Mistake #15: I gave the buyer what he asked for.
Every retailer that came to WeSupply asked for the same thing: order tracking.
So that is what I demoed.
Tracking pages, tracking emails, and 50+ carriers in 1 place.
The call ended on "better customer experience" and a question about price.
I spent the whole hour on my solution.
None of it on where he was trying to go.
Then he went quiet, or went with someone cheaper.
I believed the request was the destination.
Here's what I missed:
A feature request is the buyer's best guess at the vehicle to reach a destination he can't describe yet.
So the only thing left to compare was the price.
Solution: 4 questions before the demo, in this order.
Always start with the destination, otherwise the customer gets stuck in the current problems and cannot see the bright future.
The current reality and the roadblocks will create the gap.
Dream outcome: What would be visibly and measurably different if this was fixed?
Not: "better customer experience."
Instead: "Customers know where their order is without asking us. Measured by X% less support tickets regarding order status."
Current reality: What is happening right now, and what does it cost?
Not: "we need tracking."
Instead: "Customers ask where their order is, and support checks carrier pages 1 by 1."
Roadblock: What did they try, and why didn't it work?
Not: "tracking."
Instead: "The tracking number sits in an email nobody opens, so they email support anyway."
The gap: What has to change in the business to get from here to there?
Not: "fewer tickets."
Instead: "From support creating confidence by hand to confidence built into every delivery, measured in tickets and support hours."
The gap is what he buys.
The software is how he gets there.
When two products promise the same outcome, the outcome cancels out and buyers compare the proof you can demonstrate to get them there, the likelihood, the speed, the effort.
Value comes from how big that dream is and how likely, fast, and easy you make it to get there.
In Mistake #2 I said sell the result.
The gap is that result with a starting point, a roadblock, and a number.
Why it matters:
People can describe today in detail and tomorrow in 1 vague word.
Buyers don't buy rows in a table.
They buy a future they can see as clearly as their current reality.
If the destination is vague, he compares tracking pages.
And tracking pages get compared on price.
When the gap is clear, the decision becomes obvious.
Budget is rarely the problem when the value is bigger than the price.
A rep can't invent the gap on the call.
Give him the 4 questions to guide the customer towards the dream outcome and clarifying the gap.
The demo starts from the buyer's map, not the product tour.
Stop when it hits money, time, trust, energy, status or control.
Done when the gap has a number and a reason it hasn't closed yet.
Secret Sauce: They don't buy your software or the destination.
They buy closing the gap between today and that destination, not the feature.
Best,
Virgil
PS: Mistake #16: He wanted the software. He didn't know his number.