"If they can’t understand your value, they won’t buy it. Worse yet, they won't fight for you internally."

That’s what a Chief Revenue Officer shared with me recently after yet another "sure thing" deal fizzled out inside procurement.

And honestly? He’s right.

The reality is, B2B sales isn't just about pitching your solution’s value anymore. It's about translating that value into the native language of each stakeholder involved in the purchasing decision. Buyers today aren’t looking for ROI (hint: most call BS on the business case ROI stats you share with them), they’re looking for relevance, risk mitigation and increasingly near-term outcomes that speak their language, not yours.

At Trinity, our Win/Loss Reviews have exposed a critical truth:
Top-performing sales teams aren't just better at showing value. They are better at translating value into the customer vernacular.

Here’s exactly how they do it and how you can too.

1. Quantify Specific ROI for Each Stakeholder

Generic ROI calculators won’t cut it anymore, I’m not sure they ever did.
Top sellers tailor ROI to the personal wins that matter most to each stakeholder group.

• CFOS: Care about total cost of ownership, risk mitigation, and predictable financial returns.

• IT Leaders: Care about uptime, integration simplicity, security and resiliency.

• End-Users: Care about ease of use, day-to-day experience, speed to competency.

🎯 Pro Tip: Consider building a stakeholder-specific value map during discovery…then share it with your key sponsor and ask them to poke some holes in it, red-line your mistakes or assumptions and send it back to you. It’s humbling, the first draft, but immensely powerful. 

2. Speak in "Executive Language," Not "Vendor Speak"

Most sellers think they’re being strategic when they’re actually still tactical.

Examples:

• Tactical: "Our solution reduces admin time by 20%."

• Strategic: "Your senior leaders can reallocate their time to customer-facing or revenue-focused activities, while the admin work still gets done."

Executives don't buy features. They buy outcomes, de-risked investments, and strategic levers that help them hit their KPIS.

🎯 Pro Tip:
Run the "So What?" test on your key value statements before every exec conversation. If you can't answer it three layers deep, you're not ready.

3. Build a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ Inside the Customer’s Business

Winning teams don't leave value translation solely to their champion. They arm internal stakeholders with simple, digestible messages they can sell internally on your behalf.

Think "story kits," not "slide decks."

🎯 Pro Tip:
After a successful demo or workshop, send a one-page summary of key benefits and risk mitigations for your champion to forward internally. Make it easy for them to champion your cause.

What Happens When You Master Stakeholder Value Translation?

When you nail this, three things happen fast:

• Decision-making becomes faster because the value is undeniable and well-understood.

• Internal consensus strengthens because stakeholders see their outcomes reflected, not yours.

• Your deals become harder to dislodge because your champion isn't defending your product, they're defending their internal business case.

Closing Thought: It's Not Enough to Sell Value. You Must Sell it Fluently.

We often tell our clients:
Real insights beat best guesses.

If you can't translate your value into the language of every key stakeholder, you're forcing them to translate it for you and most won’t bother.

Top sellers don’t assume their value is obvious.
They make it obvious, personal, and urgent for every decision-maker involved.

And that’s what separates the “almost closed” from the closed-won.

Ready to Stop Losing Must-Win Deals?

Trinity’s Win/Loss Analysis and Sales Enablement Services are built to help you capture real stakeholder insights and craft winning playbooks that close the deal from inside the customer’s business.

👉 Explore our solutions