As I’m sitting down to write this post, I’ve got my email inbox open, Teams chats popping up, my cell phone next to me, LinkedIn messages staring at me, and a to-do list a mile long that will undoubtedly keep me occupied until I’m well past my retirement age.
In other words, I’m distracted.
Then again, in our current world of 24/7 access and social networking, who isn’t? Today, clients and prospects are likely being inundated by a variety of issues, requests, and problems that, collectively, are pulling their attention in multiple directions.
In other words, they’re distracted.
But, like any good businessperson, most owners and executives can boil their priorities down to only the bare essentials, focusing their attention on the issues that will have the biggest impact on their business.
It’s your salesperson’s job to identify what those priorities are, then ensure that they’re only working with prospects whose business priorities align with your solutions. Otherwise, they may be viewed as a nuisance – just another distraction that’s attempting to pull executives and business owners away from the things that truly matter. Worse still, your rep will grab attention, and the opportunity will linger on and on in the pipeline, using valuable resources from your company, with no buying decision in sight.
To win more sales and achieve your goals faster, you need to focus reps’ attention on their prospects’ value curve.
What is the Executive Value Curve and Why Does it Matter?
We refer to the distribution of an executive’s priorities as the “Value Curve.”
Like any distribution curve, this one has a peak that is flanked by two valleys. Prioritized needs find themselves sitting at the top of the value curve, while issues that are less important typically slide off into one of the two valleys.
Use the Value Curve To Qualify Executive Priorities
When you are using a value-based selling approach with executives, your objective is to focus on their highest priorities because that’s what they will value the most. It’s those priorities that they will give their resources: time, attention, and spend. These are the qualified opportunities you want to focus on.
There are four types of Executive Priorities:
- Pinnacle Priorities: Ideally you want to be working with executives to solve issues that are of the highest, critical priority to them. These are the issues that are at the top of an executive’s value curve. These are the issues that are strategic to the executive and will impact the organization and the business’s bottom line.
- Emerging Priorities: Sometimes you’re working with executives on emerging strategic business problems that they haven’t quite decided to address. Because the priority is only emerging, you may not get all the executive’s attention until the problem needs to be solved and moves up the value curve to the high point. They’ll continue to talk with you but won’t move forward until it becomes a top priority.
- Declining Priorities: Once a problem has been fully analyzed, a solution has been determined, and processes and staff are identified, the executive will begin to delegate the project to someone else. At that point, the executive’s involvement is less critical. The project will move down on their value curve. Other than periodic status updates and quarterly meetings, the executive won’t have much interest and it will be hard to get their attention.
- Indifferent Priorities: There are business priorities that an executive may not have an interest in. It could be that it’s the responsibility of a different executive, it’s been examined and set aside as non-essential to the business, or it’s been put on the back burner for the time being. An executive will have no interest in talking about these priorities, no matter what the ROI or business impact may be.
How the Value Curve Helps Your Sales Process
With the value curve as part of your B2B sales technique, your business experiences overall sales performance improvement. You reduce the length of your sales process and improve your close rate. Your salespeople are able to more accurately distinguish between interested buyers with immediate needs and tire kickers.
The value curve helps your team quickly qualify opportunities and determine the appropriate amount of attention to give them.
How To Identify Where Executive Priorities Are on Their Value Curve
The challenge for your salespeople is to determine the Pinnacle Priorities residing at the very top of an executive’s value curve. So, how can you do that?
One way is to simply ask them.
3 Steps To Identify Executive Priorities
Let’s say your conversation with a prospect is focused on IT services, for example. Use these three steps to identify the executive’s top priorities:
- Rather than diving into a discussion about your offering, begin the conversation by discussing the organization’s IT problems that the executive is grappling with.
- Gather information about that IT problem.
- Then pivot into broader questions beyond the IT problem.
Ask questions like these:
- What are the top three priorities in your organization this quarter?
- When you consider the IT problems with everything else on your plate, where do they fall in priority?
- If you don’t resolve the IT problems, how will that impact the business?
Pivoting into questions about other priorities allows you to determine how important this problem is in relation to everything else the executive is dealing with. Is it a Pinnacle Priority? Or is it something the executive has already delegated to someone else on their team?
Ultimately, clarifying the executive’s priority is pretty powerful information, particularly if you’re struggling to stand out in a crowded market or appeal to a distracted executive.
What To Do Once You’ve Identified Your Prospects’ Top Priorities
You’ll only get time on an executive’s calendar if you’re focused on their top priority. Be hyper focused on the one or two that really matter. Any deeper than the first two priorities, and your prospect’s attention will probably sway. In the blink of an eye, another one can take precedence over yours. But, if you’re observant and focused on the very top of your prospects’ value curve, executives will make time for you – no matter how busy they are.
How Many Priorities Will an Executive Focus on at Once?
When you aren’t able to get an executive’s attention about something you believe is a high priority, odds are it’s not very high on their value curve. If the company is interested but not the executive, it’s probably been delegated to someone else.
Executives only have time to focus on their top one or two priorities. They give the third priority some attention, but not consistently. If the problem you’re focused on is their fourth priority, they won’t get to it – even if they tell you they will. And even after you’ve talked about the positive impact to their business. Executives won’t move forward. Not because they don’t want to. It’s because they don’t have the organizational bandwidth to do it.
Always keep in mind how many priorities an executive can focus on and where the priority you’re helping them address falls.
How Do You Use the Value Curve for Lead Generation?
Marketing wants to generate more leads, so how does the value curve help improve their conversion rates with qualified prospects? Use the information Sales has gathered about priorities and analyze it across your target markets, then adjust your digital marketing strategy, content, and campaigns.
To influence executives’ thinking, grab their attention, and generate more leads, you want to be talking about those priorities that are either emerging or at the pinnacle of your target markets’ value curve. Shift your content and campaigns to focus on those problems. Assets, blogs, videos, social posts, digital ads, and website content should all center around those problems.
The Critical Lead Generation Mistake
The critical mistake companies make in lead generation is focusing their messaging on priorities and trigger events that don’t fall anywhere within executives’ priorities.
- They are focused on issues that don’t rank on the value curve, where executives are indifferent.
- Or, they’re focused on problems that are no longer important to executives, declining priorities, because companies have already figured out what they’re going to do.
Align Sales and Marketing
If your company is using a consultative selling approach, focused on executives within your target markets, step back and examine your marketing. It should establish credibility and advisor status around the top priorities, making it easier for the sales team to gain access.
Listen to this quick YouTube short on how to avoid putting Sales and Marketing in Silos. The value curve is a guide for your lead generation.
Boost Your Sales and Marketing With the Value Curve
Incorporate the value curve into your B2B sales process and marketing to improve your win rate. The payoff for your effort will be significant. You’ll reach more new prospects, encounter fewer stalled opportunities, improve your close rate, and reduce the length of your sales process.
Ready to elevate your sales team into consultative selling experts and drive significant sales performance improvement? Our specialized consultative selling training focuses on the power of the value curve to help your team pinpoint and address executive priorities, sell their value, and become invaluable advisors to your prospects.
Attract and engage prospects and show them you understand their unique challenges through your marketing. Our digital marketing services leverage the power of the value curve to align your marketing efforts with the highest priorities of your target audience. Let us help you create compelling content and strategies that resonate deeply with your prospects, driving engagement and conversion.
Contact us to schedule a call and unlock your team’s full potential and see a measurable increase in your sales success.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the value curve and why is it important for sales?
Answer: The value curve represents the distribution of an executive’s priorities, with the most critical issues at the peak and less important ones in the valleys. By understanding the value curve, sales reps can focus on qualified opportunities that are top priorities for executives. This reduces the length of the sales cycle and increases their win rate.
How can the value curve improve our sales process?
Answer: The value curve helps streamline your sales process by enabling your team to quickly identify and focus on the most critical priorities of executives. This targeted approach minimizes wasted effort on less relevant issues, leading to faster decision-making and higher close rates. It ensures that your sales efforts are aligned with what matters most to your prospects, making your sales process more efficient and effective.
What are the types of executive priorities identified in the value curve?
Answer: The value curve identifies four types of executive priorities: Pinnacle Priorities (highest, critical issues), Emerging Priorities (strategic problems that are gaining importance), Declining Priorities (issues being delegated), and Indifferent Priorities (issues of no interest to the executive).
How can I use the value curve in my lead generation strategy?
Answer: To use the value curve in lead generation, focus your marketing content and campaigns on the emerging and pinnacle priorities of your target market. This alignment ensures that your messaging resonates with the most critical issues executives are facing, improving engagement and conversion rates.
How do I identify where a prospect’s priorities fall on their value curve?
Answer: Start by asking the prospect about their current challenges and priorities. Questions like “What are the top three priorities in your organization this quarter?” can help you determine whether an issue is a Pinnacle, Emerging, Declining, or Indifferent Priority. This insight allows you to tailor your approach to align with their most pressing needs.
Editors’ Note: This post was originally published in January 2014 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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