Of all the sales frameworks in the world, VIPS is for me the one that’s most effective for start-ups looking to structure a sales conversation and pitch to a prospective client. Here’s how it works…

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VIPS is a sales framework that’s great for start-ups -- and indeed businesses at all stages -- and can be applied in two killer ways. First, you can use it to structure sales conversations; second, you can use the same structure to explain a start-up’s sales pipeline to potential investors. Next time, I’ll look at the investor pitch. But for now, let me walk you through VIPS from the seller’s perspective.

VIPS stands for VISION, ISSUES, PROTOTYPE and SOLUTION. It’s the next step once a prospective customer is qualified and you start a dialogue that will hopefully lead to a long-term relationship. It provides a workable structure for more meaningful sales conversations, and starts with painting a picture of success for your prospect in the form of the VISION.

VISION

This VISION is of what life is like for your customer when they work with you and your product. It’s the most positive picture you can paint of how your product affects real change to solve a genuine problem your customer is wrestling with. The VISION part of the process builds on the Consequence part of the lead qualification process PACTT, the idea being that if there is no real consequence for the customer’s business in buying your product or service, then there really isn't a need for it. If you’ve qualified your prospect properly using the PACTT model, you should be able to explain how your client’s business will improve with your product.

Forget flying cars and unicorns -- the key is to keep the VISION part of your pitch realistic. It must be achievable in the context of your prospect’s needs in a way which also aligns with their vision of success; that way, you now have a joint vision on which to build. But as we know, things seldom go to plan - which is where the next stage of the framework comes in...

ISSUES

ISSUES cover all the reasons why your picture of success may not materialise -- operational restraints, logistical limitations, company culture, legislation and host of other practical reasons.

Getting these ISSUES out into the open early on may seem counter-intuitive, and it’s almost certainly not what your prospect might be expecting from a salesperson. But that is the beauty of this part of the framework right there. This part of this framework offers so much to help you build a successful business and take the sales conversation to a new level.

Why? Because if your prospect shares the VISION of success you agreed on earlier, by surfacing all the reasons why it might be scuppered, you start the process of figuring out together how to overcome those barriers. The conversation now shifts to a problem-solving process that your prospect has a vested interest in solving with you. Now you are working together to figure out how to make that problem-solving VISION become a reality. In the process, you are also building support for your product and have taken the sales conversation to a whole new and more productive level.

As you work together through ISSUES with the client, you will also be getting valuable feedback on challenges that may influence your product or business strategy. Important data to feedback into the product and engineering teams.

PROTOTYPE

Having started to figure out how you can overcome the barriers to success, the next step in the framework is designing the PROTOTYPE. You will know this part of the process as agreeing on the Test, though positioning it as a PROTOTYPE suggests a longer-term partnership that, if successful, will be rolled out in full.

Working with your customer, you start to design a manageable PROTOTYPE, with a clear set of outcomes that you hope to prove or disprove and will refine deployment of your solution. By building a PROTOTYPE, you’re testing your joint hypothesis while limiting risk and exposure for your customer and agreeing how success will be measured.

I’m often asked whether tests or prototypes should be free or charged to the client? I believe that people don't truly value your offering until they are willing to put some skin in the game, which is why I would advocate that prototypes are paid for. You can afford to be creative about how much, because what really matters here is not the price at this point but a show of intent that the customer recognises your value and is willing to cover at least some costs.

One way to position this is to use the price you charge as a fee for doing the work required to deliver the PROTOTYPE. Your time is as just as precious as the customer’s, and you of course need to know if this prospect is the real deal. Asking for a contribution, then, will tell you a lot about working with this customer. Offer to credit the customer their investment on a fully-deployed solution to incentivise further if required.

SOLUTION

Armed with the PROTOTYPE and its success measures, you can move to the final stage of the framework and start to design the rollout of the complete SOLUTION. As you do so, you’ll gain insight into what it will take for your customer to adopt your product fully. You’ll also deepen your understanding of the buying process and the steps you will need to prepare in order to get the deal over the line.

Whereas a PROTOTYPE may be a good starting point and a way to get into a company, full adoption and the final decision to deploy your SOLUTION will inevitably be a decision influenced by many people and factors. So as you design the SOLUTION phase, learn what it will take to close the main deal, identifying the buyer cohort and processes you will need to follow to reach a satisfactory conclusion. The key here is that you are designing the SOLUTION deployment in its entirety as almost a fait accompli in the belief that when the PROTOTYPE proves the business requirement, your customer agrees to roll out your SOLUTION fully. This does much of the work in getting you to a complete deal.

So there it is -- a framework on which to build a sale through a more meaningful conversation where you collaborate with your customer to design deployment of a shared VISION, identify ISSUES that may hinder that picture of success, design a PROTOTYPE that your customer is willing to support with some level of investment, and a SOLUTION rollout plan predetermined by the success of the pilot.

Hat tip: Sir Kenneth Olisa

Credit where it’s due -- the VIPS model was taught to me by a mentor I met working in my first start-up, PeerIndex, whose name is Sir Kenneth Olisa, OBE. Ken has a remarkable background, which includes a stint as General Manager for Wang Europe before founding and selling a successful merchant bank. He is also Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London and was knighted in the 2018 honours list for services to business and philanthropy. Today he runs Restoration Partners, a boutique tech merchant bank advising and investing in IT businesses.

Ken was an early investor in our start-up and had a vested interest in helping us reach our revenue milestones. One afternoon, I found myself sitting in his London office, while he explained a sales framework that had worked well for him in his days at IBM.

Those familiar with lead qualification methodologies will be aware of BANT — Budget, Authority, Need and Time — but did you know that it was IBM that developed that framework? So it’s no surprise that Ken took that thinking to the next level with VIPS.

Please let me know how you get on using the VIPS Mode to close more deals. Next week I will show you how to use VIPS to build investor confidence in your sales pipeline, until then...

Happy hunting!