the science of sales success and how to get rich

_{One of the most common systems of evaluation that customers use is the cost of doing nothing. As shown in the list in Exhibit 3-4, this SOE favors existing suppliers or status quo. The cost-of-doing-nothing SOE becomes more prevalent during economic downturns. The most effective way to overcome this SOE is to substitute one that calculates the measurable benefits from achieving suggested goals on a per diem basis. Use SOEs to help customers measure the dollar difference between what they are doing now and the goal they want to achieve. When customers realize what potential savings or revenue they are losing daily it increases their sense of urgency.}

_{For example, your products can reduce customers' operating expenses by $300,000 annually. Instead of focusing on this annual savings amount, point out to customers that every day they lose the opportunity to save $822. Demonstrating that time is money is a powerful way to overcome the cost of doing nothing that favors existing suppliers. You might also want to point out to customers how much products and/or services their companies must sell to generate $300,000 worth of savings—if a company has a 10 percent profit margin, they must sell $3,000,000 to equal savings of $300,000.}

_{Making Goals Measurable}

_{With apologies to the movie Field of Dreams, if you help customers measure their goals, they will come. Customers and you both want to know whether customers are getting the most value possible. When you build value from their goals down, not from your features up, everyone does know. To ensure repeat business, ensure that customers achieve their goals every time they do business with you. If you always start with their goals, not your products, you will reduce the chances of unfulfilled expectations. The first time they do not achieve their goals you will remember the following sales adage: "Competitors do not win over your customers; you unwillingly lose them due to unfulfilled expectations."}

_{Yet, if you do not make customers' goals measurable, you risk losing them. Ironically, you usually find out how customers measure the value of their goals after you lose a sale or disappoint a customer. A statement such as, "I thought you were looking for it}_{to do this, not that," indicates you were measuring their goals differently than they were.}

_{You also risk having customers who cannot tell that you provided more value than competitors—so they will not compensate you for doing so. Finally, without measurable goals, it is hard to guess how customers who purchased your products will judge the merit of them. You want your customers to look back on any purchase they made from you and be able to measure how it achieved their goals. When this occurs, your sales approach helps you build barriers to competition and have long-term relationships with both individual contacts and their organizations. Sales success is a simple formula: make your Column 2 professional bonds with organizations as strong as your Column 1 personal ones with individual contacts to create long-term customers. Measurable and documented goals that you helped an organization to achieve become your "value-tether" to it even if your contact leaves and is replaced by someone who favors competitors.}

_{You make goals measurable by making the customer's benefits measurable. The benefits of goals are similar to the benefits of features. Customers assign them value by the measurable value they produce. You convert their benefits into time or money also. You know this occurs if the word by appears in your benefit statement followed somewhere down the line by a dollar amount. A "by" will usually turn into a "buy."}

the science of sales success and how to get rich_54

Making Goals Measurable

_{Making Goals Measurable}