Demonstrating ROI is High Performance Selling

Demonstrating ROI is a critical success factor in high performance sales functions, proven to help sales people sell more, more efficiently, with higher margins and with shorter sales cycles

And it’s a skills that is more important now then it has ever been, the reason being that, put very simply – Time Kills Sales

What?

Yes, the new sales killer on the block is time.

Having a sales process, discussion, negotiation or any element of the sales engagement drag on for an unnecessarily long period of time is likely to see the sale fall through and not close.

And that can happen for a number of reasons, but we can safely say many of these are outside the control of the sales person.

Why Does Time Kill Sales?

The longer the sales process goes on, the more likely it is that one or more of the following things will happen that will cause the prospect to cool their heels…

• The prospect and the buying team lose interest
• Competitors enter the race
• The prospects needs evolve as you present them with more information and that causes them to potentially invite new suppliers into the conversation
• The buying party gets bigger and bigger and you go from engaging 3 stakeholders to 14 – and no-one can agree
• What was a major issue when you first started talking with the prospect has now become a liveable, and non-chronic, thorn in their side
• Someone internally knows someone who knows someone
• You get ghosted and find yourself morphing into a covert sales stalker

You can sense why, when you have an engaged prospect in front of you that, time is not your friend.

What this means is you need to bring out the BIG Guns fast and make sure you’re in control of the rate of movement in this client engagement!

BIG Guns?

Yes…you need your A-Game, and the biggest part of your A-Game is being able to demonstrate to the client your:

• Financial ROI
• Value position
• Proof – social, testimonial or otherwise

All clearly, simply, in ways they can relate to

Presented with information that is compelling, validated and relevant. so much so that signing almost becomes a no-brainer decision.

Don’t get me wrong – there are other very relevant elements to the No-Brainer sales pitch BUT if you can get this one right and explicitly demonstrate these three levels of assurance including ROI then you are perfectly positioned to start pushing towards:

• Commitment
• A decision
• An order!

BUT What Happens When You Can’t/ Don’t Demonstrate ROI?

If your business, your sales team and their sales pitch can’t demonstrate ROI, then you’re leaving business on the table, and most certainly you’re leaving chunks of cash there too.

Without demonstrating ROI, you can’t

• Demonstrate a comprehensive value proposition
• Safely explore risk or
• Maximise your margins
• Leverage the great work you’ve already done for your raving fans

And, if you can’t do these things, then any attempt at a close is likely, at best, a shot in the dark.

And only a relatively un-educated buyer will fall for that!

(Some useful links for you If you‘re looking for insights into how to build a strong relationship between value, risk and price then pop to How to Build Value in Your Sales Pitch for ideas aplenty! 

What Else Happens When ROI is Not Explored?

Yes, you’ll lose business

Yes, you’ll lose margin

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because you’ll also see:

• A longer than necessary sales cycle – cash flow nightmare!
• Competitor growth – that’s going to hurt – as they win sales you can’t
• High sales acquisition costs – means you’ll probably need to charge more OR take a hit on margin
• Increase in performance management – probably, as fewer sales get closed, targets get missed – increased pressure all round
• Over staffed, therefore costly, sales units – makes getting a raise near on impossible
• A messy, inaccurate and out of control sales pipeline – and you turn into sales stalkers as prospects ghost you
• Pie in the sky sales forecasts – sales forecasts become a wing and a prayer

Nothing fun about that list is there?

Here’s How to Demonstrate ROI

You and the buyer go in deep.

You are still going to be talking about

• Benefits
• Functionality
• Case studies
• Research
• Testimonials

BUT, you’ll know that these things alone are not enough if you want to massively increase your sales conversion rates.

They are, in fact, are the bare minimum cost to be sat at the table.

The minimum cost to be in the game.

You start demonstrating ROI iby what you do after you stop thinking about doing the bare minimum to engage with your prospect!

And the magic happens at this stage because it’s where so few sales people are prepared to venture!

In our Sales Improvement Workshop we spend a lot of time helping you drear your water-tight sales pitch with a huge focus on positioning and demonstrating ROI at every interaction and touch point. If this is something you’re interested in – check out the link Sales Improvement Workshop

Taking time to clearly demonstrate ROI in the simplest way brings clarity to your sales pitch for you and your prospect.

,Prospects get the opportunity to:

• View your product/service in terms of real financial cost – past and future
• See what you offer in the context of a bigger ROI win than just the financials, like time, productivity, stress, efficiency, effectiveness, staff feedback, customer feed back, strategic competitor advantage, reduced risk, status…the list goes on
• Move the sales process towards a very logical and natural event, rather than a twisted fumble to gain an order when the sales person sort of asks and the buyer goes into avoidance mode.
• See the emotional and validated logical reasons why they should buy from you
• Start selling your solution to themselves…at that point you know they are willing to back you and invest in your offer

Now, to get to that stage takes skill, tenacity, trust, research, industry knowledge…in a nut shell, hard work.

BUT remember this – if the prospect doesn’t say it then it just isn’t true!

So when you get the urge to tell the prospect what the value is and what their ROI is, just remember that this will be relatively meaningless to your prospect.

Whereas, if you’ve helped them build value and demonstrate ROI that is specific to them…when the connection is so deep that you build the value proposition and proof of ROI together then you are now in the Frictionless Sales Zone.

When that happens then the buy-in is much higher and you’ve got your prospect in No-Brainer Territory!

So, most crucially, the figures and the cost assessments have to come from the buyer.

If they don’t come from the buyer they mean nothing.

Meaning your sales pitch is built on sand…

So conduct the Sales ROI with the agreement of the buyer, and you’re home and dry before you ask for the order, because that shows buyer commitment.

Big time!

Seems too easy?

It is!

Once you know what you’re doing, the stages, how to frame the tough questions, how to deal with the wary buyer…it’s so simple and so basic that most sales people can’t, or don’t, do it!

Look, it takes some

• Highly consultative selling
• Some excellent questions and
• Questioning techniques plus
• Real insight into the problems that your product/service solves and
• The cost of the problem in the context of your buyer’s business.

You also need to understand that when I reference ‘cost’ above, this cost is not just the financial cost. There are all kinds of costs to take into consideration.

BUT, the good news is that you really only have to learn to demonstrate ROI once.

After that it’s a skill that will repay you many times over.

In fact, if you’re anything like me, it’s one of my first go-to’s when I’m in any client sales environment and I want to improve the performance of their sales team.

You can get a great insight into how to demonstrate ROI by attending any of the Morton Kyle Sales Training Courses 

And also by attending a our Building Value Workshop

Closing is Easy Once You’ve Demonstrated a Robust ROI

Many sales people think closing is the hardest part of the sales process.

That’s why most sales people are scared to ask for the order.

But, the truth is, if you can effectively and efficiently demonstrate ROI, then the close looks after itself.

It really is that simple because you create a ‘NO-BRAINER’ situation for the buyer.

You prove to the buyer that there is no way he can legitimately say no.

Demonstrating ROI

It’s the fastest, easiest, simplest, most effective way to increase sales close rates.

Don’t miss out.

Learn the basics and you’ll never struggle to close quickly and efficiently….and the quality of your sales calls will set you miles apart from any other sales pitch the prospect will experience!

Find out more, join us on the Sales Improvement Workshop or if you’d like to discuss our bespoke sales and business development training solutions call Carol on 0779 002 1885 

Happy Selling 

Carol

Don’t get caught napping. Demonstrating ROI is the easiest way to immediately boosting sales performance, close rates as well as protecting margin.