What is a Business Value Consultant? 


A BVC (alternative job titles can include Value Architect/Engineer, GtM Strategy, or Engagement Consultant) might just sound like another acronym but it can be an extremely powerful tool in your GtM arsenal. 



Picture it as a strategic combination of presales engineering and sales enablement. With a deep knowledge of the product, and your ICP’s businesses, a BVC is uniquely positioned to craft compelling business cases and deal structures that achieve higher ARR and a much higher close-win rate.


In real-terms, BVC’s will often focus on enabling the sales team to sell on business value and to fully understand the full ROI and TCO advantages for customers. They will also be close to deals, and can even present business cases to prospects themselves.


When adopted successfully the kind of outcomes we see performant BVC’s deliver include 2-3x increase in close rate and more than 300% increase in ARR for opportunities they’re involved in. Consider not only the obvious impact on your ARR but also on measures like cost-per-sale. 

 

So, if your software offering is complex but needs clear, simple messaging – there is huge potential for increased GTM success with a value practice in place.


Why Can’t My Sales Team Do This?

 
In short, they’re working at too granular a level. They are focusing on pain, champion building, metrics, and contract negotiations but only in their individual accounts.  


A Value Consultant will have a more holistic view of the benefits customers can realise across different segments and regions than anyone else in their business. As a result, they’ll understand which value levers to pull in which opportunities, and the business cases they assemble will be the ones that can deliver the types of results mentioned above.


And Presales? 


If your offering is complex – again they’ll be honed-in on their specific, all-consuming POC’s, technical champion building, discovery. Expecting SE’s to have the full picture that can be built by interviewing the right stakeholders across different areas of your customer’s business is probably unrealistic. 


Any Other Reasons?


Yes! Do any of the following matter to you? 

 

  • Accelerating Sales Cycles. 
     
  • Reduced Churn. 
     
  • The motivation and momentum in your sales team as they close their first $1m+ deals! 

 

Of course, this won’t apply to every software offering but this type of function is definitely NOT reserved for post-IPO giants or Big 4 consultancies. If you’re confident you’ve achieved PMF but still struggle to differentiate from your competitors then hiring a high-quality, sales-minded BVC could be your best route to address this.

What Will a High-Quality BVC Look like on Paper?


As a job title, Business Value Consulting has been popular for long enough now that you will be able to find candidates who have already got direct experience in this kind of role. Otherwise, look for Solution Architects who might have started their careers in/had experience in Project or Programme Management roles, or worked in an Advisory/Consulting function of some kind. 


They MUST have worked with complex solutions, and be able to share detailed metrics on the impact they have had on commercial success. 


The real golden metric though, is whether they have been part of scale-up/growth teams. A BVC function in a blue-chip organisation will be vastly different to a scale-up. 


If you are struggling to find someone with “builder” experience, in the same way that you should consider prioritising attitude over experience in sales hiring, look for someone with the drive to succeed in your size of organisation, and then level them up on the skill.
 

 

More questions on Business Value Consulting, or what the talent market looks like right now? Reach out to Tom!