How Sales Teams Can Prove Business Value
Why sales teams struggle to prove value
Most salespeople have no problem explaining a product’s features while trying to make a sale, but they may find it challenging to give business justification. In other words, they find it hard to explain how investing in this product will benefit the buyer. So, a sales team struggling to justify value often falls back on explaining features, providing demos, or having pricing discussions because these are tangible.
One easy way to prove that a product or software is effective and will be beneficial in the long run is to use an ROI calculator. Tools like the QKS ROI Benchmark Framework™ can help sales teams immensely because it provides professional reports and easy-to-use digital tools to prove their product’s value.
An ROI calculator helps buyers make more informed decisions because it shows exactly how much they will benefit from investing in a product or service. It also specifies how much time it would take for a customer to earn back the money they spent on the software through savings or increased revenue, also called a payback period.
Since an ROI calculator is unbiased, it assures a potential buyer that they would be making a sound investment, particularly since every seller claims that their product is worth investing in.
Sales teams tend to focus on three areas during a sales conversation:
Talking about what the product does instead of what it changes.
Asking surface-level questions during the discovery phase, i.e., the part where you ask questions to understand your customer.
Assuming the value is apparent instead of clearly explaining the problems that the product will solve.
This eventually tends to result in stalled deals and reduced sales effectiveness.
What proof of value means in sales
At its core, proof of value in sales is the ability to clearly show how your solution improves a measurable business outcome.
Buyers would want to know exactly how the product benefits them. Therefore, while making a sales pitch, the sales team should answer questions like:
What problem are we solving?
What does success look like?
How does this impact revenue, cost, or risk?
This approach is considered effective because strong value-based selling connects your offering directly to these outcomes early in the conversation (as highlighted in Harvard Business Review research).
Simple frameworks that help
The following frameworks can sharpen how you communicate business value in sales:
The 3 3 3 rule in sales
3 key problems
3 relevant capabilities
3 measurable outcomes
This keeps messaging focused and driven outcome.
The 70/30 rule in sales
A sales rep should spend 70% of the time listening to the potential customers to properly understand their needs and challenges.
Only 30% of the time should be spent talking/pitching the product.
Better listening leads to stronger value articulation because it’s grounded in real customer priorities.
5 Cs of sales
Customer: Who are you selling to?
Challenge: What problem matters most?
Cost: What is the impact of not solving it?
Capability: How do you help?
Change: What improves after adoption?
This structure ensures conversations consistently tie back to value.
How to improve
communication
If your team is struggling to close deals, these practical tips may help:
Ask better questions
Surface-level questions during the discovery phase would not be beneficial in the long-run. The questions should help the sales team properly understand the problems the business is facing. Examples of such questions include:
“What happens if this problem isn’t solved?”
“How does this affect revenue or efficiency?”
Focus on outcomes, not features
Instead of describing features, talk about the results, especially if it leads to benefits like reduced costs, increased revenue, and improved efficiency.
Also, outcomes are easier to justify than capabilities.
Keep value simple
At a high level, businesses evaluate decisions based on expected return versus cost. This means that deep financial models aren’t always necessary. It’s more important to show a clear link between your solution and business impact.
These guidelines show how sales teams can prove business value.
Conclusion
How sales teams can prove business value comes down to clarity and effective communication. Teams that focus on outcomes, ask better questions, and use simple frameworks and ROI calculators are more effective at building trust and moving deals forward.
