SALES CYCLE

Introduce Solution

Present Follow-up Meeting

Call Prep

Get Appointment

Conduct Meeting

Call Guides Emails Point-of-View Pitch

Confirmation of Needs Email

Solution Briefs Presentation

• Attention-getting • Insightful • Excite to hear more

Emails with Impact

• Cheat Sheet • Chunked • Adaptable

Call Guides

• Cheat Sheets Cue-Cards

• Problem • Change • Solution

Point-of-View Pitch

• Client-facing • Solves pains • Addresses

objectives

Solution Briefs

• “Champion Letter” • Purposeful structure • Differentiates

Confirmation of Needs Email

• Modular • Customer-focused • Concise

Solution Presentation

Support the Buying Cycle

Messages Tools Skills

Customer Conversations

DEVELOP Messages

that Matter

DEPLOY Tools that Get Used

DELIVER Conversations

that Win

Integrated Approach

MARKETING SALES

Status Quo Threatened

Identify New Needs

Define Solution

-3

Identify Viable Vendors

Review Approaches

Make Decision

-1 +1 +2 +3

Buying Vision Bake-Off

-2

Power Deal Creation™

Power Messaging®

Power Coaching™

Get prospects to do something different

Make Your Investment Payoff

Create a different buying experience

Corporate Visions Skills Training

Power Deal Creation™

EXCITE Customer Stories with Contrast

EXPLORE Identify Opportunities and Re-define Needs

FRAME Challenge Status Quo

AGREE

launch

body

grabber agenda

credentials big picture

call to Action public positive feedback close

Proof Points

Pain Points

Customer Stories

Grabbers

review power positions

Power Position

1 2 3

Power Messaging®

Messages Tools Skills

Customer Conversations

DEVELOP Messages

that Matter

DEPLOY Tools that Get Used

DELIVER Conversations

that Win

Integrated Approach

MARKETING SALES

Your customer conversation system

92 96 Use

Consistently

36 2 High

Impact EBITDA Increase

Years

Documenting impact

% % %

What do these have in common?

Forrest Gump

Silence of the Lambs

Kramer vs. Kramer

© 2011 Corporate Visions, Inc. All rights reserved. Corporate Visions, Power Positioning and Be Different. Where It Counts. Your Message. are registered trademarks or trademarks of Corporate Visions, Inc.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

www.conversationsthatwin.com