The 3 Key Ingredients of Commercial Insight

You know that your best sellers succeed by teaching customers something new about their business. But what sales messages are your sellers sharing with customers and prospects? And how do you know when you have an insight versus a catchy but fleeting idea?
Our most recent findings from this year’s new research study, Getting in Early: Shaping Demand through Pre-Funnel Engagement, reveal that many companies struggle to discern thought leadership from true insight. They often arm their sellers with newsworthy sales messages that grab customer attention but have little lasting impact, and alone are insufficient to create a sense of urgency that translates to customer action.

While we all know and agree that insights are the key to successful selling in a complex environment, companies struggle to generate commercial insights and to know what good insight should look like.
So what exactly is insight anyway?This year’s new SEC research reveals the key ingredients and a basic definition of commercial insight. We think of it as having a few key components. The first component is:

• Be credible/relevant – Demonstrate an understanding of the customer’s world, substantiating claims with real-world evidence.

While every insight must have this baseline requirement, it alone is insufficient—you’ll merely have a catchy idea that probably won’t stick. And that is thought leadership in a nutshell – food for thought, but unless it really reframes customers’ current thinking, they will most likely move on to the next new and shiny thing they see. That’s where the next two differentiators come into the picture:

• Be frame-breaking – Disrupt the customer’s current logic, revealing an underappreciated aspect of the customer’s environment or a flawed assumption.
• Lead back to your unique strengths – Refer customers specifically to areas where you outperform competitors.

This last component, while not important to the customer, is especially important for you as the supplier. If your commercial message meets the first two criteria, but it doesn’t lead back to you, you have just done some free consulting that may benefit your competitors—you have a sharp message, but it’s not commercially viable for you.

Alexandra Chiou
http://saleschallenger.exbdblogs.com/