|
|
 |
|
| Balancing Your Understanding of Important Financial Principles |
|
| |
 | |
"Many of the recommendations and tactics identified during Pretium's class were
utilized during my latest sales resulting in a $3.6 million win."
|
|
Sales Professional
Teradata
|
|
|
|
Selling to executives and being able to explain the business value of
your solution requires an understanding of certain financial
principles. Sales professionals should not over complicate the financial
aspects of selling. Balance is key.
|
|
| Balance |
|
Winning business requires balance. Finance is part of the
business case, not all of it. While learning financial concepts
is important, it is equally important to not over-educate.
The job of the sales professional is to be able to articulate the
financial effects, in basic terms, of buying their solution.
A CFO does not expect a sales person to be as well versed financially as he is. In fact,
efforts to over reach can easily backfire if you allow yourself
to wander into a discussion you are not equipped to have.
|
|
|
Pretium teaches how to quantify benefits and the fundamentals of cash
flow analysis: the terms and definitions, along with how and when to
use them. In addition, we have developed the Investment Analysis
Tool, which is a simple yet professional way to run alternative
financial scenarios and present the return on an investment.
The Investment Analysis Tool
The CFO of a $2B company (and a Pretium client) decided to use
our Investment Analysis Tool as his company's standard for
analyzing their own investments! This was the same tool being
provided to his worldwide sales force as part of implementing
Pretium's Value Assessment Methodology. Why did he want to do
this? He said that it is simple yet includes all the
information he needs. If more sophisticated financial analysis
is required, he'll do it. He does not want the supplier to do it.
This story reinforces our conviction that sales professionals
should not over complicate the financial aspects of selling.
Business Case Software
In selling, successful use of a business case requires a collaborative relationship
with the client and a flexible approach. Often, a client builds their
own business case, and they appreciate a sales professional that knows the
ins and outs of business case development.
Business case development is a process, not a tool. We have interviewed
companies that have tried such tools and the feedback is consistent:
To be useful the software must be highly customized to accommodate all
the solutions a supplier offers and the verticals they sell into. The
result is a tool far too complex to be practical, and the sales
force won't use it.
We teach sales professionals the process of working with clients at the executive
level to illustrate the value they create and how to develop a business
case in a flexible fashion suitable for any client. This is what
the Value Assessment Methodology is all about.
|
|
|