As our name implies, at Being Guided we deliver guided selling journeys on Salesforce. We combine Design Thinking¹ and Value Engineering² with AI-powered technology to maximise your sales effectiveness - business or consumer.

Increasing sales effectiveness is an iterative process, that is created and continuously improved: firstl.y, it's with Salespeak to maximise initial conversations between buyers and sellers; and, secondly, through Guided Selling via our XCELD app on Salesforce or Google AppSheet.

You can see Salespeak in action on 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 your inbound prospect in a meaningful conversation.

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 is tailored to a Compelling Value Proposition in our XCELD app to deliver personalised experiences. This is focused on maximising alignment between buyer and seller, beyond the initial lead qualification guided by Salespeak.

As illustrated above, we have introduced and innovative Salespeak 'AI Sales Briain' to allow you to iteratively improve the initial enquiry experience for prospects who expect a meaningful conversation at early stages of exploring your Compelling Value Proposition.

This is a superfast, iterative process. With Salespeak we start with an instant Evaluation of your Website: in minutes. Then we Train right away for 2-3 hours with our AI Sales Brain. What follows is a Configure stage: optimising campaigns and goals for another 2-3 hours.

Then it's simply an iterative process to optimise lead generation. This is where Salespeak scores your Website and guides you through improving content to maximise the digital conversation with the early stage prospect.

Knowledge Health within Salespeak shows what the AI Sales Brain knows about your company, categorised for easy access. This is its onboarding process helping it learn, refine, and optimise responses. A stronger knowledge foundation ensures accurate, confident prospect interactions.

The journey from initial lead to qualified opportunity is where XCELD takes over by creating a Model that begins to define the quantifiable advantages generated in a Future State with your Compelling Value Proposition purchased - v. Current State or delaying/declining the purchase.

As expanded upon below, this where Design Thinking will maximise buyer-seller stakeholder engagement ands where Value Engineering generates a compelling business case to put the 'Compelling' into your Value Proposition.

XCELD has eight Modules:

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 for the buyer,. This defends value over price.

02. Projects
With a clear ROI Model in place, a Compelling Value Proposition is translated into a Project Plan. This includes setting out a hierarchy of Milestones, Tasks, Deliverables and Costs, mapped against the ROI Model created to generate a strong business case for the buyer.

03. Tasks
Project Tasks are assigned to XCELD Users where many Tasks can make up the Milestones and Complete Projects related to the Project Plan. Project Tasks utilise Activities for Tasks, Emails and Calls in a Salesforce or Google AppSheet edition of XCELD.

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 layout options for Skills plus Custom Objects (Tables) for eLearning and Certifications.

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

06. Decisions
In moving from the what-if Projections of a ROI Model for a Compelling Value Proposition, the buyer and seler 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 buyer 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 Tracking, where this can measure the change of status for each Checklist Item 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 maximises customer experience at the earliest stage of engaging with your inbound Leads that generate qualified Opportunities. This creates an environment to move to a deeper engagement with XCELD, to progress the buying and selling cycle to a timely outcome.

When implementing XCELD, in pursuit of maximising sales effectiveness - this starts with Design Thinking and progresses through Value Engineering. This is also the right time to take onboard 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/