The role of the value engineer is to create a structured business value proposal for customers in the sales process, an in-depth ROI report showing the value created. Some value engineers find it very difficult to gain access to the deals to perform their jobs. Often value engineers are involved in five in a hundred deals, which essentially means they can’t give away the service to the salespeople. The main objection is that the value engineer slows the deal down, but when the value engineers were involved in deals, the closure rate went from 1:8 to 1:1.5. So sometimes, despite having the resource to increase the expertise of the seller team, the salespeople do not always use it and will prioritize speed over the sales process.
We need to match the buyer-side investment, and we tend to think of the investment being people and money. When it comes to account management, there’s the importance of timing. When do we start preparing for sales engagements? Many times value engineers are called in to help and the response is, “That’s all well and good, but we have to submit our proposal on Monday. We don’t have time to do all this! Why weren’t you here six months ago?” They’re right, we should have started six months ago, but that takes investment, process, and discipline. Not the magic wand they were looking for.
It appears we’re a long way from matching the buying team, maybe even further than back in 1999, because the buyers are adapting and changing more quickly. We’ve known for a long time that sales populations should:
• Add value in the sales process
• Match and complement the buying team investment
• Build a cross-functional selling team supporting the seller