Best 4 Ways to Validate Your Solution

In the Bottom of the Funnel, our objective is to Generate Preference. Our corporate sales training shows how to build a strong start that details our unique value proposition, and how to differentiate it from the other options.

Our next step is to prove that our proposition actually does what we say that it does: we need to show how our solution is preferable. If you have been persuasive so far, then the buyer wants to believe in you. They want your solution to work.

But they still need proof.

How to Prove Your Case

Program on Persuasion’s corporate sales training details four ways to prove your case:

Third-Party Validation
Demonstration
Data Provision
Painting the Vision

Third Party Validation

The most powerful way to prove your case is Third-Party Validation. Third-Party Validation can exist in the form of a referral or a testimonial. The closer the testimonial is to providing feedback on how your company solved the buyer’s specific issue—and how the same Value Proposition achieved the desired result—the more powerful that example will be.

The example should also show that you customized your unique value proposition for your prospect’s specific, yet similar, needs.

Demonstration

The second most powerful way of providing proof is to actually demonstrate. Demonstrate how your solution works. If possible, let the buyer do the demonstration. By letting them demonstrate, they not only learn how to perform the task, but also take ownership of the product.

For example, car dealerships always want potential buyers to test-drive their vehicles. When the prospect uses the product in the way that they would once they own it, it implies ownership. Plus, the prospect can truly understand the experience of owning or utilizing the product itself.

Data Provision

The third most effective way of providing proof is through providing data. This data should include product specifications as compared to a baseline.

Although data provision does not provide as strong of an emotional pull as an actual demonstration does, data will allow the third-party validation and demonstration to combine and lean on the testimonials and facts you provide.

Paint the Vision

The fourth way that our corporate sales training provides proof that your solution is best is to paint a vision. When you paint the vision of what is possible with your solution, you use a similar situation to show your competence. You demonstrate the possible effects of utilizing your solution, and you provide data throughout.

Painting the vision is essentially the story-telling of your unique value proposition before the buyer actually owns it. When you paint the vision, you allow your prospect to simulate the ownership of your unique value proposition.

The best example of this is at Mac World in 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone. Part of his presentation was creating proof that Apple had the potential to change the world (data). Part of it was showing what each aspect of the iPhone would do (demonstration). Part was reminding the world what Mac had done to change the personal electronics experience already (third-party validation). But the best part was allowing people to test the iPhone before they bought it.

Conclusion

Our corporate sales training provides a blueprint for the entire sales process: the last step before offering a proposal should be to generate preference. We give a step-by-step process to generate preference that includes the best four ways to validate your solution as the best: the four best methods to validation are third party validation, demonstration, data, and painting the vision.

Photo by Wilfred Iven.