CHAPTER 4


Territory Value Propositions

After effectively developing deep market understanding and analyzing what has been learned via SWOT, you saw how the KARE process delivers critical information about specific clients and prospects. Now what?

It’s time to connect the dots. Here, in step four, you will leverage your focused market knowledge to craft territory value propositions.

Connect the Dots

Territory value propositions connect the dots between what you do well and the accounts you target. These written statements are the basis for building value throughout the sales cycle: from the 30-second commercials, discussed in Stage Two, to the customized, opportunity-specific value propositions in Stage Four. Your work here will be integrated throughout the program.

Because of the quality research and planning you’ve done to this point, you know your target markets, your strengths, and the profiles of your clients and prospects. To bridge the gap, concisely communicating the pro forma value of what you will ultimately deliver to your targets is crucial.

Let’s assume that you’re working for a printing company and your planning has identified the legal services market as a primary focus area. Thanks to the territory and account planning work you did earlier, you know the typical pains and needs of an account in that space. You will soon be learning how to craft your specific account plans, but at this point you’re simply focused on building powerful, confidence-inspiring propositions for that targeted vertical market in general.

The best value propositions are short, direct, and high-impact. They shouldn’t take weeks to put together, nor should they take hours to explain. Other programs demand three-day off-site sessions to develop value propositions, but Sandler believes that they need to be practical and useable in the real world of selling. Sandler views effective value propositions as the product of a concise, easy-to-understand “value arrow” process.

First, you name what the product/service is; then, you say what it does; next, you say how that benefits the client; and lastly, you say how that benefit is to be measured. How simple is that? That’s the complete value proposition formula, stated in 30 seconds or less!

Imagine being able to engage with a prospect and having a basic, verticalized understanding of what your product would be, what it would do, how it would benefit, and how the benefit would be measured. Actually, you don’t have to imagine! Consider this global on-demand printing services firm’s territory value proposition, developed for the international legal services market:

“The Acme local printing capability allows us to print on-demand in 120 countries, meeting contract and project deadlines, and cutting printing costs by 74 percent.”

Consider that the same printing company has chosen health-care providers as its other key vertical target market. Of course, the health care territory value proposition will be different than the one for the legal services market, as the vertical pains are unique to the industry.

Here’s another example. This is an Internet marketing firm’s territory value proposition, developed for the pharmaceutical market:

“The Zilko web-based portal allows us to leverage the web to increase our speed to market and cut our product launch marketing costs in half.”

These territory value propositions connect the dots. They offer a clear link between the value of the product or service and the relevant territory factors. They support a practical mindset that builds confidence in salespeople, who then create greater clarity in communication with prospects. Of course, much remains to be done (later in the program) to customize the territory value proposition to a specific opportunity, but what you’ve done here gets the ball rolling.