As our name implies, at Being Guided we deliver guided selling journeys on Salesforce. We combine Design Thinking¹ and Value Engineering² with our XCELD and Salespeak.ai apps that can be optimised to maximise your sales effectiveness - business or consumer.

Increasing sales effectiveness is an iterative process, that is created and continuously improved: firstl.y, with Salespeak to maximise initial conversations between buyers and sellers; and, secondly, through Guided Selling delivered via Salesforce-powered XCELD.

As illustraterd below, this results in generating a Virtuous Cycle between buyer and seller in a high-value, high-touch sell - business or consumer.

You can see Salespeak.ai in action on both the Salespeak.ai and our Being Guided Website, with a 'Sticky Bar' appearing on the Home page, as illustrated in the screenshot below. This is where Inspiration Questions, sequenced in the Sticky Bar, guide the buyside prospect to answers.

Guided Selling, when enhanced by Design Thinking and Value Engineering methods, defines and directs every stage of a Salesforce Opportunity, related to the buying and selling cycle with a high-value, high-touch sell.

Design Thinking maximises stakeholder engagement by fostering empathy and collaboration across the buying and selling cycle, whilst Value Engineering builds robust business cases using ROI models to defend value and quantify costs.

Together, Design Thinking and Value Engineering leverage Salesforce-powered XCELD tools to deliver personalised, data-driven sales experiences, ensuring alignment between buyer and seller in a high-value, high-touch engagement

As illustrated above, XCELD is built on Salesforce Lightning Platform, as a combination of Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM plus XCELD and a third-party app for managing time series data: Tracking Buddy.

With Tracking Buddy, we can measure and record data value changes over time for any Salesforce and XCELD Object. This enables us to create powerful analytics for you to measure any number of datapoints that are key to understanding and improving the buying experience.

Also, you can see are introducing and innovative AI Agent called Salespeak to allow you to iterastively improve the digital experience for prospects who represent valuable inbound enquiries about your solutions.

XCELD, as a native Salesforce app, provides a user experience familiar to users of this leading technology. Each Module is delivered with No-Code configurstion built-in to ensure that the overall user experience is optimised for your Sales Value Proposition.

This becomes a 'Virtuous Cycle': continuously improving sales effectiveness. This also creates a feedback loop between product and service innovators on the sellside and decision-makers and influencers on the buyside.

When creating new or improving existing offerings these modules come together to embrace continuous innovation, where buyers inject reality into sellers' notion of what's compelling, andf equally sellers get to engage with prospects in a process of Mutual Value Discovery.

The journey here is iterative, starting with Models generated from the Design Thinking and Value Engineering, as a Mutual Value Discovery engagement between buyer and seller. The end game is a Compelling Value Proposition, where buyer and seller have achieved a successful outcome, built on as foundation of receptivity and rapport creating trust, which inturn, generates truth.

01. Models
From generating high levels of engagement among all key stakeholders throufh Design Thinking, the Value Engineering process creates Return On Investment Models (ROI) Models for the seller's offer, where a solid business case and defending value over price are key to success.

02. Projects
With a clear ROI Model in place, a Compelling Value Proposition is traslated into a Project Plan. This includes setting out a hierarchy of Milestones, Tasks, Deliverables and Costs, mapped against the ROI Model for an appropriate Project Plan.

03. Tasks
Project Tasks are assigned to XCELD Users where many Tasks make up Milestones and Complete Projects related to the Project Plan. Project Tasks utilise standard Salesforce Activities for Tasks, Emails and Calls.

04. Resources
Human and Digital Resources are assigned to Project Tasks, defining named XCELD Users, fully supported by AI Augmentation or AI Automation options. Resources include customisable Record layouts for Skills plus Custom Objects for eLearning and Certifications.

05. Storyboards
Alongside Snapshots, Storyboards are continuously updated via a buyside Web Form and Salesforce Record, defining and iterating Problems and Challenges expressed in terms of urgency, importance and how they are mapped to Resolutions.

06. Decisions
In moving from the what-if Projections of a ROI Model for a Compelling Value Proposition, the buyside and sellside agree and continuously refine Value Engineering calculations for Purchasing against Economic Basis of Decision and Emotional Basis of Decision scoring.

07. Solutions
Over time, the Compelling Value Proposition emerges from a Mutual Value Discovery between byer and seller. This is where progressively clearer Solutions are developed and documented, underpinned by a convincing Value Engineering and ROI Model outcome.

08. Checklists
The Checklist Module allows for customised Checklists to be used at each stage of a buying and selling cycle. One or more Checklists can be included in the Tracking Module, where the Tracking Buddy app can measure the change of status for each Checklist Item over time.

09. Tracking
Tracking means setting up Tracking Buddy to allow Users to select any XCELD or Salesforce Fields in any Standard or Custom Objects. Tracking Buddy will then monitor and report on any Field data changes over time.

Design Thinking

As the name implies: Design Thinking is thinking (and acting) like a designer. Being curious, restless and constantly challenging business-as-usual. It is all about solving problems in a human-oriented way. In order to generate receptivity and rapport, empathy is the key to success.

Inspired by the Stanford d.school our Design Thinking is delivered as six iterative stages: Empathize; Define; Ideate; Prototype; Test; and, Implement. This offers a structured yet flexible framework to better understand and challenge assumptions and redefine problems.

Design Thinking is strengthened by Value Engineering: mapping out a solid use case, financial justification and technology preferences for buying high-value products and services.

01. Empathize
The first and most important stage in Design Thinking is Empathize. This where you are creating receptivity and rapport among a broad set of decision-makers and influencers as stakeholders in innovation, leads to trust. In turn, this generate the truth required to move to the Define stage.

02. Define
Clearly articulating the problem to be solved. After gathering insights, define the core problem in a human-centered manner. This stage is about synthesising observations and articulating the problem in a way that guides the creation of a compelling argument for a solution.

03. Ideate
Generating a range of creative ideas to solve the defined problem. This phase involves brainstorming and exploring potential solutions, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking. It's essential for innovation, as it embraces creativity in the discovery of effective outcomes.

04. Prototype
Turning ideas into tangible products. Prototyping means a hands-on approach to the rapid transformation of Current State, generating a simpler, more effective Future State with the right solution. Prototyping is crucial for visualising how the solution will work.

05. Test
Gathering feedback and refining the Prototype. Testing includes feedback collection on reactions to the solution offered. This helps in understanding the prospect's experience, identifying issues, and validating the effectiveness of what has been proposed.

06. Implement
Finalising the solution and closing the deal. The final stage involves finalising the solution design based on feedback, completing the development, and launching the product or service in question. This ensures that the solution is fully understood and ready for everyday use.

Value Engineering

Design Thinking is strengthened by Value Engineering: mapping out a solid use case, financial justification and technology preferences for high-value products and services.

Value Engineering was originally conceived by Lawrence D. Miles², a General Electric engineer. Miles' techniques have saved design engineers, manufacturing engineers, purchasing agents and service providers millions of dollars.

To quote Miles, it was neccessary to show "why so much unnecessary costs exists in everything we do and how to identify, clarify, and separate costs which bear no relationship to customers' needs or desires."

Value Engineering eliminates waste and determines value over price. This is calculating the cost of purchasing (or crucially, not purchasing) any high-vale product or service in timely manner. It is quantifying time-based value versus the cost of delay or doing nothing.

As Value Engineers, we set the scene mapping your ideal customer's needs with your offering. This is where we apply Design Thinking to enable you to build receptivity, rapport, trust and truth with buyers - early and often.

From a financial perspective, we start with a simple question for the buyer:

What is the cost of NOT buying the product or service?

Firstly, let's look at the Return On Investment (ROI) Model - a general formula:

ROI = (Cost of Investment / Net Profit​)×100%

To adapt this formula for an As-Is vs. To-Be comparison, consider:

Net Profit: This will be the difference in profits between the Future State (To-Be) and the Current State (As-Is).

Cost of Investment: This is the cost incurred to move from the Current State (As-Is) to the Future State (To-Be).

Given the above considerations, the formula becomes:

ROI = (ProfitTo−Be​ − ProfitAs−Is​​ / Cost of Transition) × 100%

Where:

Profit To-Be = Profit or (benefit) in Future StateProfit As-Is = Profit (or benefit) in Current StateCost of Transition = Cost to move from As-Is to To-Be

Note: If you're measuring benefits other than strict monetary profits, such as time saved or other intangible benefits, ensure you can convert these benefits into a monetary value for this to be valid.

To calculate the Return On Investment (ROI) with the specified inputs, we can formulate several equations. Let's define the variables first:

BVAs-Is = Current State (As-Is) Business Value generated per annum without Solution.BVTo-Be = Future State (To-Be) Business Value generated per annum after investing in Solution.

COS = Cost of Solution.ROI = Return on Investment as a ratio relative to the Cost of Solution.

CoD = Cost of Delay per day when not investing in Solution.CoDN = Cost of Doing Nothing per day when not investing in Solution.

CoDday = Cost of Delay per day when not investing in Solution.

CoDNday = Cost of Doing Nothing per day when not investing in Solution.

Calculating ROI from Solution: Net_Gain - BVTo-Be - BVAs-Is

Calculating ROI: ROI - Net_Gain - CDI / CDIThe ROI is expressed as a ratio. Multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

Cost of Delay (CoD): This represents the loss per day by delaying the Solution purchase. Assume the delay starts from the beginning of the year and goes on for d days:CoD = BVTo-Be - BV As-Is (d x CoDday) - CDI / CDI

Cost of Doing Nothing (CoDN): This is the loss per day for not implementing the Solution. Similarly, for d days:CoDN = BVAs-Is - (d x CoDNday) - CDI / CDI

Summary

Applying Salespeak.ai maximises customer experience at the earliest stage of engaging inbound leads that win customers. This creates an environment to move to deeper engagement with XCELD, to deepen the buyer-seller engagement.

When implementing XCELD, in pursuit of maximising sales effectiveness - this starts with Design Thinking and progresses through Value Engineering. This is also the time to take on board a mindset that embraces simplifying everything business and tech, hence: Fierce Reduction.

With Fierce Reduction I am greatly influenced by the timeless thinking of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs influencing Ken Segall⁴ and also John Maeda⁵, both in relation to the need for simplicity in designing and marketing high-value products and services.

References

1. The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. (2004) Stanford d.school. https://dschool.stanford.edu/about
2. Miles, L.D. (1947). The Lawrence D. Miles Value Engineering Reference Center Collection.
   https://minds.wiscon.edu/handle/1793/301
3. Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. Free Press.
   https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-7-Habits-of-Highly-Effective-People/Stephen-R-Covey/9781982137274
4. Segall, K. (2013). Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success, New York, United States: Penguin Group.
   https://kensegall.com/books/
5. Maeda, J. (2006). The Laws of Simplicity. Design, Technology, Business, Life. Cambridge, Great Britain: MIT Press.
   https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262539470/the-laws-of-simplicity/