Jill Konrath

What's a value proposition – and why is it important? It's a clear statement of the tangible business value that companies get from using your product or service. It's the outcome of using your offering – not what your offering is.

For example, I do training. No one cares about training. But, when I work with my clients, I help them with new client acquisition and faster sales cycles. That's what they get from my training programs – and that's the ONLY reason people hire me.

So, your challenge is to figure out what your outcomes are. Here's a tip. Every value proposition has three components:

Recently I sat down to talk with Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management. He just came out with a new book called, SLAMMED!!! For the First Time Sales Manager.

I’ll never forget when I was first promoted into management. It was a real wake-up call – and very frustrating. I was working harder than ever, but barely seeing the results.

If you’ve recently moved into a sales management position, or are hoping it’ll be your next career move, read on. There’s some good advice ahead.

When your prospect has decided to change from the status quo, they start seriously considering their options. How can you differentiate yourself from others who are also competing for their business?

Most salespeople feel compelled to brag about their company's service or talk about all the awards their company won. Everyone does that. It's not differentiation.

True competitive differentiation comes from helping your prospect make a good decision. Here's the most effective thing you can say:

Have you ever heard of trigger events? If not, you're in for a wonderful wakeup call.

A trigger event is a sudden change in a company's priorities. Your prospect may have been happy with the status quo yesterday, but these new circumstances create or deepen business issues that can no longer be ignored. 

Here are some examples of events that can potentially create sales opportunities for you:

You know what I hate? Not knowing if my prospect has opened my emails… wondering if they disappeared into a black hole… and never being able to catch them on the phone. I suspect you feel the same way.

That's why I wanted to let you know about HubSpot Sales, a new, free and easy email prospecting tool that I'm loving. Here's why:

Salespeople spend an inordinate amount of time developing cold call emails, hoping they'll create the perfect message that will get prospects to say, "Yes! I want to meet with you immediately."

That would be great, but it takes a lot of practice to find the best way to pique your prospects' interest. Here are 3 ways to evaluate the effectiveness of your prospecting email: 

Is it spam to send a prospecting email to someone you don't know? I get asked about that a lot. Nobody wants to be seen as a spammer. So, let me give you some guidelines.

Officially, an email is spam when you're blasting a huge number of people with the same message. It's also spam if your email lacks official contact information or people can't unsubscribe from these massive blasts.

Last year I spoke at Dreamforce with my client DiscoverOrg.com. (If you sell into the IT area, check them out.) Over 130,000 Salesforce.com customers, developers and partners were there.

After our talk, I went to DiscoverOrg’s booth for a book signing. The exhibit hall was a zoo.

When all my books were gone, I spent time observing their salespeople in action. It was fascinating.

Here's a typical exchange between a prospect and a salesperson when this common sales objection is raised:

Clearly, that's not working.

Last Friday, I was on the edge. Literally. I was speaking to a group of sales professionals. Some were new to sales; most were experienced pros.

I was doing a totally new keynote on AGILE SELLING, sharing strategies on how to quickly learn new things so you could stay at the top of your game – or to get there.

Now, you probably don't think of me being nervous about doing new things, but I am. I want my keynotes and workshops to be awesome experiences for everyone who's there.

It took me a long time to prepare.