Experiencing Data w/ Brian T. O’Neill 188 - Can’t Close the Sale? Why Your Product’s UX and Workflow Misalignment Are Killing Sales (Part 2)
I’m continuing my exploration of a hard truth many leaders of analytics software companies run into: deals don’t stall because the tech is weak. Instead, they stall because prospects can’t see the value soon enough or the risk of changing the status quo is too high. This is often a product problem, not a sales one, and obtaining Flow-of-Work Alignment (FOWA) may help you start closing more evals and deals. So what is FOWA? The idea is simple, but demanding: stop showcasing features and start designing experiences that fit into how customers already do their work, create value, and add delight when your product is added into the loop.
Getting to FOWA means tailoring demos with realistic, industry-specific data, reducing mental translation, and minimizing behavior change. In this scenario, improvements become small, testable bets tied to outcomes, not feature checklists. UX and usability are not cosmetic; they should shape trust, adoption, and buyability.
When prospects can clearly see themselves succeeding with your product, value feels obvious, evals progress, and deals close.
Highlights/ Skip to:
- Steps to implementing Flow-of-Work Alignment (FOWA):
- Tailor your demo or POC to map to the prospects' world and their workflow (1:53)
- Treat product improvements as bets that have to be tested so that observable outcomes are what you’re holding your product team accountable for (3:57)
- Reducing perceived behavior change (6:39)
- Realize that your product’s visual design are likely impacting your product’s clarity and its desirability (12:29)
- Aligning your sales and product teams around customer outcomes and not feature gaps (18:03)