Introduction

Milestone -2: Value-selling Foundation is part of the Pre-Engagement Phase of the Value Accelerator Framework.

This Milestone is mandatory and provides the strategic foundation for building a scalable, insight-led, value-based go-to-market system. It must be completed before engaging in individual customer opportunities, as it defines the commercial building blocks needed to engage prospects with relevance, communicate differentiated value, and support outcome-driven sales conversations.

This Milestone is not executed for each customer. Instead, it is performed at the segment or vertical level, typically once per year or when launching a new offering, repositioning the value proposition, or entering a new market.

It brings together stakeholders from sales, marketing, and product to align on the core strategic elements that underpin successful customer engagement. When completed, it enables the vendor to transition from an ad hoc or intuition-driven sales model to a structured, repeatable system that supports consistent revenue growth.

Purpose

The purpose of Milestone -2: Value-selling Foundation is to define the core building blocks of a value-selling system, that enables consistent messaging, customer relevance, and scalable go-to-market execution across sales, marketing, and product.

Without this foundation, sales efforts remain disconnected, marketing lacks focus, and customer conversations depend too heavily on individual talent or intuition. This Milestone brings structure to the vendor’s commercial strategy by aligning cross-functional teams around a common language, set of priorities, and execution model.

Below are the six essential building blocks that this Milestone delivers:

• Product & Value Proposition: Clearly articulates how the solution delivers business impact, why it's credible, and how it supports the buyer’s goals. It must be simple, compelling, and easy for sales reps to use in any conversation.

• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Identifies the accounts that are most likely to benefit from—and buy— the vendor’s offering. These customers are easiest to sell to due to strategic fit, readiness, and clear value alignment.

• Target Personas & Business Outcomes: Maps the key decision-makers and influencers within ICP accounts and defines the specific business results they aim to achieve.

• Unique Differentiators: Captures what makes the vendor truly different in ways that are relevant to the customer—helping justify the offering and defend value over price.

• Customer Mental Model: Describes how customers currently think about their problem and what beliefs or assumptions may block change. This guides how messaging must reframe the conversation.

• Commercial Insight: A disruptive message that challenges the customer’s status quo, highlights hidden risks or costs, and creates urgency to act—setting the stage for the vendor’s differentiators.

By clearly defining these six elements, the vendor transforms its sales approach from ad hoc and reactive to structured, scalable, and insight-led. This is the foundation required for a high-performing revenue engine that creates alignment across functions and delivers consistent commercial results.

Methodology

Product & Value Proposition

The product & Value Proposition connects what the vendor offers with what customers actually care about: solving specific problems and achieving meaningful business outcomes. It goes beyond listing features or technical capabilities and instead explains—in clear, business-oriented language—how the solution addresses customer pain points and supports measurable improvements such as efficiency gains, cost reduction, risk mitigation, or growth acceleration.

A strong Value Proposition is both externally credible and internally actionable. It must be simple enough for sales reps to use in any customer conversation, yet specific enough to differentiate the vendor’s offering in a crowded market. When well-crafted, it provides a consistent narrative that aligns product teams, marketing campaigns, and sales engagements around the value that truly matters to the customer.

Ideal Customer Profile

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) outlines the key characteristics of the perfect customer for a business. It represents a company that aligns seamlessly with the products or services offered by the vendor, making it an ideal match for the products or services.

Key Characteristics of an Ideal Customer Profile:

• Budget / Revenue / Company Size: Defines the minimum financial requirements needed for the product or service.

• Industry: Specifies the industries served, and those outside the scope of the offerings.

• Geography: Establishes any regional or geographical limitations on where the vendor sells.

• Tech Stack in Place: Considers existing business processes and the supporting technologies already implemented.

• Legal Considerations: Accounts for any legal restrictions, such as compliance requirements, location-based regulations, or other limitations.

• product or Service Limitations: Determines whether customer expectations, such as response times or service levels, can be met effectively.

An ICP focuses on identifying the ideal companies to target, rather than individual decision-makers or target personas.

Without a clear ICP, vendors risk wasting time and resources on leads that are unlikely to convert or deliver sustainable value. A well-defined ICP guides segmentation, lead qualification, territory planning, and campaign design. It also ensures alignment between sales and marketing, helping both functions prioritize quality over quantity. Most importantly, it improves win rates by ensuring that the vendor is speaking to the right audience with the right message at the right time.

Target Personas & Business Outcomes

Once the ICP is defined, the next step is to identify the key personas within those accounts and understand what business results they are trying to achieve. Each persona—whether an economic buyer, technical evaluator, or operational end user—has specific goals, pressures, and success metrics.

Mapping these outcomes to individual roles enables the vendor to personalize its messaging and create relevance across the buying group. Instead of relying on generic value statements, sales and marketing can now speak directly to the needs and priorities of each stakeholder—whether that’s reducing operating costs, ensuring compliance, or enabling faster time-to-market. This level of specificity builds trust, increases engagement, and improves deal velocity by helping customers visualize how the solution impacts their world.

Unique Differentiators

Unique Differentiators are the specific capabilities or attributes that set the vendor apart from the competition—and do so in a way that is meaningful to the customer. A true Differentiator must meet four key criteria:

• Unique: it can only be claimed by the vendor

• Valuable: it translates into business value for the customer

• Defensible: the vendor can prevent competitors from replicating or stealing its Unique Differentiators

• Sustainable: it is available over time to the vendor

Differentiators are not:

• Features and benefits commonly found in the market

• Outcomes generated by the vendor’s offering

• Descriptions that include any of the following words: “innovative,” “green,” “user friendly,” or “solution” (these are buzzwords that do not truly explain the unique value of the vendor)

Customer Mental Model

The Customer Mental Model refers to how buyers currently understand their challenges, frame their priorities, and evaluate options. It reflects their existing assumptions, past experiences, organizational norms, and internal constraints. While many vendors focus on responding to what customers say they want, top-performing vendors aim to reshape how customers think.

By mapping the customer’s mental model, the vendor can uncover blind spots, challenge flawed assumptions, and help buyers see their problems—and the vendor’s solution—in a new light. This is not about being contrarian for its own sake, but about identifying gaps in understanding that prevent customers from making the best decisions for their business. Influencing the mental model is the first step toward reframing the problem, reshaping the evaluation process, and ultimately shifting the buying criteria in the vendor’s favor.

Commercial Insight

Commercial Insight is the most strategic building block of this Milestone. It is the message that combines all the previous building blocks of the sales system to disrupt the customer’s current thinking and reframe their understanding of their business challenges in a way that leads directly to the vendor’s Unique Differentiators.

Unlike traditional marketing content, which often promotes generic thought leadership or product features, a true Commercial Insight does two things:

• It teaches customers something new and relevant about their own business, and

• It gives them a compelling reason to change their current behavior

Commercial Insights are grounded in deep customer understanding, market dynamics, and real-world observations. They highlight the cost of inaction, expose hidden risks in the customer’s current approach, and offer a new perspective that positions the vendor’s solution as both necessary and urgent. When delivered early—before the customer has finalized their buying criteria—Commercial Insights have the power to shape the deal, elevate the conversation, and drive momentum across the buying group.

A well-crafted Commercial Insight cannot be developed in isolation. It requires structured collaboration between product, marketing, and sales. When created correctly, it becomes the foundation for insight-led campaigns, discovery conversations, and value-based proposals.

Execution

To execute this Milestone, vendors should perform the following activities:

1. Define Product & Value Proposition

2. Define Ideal Customer Profile

3. Define Target Persona and Business Outcomes

4. Identify Unique Differentiators

5. Define the Customer Mental Model

6. Define Commercial Insight

7. Commercial Insight Continuous Validation And Adaptation

The execution of the Milestone is driven by a cross-functional project team composed by:

• product Management / Portfolio Management

• R&D (if possible)

• marketing

• sales and Pre-sales

• Senior Management (for sponsorship)

• A project manager from the marketing department (preferably expert in Lean Six Sigma)

In the sections below you can find detailed instruction on how to execute the Milestone.

1. Define Product & Value Proposition

The first step in building the foundation of a value-selling system is to create a clear and simple definition of the vendor’s offering. This includes the core products, services, and capabilities the vendor brings to the market.

Many organizations struggle to describe their offering in a way that is both concise and meaningful to the customer. Instead of listing features or internal terminology, the goal is to define the offering through the lens of the customer’s problems and outcomes.

To shape a compelling and relevant Value Proposition, the following questions should be answered:

• What is your product or solution?: Briefly describe what you offer, without unnecessary jargon.

• What does your product do?: Explain the core functionality and purpose.

• How does your product work (in simple terms)?: Provide a non-technical, high-level explanation that anyone can understand.

• What is the value of your product?: Clarify the problem it solves and the measurable outcomes it enables for the customer.

Answering these questions will help the cross-functional team develop a concise statement that defines the offering in a customer-relevant and outcome-focused way. This statement becomes the foundation for all downstream messaging—used in campaigns, presentations, sales pitches, and product documentation.

It is also recommended to craft a catchy slogan or tagline that summarizes the offering in a modern and engaging format. A strong slogan helps teams stay aligned internally while making the value of the solution instantly clear to external audiences.

Defining the product & Value Proposition is a critical step that ensures everyone in the organization—sales, marketing, product, and beyond—can speak with a unified voice and focus on the outcomes that matter most to the customer.

2. Define Ideal Customer Profile

The second step in designing a value-selling system is to define the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)—a clear description of the types of companies that are most likely to benefit from the vendor’s solution and convert into successful, long-term customers.

Defining the ICP helps sales, marketing, and product teams align on where to focus resources. It ensures go-to-market efforts are targeted, efficient, and tailored to accounts with the highest potential for value creation.

To create a well-defined ICP, the vendor should answer the following guiding questions:

• Budget / Revenue

  What is the minimum budget or annual revenue a customer needs to have in order to afford, implement, and benefit from our solution?

• Company Size

  What company size—measured by number of employees or organizational complexity—aligns best with our value proposition?

• Industry

  Which industries consistently realize the most value from our offering? Are there verticals where we’ve proven impact or have strategic relevance?

• Geography

  Are there specific regions or countries where we are best positioned to serve customers, due to logistical, legal, or commercial advantages?

• Tech Stack in Place

  What existing systems, platforms, or infrastructure should be in place to ensure smooth integration and minimal onboarding friction? Are there legacy technologies that could block adoption?

• Legal Considerations

  Are there industry-specific regulations, compliance requirements, or data protection rules that impact whether a company is a viable customer?

• product or Service Limitations

  Can we reliably meet the customer’s expectations for service levels, response times, and technical performance? Are there functional or operational constraints that may disqualify certain accounts?

• Other Constraints

  Are there any additional factors—such as infrastructure requirements, internal expertise, or partnership dependencies—that would prevent success or make some accounts a poor fit?

3. Define Target Persona and Business Outcomes

Once the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is defined, the next step is to identify the key personas within those accounts and hypothesize the business outcomes that matter most to them.

A business outcome represents a specific, measurable goal that the customer organization wants to achieve. It should always be expressed with an action verb and relate to a tangible impact. For example, a valid business outcome could be: “achieve carbon neutrality in manufacturing processes.”

This exercise helps align your value-selling system with the strategic goals and operational priorities of the people who influence or make purchasing decisions. To complete this step, the project team must answer three core questions:

Who are our target customer personas?

A customer persona represents a semi-fictional profile of a key stakeholder involved in the buying process. Personas typically include role responsibilities, strategic priorities, operational pain points, and relevant decision criteria.

Teams should look beyond traditional decision-makers and include all stakeholders who could be directly or indirectly impacted by the vendor’s value proposition. This may include influencers, users, budget holders, or gatekeepers.

What business outcomes do these personas care about most?

Once personas are defined, identify the specific business outcomes each one is responsible for or influenced by. These outcomes often reflect that persona’s KPIs, internal pressures, or organizational goals.

Outcomes should be:

• Actionable – linked to initiatives or tasks the persona can influence

• Quantifiable – tied to a metric or performance goal

• Relevant – aligned with industry context and job function

What business outcomes are shared across multiple personas?

In complex B2B sales, purchasing decisions are made by groups, not individuals. Identifying outcomes that overlap across personas helps the vendor build consensus and create momentum during multi-stakeholder engagements.

Shared outcomes are especially valuable when crafting sales messaging, designing value propositions, or preparing Commercial Insights. They offer a unifying theme that can be used to align diverse stakeholders around a common goal.

Below is a practical example of how a project team might approach this step for a manufacturing vertical:

Target Personas Identified

• production Managers and Operations Directors – responsible for throughput and process efficiency

• Environmental and Sustainability Managers – focused on energy use and emissions reduction

• Health and Safety Officers and Plant Managers – accountable for safe, compliant operations

Key Business Outcomes

• Increase production efficiency – minimize downtime and optimize cycle time

• Reduce energy consumption – lower operating costs and meet sustainability targets

• Improve workforce safety – maintain compliance, reduce incidents, and ensure business continuity

Shared Outcomes Across Personas

• Increase production efficiency – valued by production, Operations, and Supply Chain roles

• Reduce energy consumption – important for Environmental, Sustainability, and Operations teams

• Improve workforce safety – relevant to HSE Officers, Plant Managers, and senior leadership

This type of mapping exercise ensures that downstream messaging—whether for marketing content, discovery calls, or Commercial Insight development—is rooted in what truly matters to the customer stakeholders.

The table below shows the results of the example.

While answering these questions, the project team is encouraged to involve other internal stakeholders across the organization—such as sales Engineers, Account Executives, Customer Success Managers, and Industry Specialists. These contributors often have valuable insights based on real customer interactions that can validate or challenge the team’s assumptions.

To facilitate this exercise, it is recommended to use a digital whiteboard tool to capture all hypothesized outcomes in a structured and collaborative format. Start by creating one sticky note per Customer Business Outcome, and then cluster them by persona. This visual approach makes it easier to identify patterns, prioritize outcomes, and spot opportunities for shared messaging across different stakeholder groups.

The image below shows the whiteboards tool filled in with the input from the example above.

The next step in this activity is to validate the hypothesized business outcomes and gain a deep understanding of how customers perceive their own priorities—specifically, which outcomes matter most and which factors they believe influence them.

To do this, the project team conducts structured interviews with new and existing customers. These interviews provide qualitative and quantitative insights that reveal not only what outcomes are important but also how customers explain the drivers and barriers behind those outcomes.

During the interviews, the team should ask customers to:

1. Rank the importance of each hypothesized business outcome on a scale from 0 to 10, and explain the reasoning behind their rankings.

2. Identify key influencing factors and root causes that they believe impact each business outcome (e.g., workforce, systems, investments, external constraints).

3. Prioritize each influencing factor on the same 0 to 10 scale, indicating which factors they believe have the greatest impact on achieving the outcome.

Continuing the above example, the project team begins with the following hypothesized business outcomes:

1. Increase production efficiency

2. Reduce energy consumption

3. Improve workforce safety

They then interview three customer personas—production Manager, Environmental Officer, and Health and Safety Officer—to validate and refine the outcomes based on actual customer input.

In these interviews, the team also captures specific influencing factors and root causes that customers associate with each outcome, such as technology investment, process optimization, workforce training, and regulatory compliance.

The tables below summarize the interview findings:

To objectively prioritize outcomes and influencing factors, the project team calculates priority scores using two variables:

• The number of personas who rated the item with a value above 0

• The average score across those respondents

For example:

• Increase production efficiency: Rated by 1 out of 3 personas (score = 10) → Priority Score = 1 × 10 = 10

• Reduce energy consumption: Rated by 3 personas (average = 7.67) → Priority Score = 3 × 7.67 = 23.01

• Improve workforce safety: Rated by 3 personas (average = 7.67) → Priority Score = 3 × 7.67 = 23.01

The same calculation is applied to influencing factors. For example:

• Process optimization: Rated by all 3 personas with an average of 7.67 → Priority Score = 3 × 7.67 = 23.01

With priority scores established, the team ranks each outcome and influencing factor, creating a clear hierarchy based on customer insights. This information reveals the customer perspective around their top business outcomes and the critical factors impacting these outcomes.

The table below summarizes prioritized outcomes, influencing factors, and associated customer personas:

By understanding how customers prioritize their outcomes and the key influencing factors and root causes they associate with each, the project team gains a detailed view of the perceived customer’s business model. This enables the team to:

• Focus on the most relevant outcomes and factors according to customer priorities

• Align the vendor’s differentiators with customer-defined influencing factors

• Tailor engagement strategies that resonate strongly with key customer personas

Visualizing these priorities on a digital whiteboard, as showed below, further supports the project team in mapping connections between business outcomes, influencing factors, and customer personas, fostering a targeted and customer-centric approach to engagement.

4. Identify Unique Differentiators

Differentiators are unique strengths that only the vendor possesses and that can significantly impact the customer’s business outcomes. These must be clearly defined, as they form the foundation for presenting the vendor’s value proposition.

The project team must answer the following questions to define the vendor’s Differentiators:

1. What are we good at?

   This refers not only to the features of the vendor’s offering but also to capabilities that enhance it. For example, if a vendor operates globally, this logistical advantage could be a Differentiator, even if it isn’t directly related to the product itself.

2. What are we uniquely good at?

   This is the key to identifying true Differentiators. What can the vendor deliver that competitors cannot? This may lie in operational efficiency, R&D capabilities, or even the vendor’s financial stability, allowing for flexibility in pricing models.

3. Which of our unique capabilities are sustainable?

   The project team should focus on strengths that cannot easily be replicated by competitors and will remain accessible to the vendor in the long term. For example, a vendor’s deep expertise in a niche market may be a sustainable Differentiator.

An example of vendor’s Unique Differentiators is provided below.

1. Advanced Automation Solutions

   • Unique: The vendor's automation technology is distinguished by its predictive maintenance capabilities, leveraging machine learning algorithms that only their R&D team has developed.

   • Valuable: This Differentiator enables production managers to reduce downtime by 20%, directly enhancing production efficiency.

   • Defensible: The vendor has patented these algorithms, preventing competitors from replicating the same level of predictive capability.

   • Sustainable: The vendor continuously invests in updating these algorithms, ensuring the technology remains a step ahead of industry trends.

2. Energy Optimization Expertise

   • Unique: The vendor’s experience spans multiple industries, allowing them to implement tailored energy-saving practices that go beyond standard approaches in the market.

   • Valuable: Environmental Officers and Sustainability Managers benefit from an average of 15% reduction in energy costs, supporting corporate sustainability goals and regulatory compliance.

   • Defensible: The vendor’s proprietary data models, developed through years of customer insights, enable a highly accurate energy-saving calculation that competitors cannot match.

   • Sustainable: The vendor’s commitment to sustainability ensures that its expertise in energy optimization is a long-term offering, evolving with environmental

It is recommended to use a digital whiteboard to visualize the vendor’s Differentiator as showed in the image below.

5. Define the Customer Mental Model

At this stage, the project team should have a well-structured understanding of how customer personas—within the defined Ideal Customer Profile—view their business, including:

• The objectives they prioritize most

• The factors and root causes they believe are essential to achieving those objectives

This set of beliefs, assumptions, and mental shortcuts constitutes the Customer Mental Model.

Understanding the Customer Mental Model is essential because it reveals the starting point for any value-based conversation. It reflects how customers currently define success, perceive challenges, and justify their choices. However, to create momentum and differentiation, the vendor must often challenge this model—and shift how customers think about their problems.

Once the current mental model is understood, the next step is to hypothesize changes that would help the customer achieve better outcomes—especially those that highlight the vendor’s unique strengths.

To do this, the project team should explore connections between:

• The customer’s most critical business outcomes

• The driving factors or root causes behind those outcomes

• The vendor’s Unique Differentiators

By creating these connections, the team can begin to guide the customer toward a new way of thinking—one that opens the door to the vendor’s value.

The team should work cross-functionally and gather additional input from internal experts (sales, product, Customer Success, etc.) while answering these two key questions:

• Can we, as a vendor, impact these customer outcomes or their driving factors?

• Which of our Unique Differentiators directly support these outcomes or influencing factors?

Continuing the example from earlier, the project team is working with the following prioritized customer outcomes and associated driving factors:

1. Reduce energy consumption

   • Driving Factors: Technology investment, regulatory compliance

2. Improve workforce safety

   • Driving Factors: Workforce training, regulatory compliance

3. Increase production efficiency

   • Driving Factors: Process optimization, workforce training

They then hypothesize the following connections between vendor Differentiators and customer priorities:

• Advanced Automation Solutions aligns with Increase production efficiency by addressing process optimization and workforce training.

  This differentiator is highly relevant to production Managers and Operations Directors focused on maximizing efficiency.

• Energy Optimization Expertise connects with Reduce energy consumption by supporting technology investment and regulatory compliance.

  This is particularly valuable to Environmental Officers and Sustainability Managers, who prioritize energy savings and compliance mandates.

The table below provides an example summary of hypothesized links between vendor’s Differentiators, Customer Outcomes, Driving Factors, and customer personas associated with each outcome.

The project team could then visualize these connections in a digital whiteboard as showed in the image below.

6. Define Commercial Insight

With the connections between business outcomes, driving factors, and vendor Differentiators clearly mapped, the project team can now begin shaping how customers should rethink their priorities. This is where influencing the Customer Mental Model becomes strategic—and where a well-crafted Commercial Insight comes to life.

The goal of this activity is to identify areas where the customer’s current thinking might be:

• Incomplete – missing critical connections or overlooking essential drivers

• Outdated – based on legacy assumptions that no longer apply in today’s environment

• Underweighted – where a valid driver exists but is not given the attention it deserves

There are two primary approaches to influencing the customer’s mental model:

1. Create new entities in the customer’s perception

   Introduce a new concept or factor the customer hasn’t considered—one that has significant impact on a business outcome.

2. Reinforce the importance of an undervalued connection

   Elevate an existing driver that is underestimated, helping the customer realize its true impact on their success.

To support this effort, the team should run a structured “What if” analysis, using the following prompt questions:

• Do we know something about the customer’s outcomes or driving factors that they don’t—but should?

• Are there emerging trends reshaping these outcomes or their root causes in ways the customer hasn’t yet recognized?

• What would the customer’s own customers suggest as a recommendation or concern?

This exercise pushes the team to think outside-in, surfacing blind spots and surfacing opportunities to educate the customer and shift their focus.

As potential shifts in the customer’s mental model are identified, the project team should document them on the same digital whiteboard used earlier in the process. This visual representation helps distinguish between:

• The customer’s current mental model

• The new mental model the vendor wants to establish

Each proposed shift must be backed by credible evidence, which may include:

• Case studies or internal success stories

• Industry research or market trends

• Customer interviews and voice-of-customer feedback

• Benchmarking data or compliance insights

This foundation is essential to crafting a Commercial Insight that is both provocative and trustworthy.

Continuing the example from above, the project team could identify the following Commercial Insight:

“Integrating advanced automation solutions not only increases production efficiency by 20% but also enhances workforce safety by reducing manual handling, leading to a 30% decrease in incident rates. This combined benefit allows manufacturers to meet regulatory compliance standards more effectively while optimizing operational productivity.”

This Commercial Insight fulfills the core objective of teaching the customer something new about their own operations and offering a compelling reason to explore the vendor’s solution. It reframes how the customer might think about automation by linking two seemingly separate priorities: productivity and safety.

This message meets all five criteria for a true Commercial Insight:

1. Unique Differentiator: The insight revolves around the vendor’s Advanced Automation Solutions, specifically highlighting its rare ability to simultaneously boost efficiency and improve safety—advantages that are hard for competitors to replicate.

2. Customer-Centric Value: The message directly addresses top business outcomes in the manufacturing sector: operational efficiency and workforce safety. These are outcomes that matter deeply to production Managers and Health and Safety Officers.

3. Frame-Breaking Idea: The Insight challenges conventional thinking by connecting automation to both productivity and safety—prompting the customer to reframe automation as a multidimensional enabler, not just a throughput tool.

4. Supported by Quantifiable Evidence: The inclusion of statistics (20% efficiency gain, 30% reduction in incidents) lends credibility and strengthens persuasion through data-backed claims.

5. Multi-Persona Relevance: This message appeals across roles—production Managers prioritize efficiency, while Health and Safety Officers value compliance and risk reduction. This alignment creates internal consensus among stakeholders.

7. Commercial Insight Continuous Validation And Adaptation

A Commercial Insight is not a one-time output—it is a living asset that must evolve with customer needs, industry dynamics, and market signals. Its long-term effectiveness depends on its ability to remain relevant, compelling, and aligned with how customers think, feel, and act.

To ensure this, the vendor must adopt a continuous validation and adaptation process. Every campaign, discovery call, and customer interaction becomes an opportunity to test the resonance of the Insight and refine its messaging.

The Value Discovery Milestone (Milestone 1 of the Value Accelerator Framework) provides an ideal opportunity to validate the Commercial Insight in real conversations. During this Milestone, the sales rep can observe:

• How customers react to the insight

• Which messages resonate or fall flat

• What objections or questions emerge

• Whether the insight leads to deeper engagement or a shift in perception

This real-time customer feedback is invaluable. It reveals whether the Insight truly challenges the customer’s mental model and sparks the intended reaction—or whether it needs to be adjusted for clarity, tone, or strategic relevance.

To refine Commercial Insights effectively, the vendor should implement a structured process to gather and analyze feedback across touchpoints. This may include:

• Feedback from discovery conversations

• Conversion metrics from insight-led campaigns

• Objection patterns tracked in CRM

• Win/loss analysis reports

• sales team reflections and observations

Insights from this feedback loop should be documented, reviewed periodically, and used to:

• Strengthen the Commercial Insight’s clarity and focus

• Replace outdated assumptions or claims

• Realign messaging with shifting industry trends or emerging priorities

Important Note

When introducing a Commercial Insight, especially one that challenges a customer’s existing beliefs, resistance is normal—and even desirable.

Pushback or disagreement is often a signal that the message is working. It shows the customer is actively engaging with a new idea and beginning to question their status quo. This resistance creates a powerful opportunity for the vendor to:

• Offer proof points and evidence

• Share benchmarks or peer references

• Demonstrate credibility through confident, value-driven dialogue

Handled correctly, these moments of tension position the vendor as a trusted advisor—someone capable of guiding the customer toward better decisions, not just selling a solution.

Quality Gates

• The vendor can comfortably articulate the Commercial Insight

• The Commercial Insight has been validated with customer feedback

• All building blocks of the value-selling system are fully developed and documented

Sales Enablement Artifacts

• Template and guidelines for Value-selling foundation creation

Note: all templates and tools referenced above are available in the Value Accelerator Academy. The academy provides Sales Reps with ready-to-use resources developed by the Value Accelerator team to support the effective delivery of each milestone.

Need help? Visit the Value Accelerator Academy!

The Value Accelerator Academy is your go-to resource for turning value-selling into a habit and driving predictable revenue.

It offers both free and premium on-demand training, with over 10 hours of content covering every Milestone of the Value Accelerator Framework. Each module includes:

• Actionable lessons

• Real-world examples

• Guided steps to build mastery across all phases of the Framework

In addition to training, the Academy provides a full set of tools and templates to help you tailor the Framework to your specific sales motion—whether you’re leading transactional deals or enterprise engagements.

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