Every year, billions of people across the globe search for answers on Google. Last year, with inflation hitting its 40-year peak amidst debilitating supply chain challenges, we experienced more volatility than any other time in recent history. We know this. It’s no surprise that those topics had a big influence on the year in search.
Google’s team took the year’s search results and analyzed billions of search trends to give us some insight into emerging behaviors and needs throughout the year.
Topping the list? Value.
Somebody clean this up
Value is one of those overused words that makes people crazy. It gets misused to defend price increases. It antagonizes customers. I’ve seen value calculations in Excel that are so complex, it makes me tap out of a conversation altogether.
It’s so easy to get it wrong at a time where understanding and communicating value effectively is so important. Change is still happening quickly, and we can’t afford to instill doubt or break trust with customers. This is where commercial alignment falls apart between pricing and sales, and margins and relationships suffer. So: How can businesses get it right and set teams up to identify, communicate and defend their value?
Show me the money
Google’s insights focus on people, who utilize search to solve both personal problems and make better choices and decisions at work. When consumers are seeking to understand value, businesses aren’t far off.
When calculating value, there are three areas we focus on:
- Increase revenues
- Reduce costs
- Mitigate risks
That’s it. Those are the pillars behind your value drivers. If your features or benefits don’t directly connect to customer results in one of those three ways, keep working through their impact until they do. If you can’t identify how your products or services deliver those financial benefits, then we suggest you go back to the product development drawing board. We believe even commodity-type products have some kind of differentiated value, otherwise you wouldn’t be in business – it often shows up in surrounding services or delivery. Try interviewing customers to understand why they choose you, or have a third party challenge your thinking about the end impact of those offerings.
Defend your value: Let the games begin
Enter: growing your sales backbone. No amount of ROI calculations can guarantee a successful negotiation, but keeping it simple and remaining confident in your value are Rules #1 and 2. There are only a few types of buyers out there, and learning to read their tells will go a long way.
We’re finding that in B2B environments, buying purely on price is an increasingly rare scenario. However, poker players are everywhere, and the more you understand and can communicate how your offerings directly impact your customer’s business results, the better off you’ll be.
