“Everyone’s favourite radio station is WIIFM”. I don’t know where that saying originated, but it’s true in most human interactions. The acronym stands for: “What’s in it for me?”
If we’ve done our job well as business development professionals in uncovering our prospects’ requirements and expectations, we’ll have a good understanding of their needs, wants, and desires. Now it’s time to customize our ‘solution’ within their parameters.
Tailoring the Solution to the Prospect
I remember an important trip in my career where the executives of my company flew out to meet with a would-be partner firm. I was tasked with leading the agenda and introductions to encourage strategic dialogue. In lead-up video meetings, I noticed a plaque behind the CEO from the prospect company: “What good is it for a man to gain the world and lose his soul?”
That told me one of his deepest desires, so that’s where I started the in-person session. I mentioned his plaque, how his values resonated with my CEO’s, and how they both created organizational cultures that complemented each other. By connecting what lay at the heart of both leadership teams, we established an immediate connection. With the trust foundation laid, moving the conversation into the complementary aspects of our products, services, and methodologies became a natural and collaborative discussion.
Understanding Features, Advantages, and Benefits (FABs)
In the sales stages we’ve explored to date, engagement is like speed dating, qualify is the first true date, discovery is the “wanna go steady?” conversation, and solution is now the proposal. We want to present our offering with features, advantages, and benefits (FABs) that link to the logical needs, emotional wants, and deeply held (often hidden) desires of our prospect. What are FABs exactly?
- Features are the tangible or intangible attributes of our solution
- Advantages are the performance characteristics of that feature that set it apart (think along the lines of superior quality, faster delivery, market perception, etc.)
- Benefits are the positive and favourable results the client will receive from the features and advantages that meet their logical, emotional, and intuitive requirements.
Evaluating Value, Impact, and Perception (VIP)
We don’t do the “FAB Dump” where we share our entire inventory of features, advantages and benefits; we focus only on those that fit with our prospect’s unique case. FABs that hit home with their mind, heart, and gut. This is where Value, Impact, and Perception (VIP) from the prospect’s perspective is the litmus test. VIP helps us see:
- What the solution is worth to the client beyond price, its value
- How our FABs affect the client when we exceed their requirements, the impact
- The positive impression our solution has on the prospect, their perception.
We hone the FABs we present around this VIP criteria. Of course, we don’t know for certain what perception our FABs are creating for the prospect. So, we check in with them throughout our solution presentation with open-ended questions like, “How are we meeting your expectations?” as our barometer. We use closed-ended questions like, “Does this align with your technical requirements?” to confirm alignment.
Alignment Leads to Commitment
Remember that when we’re presenting our solution, we’re selling more than just our products and services. We’re also positioning our organization and selling the personal value that we ourselves bring to the table as part of the total package.
When we tailor our solution to what we’ve learned about our prospects in our qualify and discover stages, our chances of achieving alignment go up exponentially. And when we achieve alignment, it becomes natural and logical to ask for their commitment.
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