Let me be clear about what I mean by “value selling.”

Value selling is a sales methodology where you demonstrate the financial return of your solution through quantitative analysis. You build ROI calculators. You create business cases. You produce spreadsheets showing cost savings, revenue gains, and payback periods. You present these financial models to prove that spending money on your product will generate more value than it costs.

The methodology is everywhere. Every major sales training program teaches it. Every enterprise software company has value engineering teams dedicated to it. There are certifications, frameworks, and entire consulting practices built around it.

And I understand why.

Why Value Selling Became Popular

Value selling emerged as a response to a real problem: executives were making technology purchases based on features and capabilities they didn’t fully understand. Sales cycles were long. Deals stalled. Buyers couldn’t justify investments.

The solution seemed logical: translate technology into financial terms. Show the CFO that this $500K investment will save $2M over three years. Give executives the ammunition they need to defend the purchase internally.

This approach particularly resonated because it targets the people who control budgets, such as CFOs and senior executives who think in terms of P&L statements, not product features. If you can prove ROI, the thinking goes, you can get the deal approved.

On paper, this makes perfect sense. Show that this equals that. Compare savings with purchase price. Make the financial case undeniable.

But here’s what I’ve learned after years of watching this play out:

It’s fake.

The Reality of Value Selling

I’ve sat through dozens of value workshops. I’ve watched sales teams build elaborate financial models. I’ve seen the spreadsheets massaged, the assumptions adjusted, the numbers tweaked until they tell the right story.

Here’s how it actually works:

First draft shows a 2-year payback? Too long. Let’s increase the baseline cost of their current solution. Now it’s an 18-month payback.

Still not compelling enough? Let’s add in “soft” benefits. Productivity gains. Employee satisfaction. Innovation capacity. Assign dollar values to each. Now we’re showing 3.5x ROI.

Deal size too high? Decrease the scope. Remove features. Bring down the price. Make it feel more palatable even though you’ve just reduced the value you’re promising to deliver.

It’s all funny math.

We increase the product price in our calculators to show better savings. We reduce the deal size to make it feel more appealing. We manipulate assumptions until the numbers say what we need them to say.

And here’s the thing: the executives know it.

They’ve seen these calculators before. They know the numbers are squishy. They know that “projected productivity gains” is code for “we made this up.” They know the actual results will never match the spreadsheet.

So what have we actually accomplished? We’ve spent weeks building a financial model that nobody truly believes in, so we have something to present to procurement.

That’s not selling value. That’s a manufacturing justification.

What Value Actually Means

Value should be obvious.

So obvious that you don’t need a calculator to manipulate the message.

Think about it this way: if I present two options to a CEO, which is more compelling?

Option A: A spreadsheet showing projected cost savings of $1.2M over three years based on assumptions about current operational inefficiencies, estimated productivity improvements, and reduced overhead costs.

Option B: 50% faster time-to-market.

The CEO immediately understands Option B. They know what it means to get products to market twice as fast. They know how that translates to competitive advantage. They know what that does for their business.

They don’t need a calculator. They don’t need assumptions. They don’t need funny math.

Now, I can already hear the objection: “But you can calculate what that 50% faster time-to-market means financially. You should put that in the business case.”

And that’s precisely the trap.

The moment you start calculating it, you’re back in funny math territory. You’re making assumptions about revenue per product launch, market timing, and competitive dynamics. You’re building the wrong model.

But more importantly, you’re diluting the value.

“50% faster time-to-market” is clear. “50% faster time-to-market, which based on your current launch cadence and average revenue per product and market share assumptions translates to approximately $3.7M in incremental revenue” is muddy.

You just turned something obvious into something questionable.

The Outcomes That Don’t Need Calculators

Here’s what I’ve noticed: the outcomes that matter most to executives don’t need spreadsheets to prove their value.

• 40% improvement in NPS
• 20% reduction in customer churn
• 30% decrease in support ticket volume
• 50% faster customer onboarding
• 60% reduction in time-to-resolution

Every CEO immediately understands what these mean. They know how these metrics connect to business success. They don’t need financial modeling to grasp the significance.

Yes, you could calculate the financial impact of reducing churn by 20%. But the moment you do, you’re putting your credibility on the line with assumptions that might not hold. You’re also suggesting that the executive doesn’t understand their own business well enough to know whether 20% churn reduction matters.

That’s insulting.

The executive knows their business. They know their challenges. They know what moves the needle.

When you present an outcome that they immediately recognize as valuable, you’re respecting their intelligence and their expertise. When you present a spreadsheet full of assumptions and calculations, you’re suggesting they need you to explain what matters in their own business.

Value Management Without the Funny Math

This doesn’t mean financial considerations don’t matter. Of course they do.

But there’s a difference between value alignment and value selling.

Value alignment is understanding which outcomes genuinely matter to the organization and ensuring your solution delivers them. The KPI isn’t the bottom-line deal price or the calculated ROI. The KPI is the actual business outcome you’re enabling.

This requires a different conversation. Not “let me build you a business case.” Instead: “What outcome would make the biggest difference to your business right now?”

Maybe it’s customer retention. Perhaps it’s operational efficiency. Maybe it’s competitive positioning. Whatever it is, that outcome becomes the focus, not the financial justification for buying your product.

When you deliver that outcome, the value is self-evident. You don’t need a spreadsheet to prove you helped them reduce churn by 20%. They can see it in their metrics. They can feel it in their business.

That’s selling value. Not value selling.

Why MVBO Changes Everything

This is precisely why the Minimum Viable Business Outcome framework matters.

MVBO forces you to identify the smallest change that will generate the greatest value. Not the most excellent calculated ROI. Not the best-looking spreadsheet. The greatest actual, measurable, meaningful business value.

“What if we could improve your customer onboarding experience in the next 60 days so that new customers reach their first success milestone 50% faster?”

That’s an MVBO. It’s minimal (60 days, focused scope). It’s valuable (50% faster to success). It’s a business outcome (not a technology implementation).

And here’s the critical part: it doesn’t need funny math to prove its worth.

Either customers reach success faster or they don’t. Either that matters to the business or it doesn’t. There’s no calculator required. No assumptions to massage. No spreadsheet to manipulate.

The outcome is obvious. The value is genuine. The results are measurable.

That’s what executives want. Not a business case that makes them feel they’re being sold to. A clear outcome that makes them believe transformation is possible.

The Shift in Value Selling We Need to Make

We need to stop building elaborate financial models to justify our solutions.

We need to stop treating executives like they don’t understand their own business.

We need to stop pretending that value selling is actually about value.

Real value doesn’t need manipulation. Real value doesn’t require twelve tabs in a spreadsheet. Real value is evident to the people who live in the business every day.

Our job isn’t to manufacture financial justification. Our job is to deliver outcomes that matter.

When we focus on minimal, valuable business outcomes that executives immediately recognize as meaningful, we no longer need to sell value.

We just need to sell value.

And that’s the difference between closing deals and creating transformation.