When it comes to closing new business, there are various tools and dynamics that can make or break a sale. They are all complementary, so it’s not always possible to know which of them ultimately closed the deal.
Perhaps it was an outstanding demo or a glowing reference. Maybe the buyer had great rapport with the sales rep, or the vendor’s discovery-based sales process yielded a better solution than the buyer expected.
Such discovery can be used to demonstrate ROI to the prospect early on and throughout the sales cycle. By including an ROI calculator among your sales tools, reps can demonstrate ROI to strengthen your business case, accelerate decision-making, and significantly improve your ability to close more business.
Demonstrating ROI should be a core part of your sales process -- used for every opportunity, regardless of whether the buyer already has a budget. Every buyer is cost-sensitive to some degree, and every organization wants to get the most value for their investment. Demonstrating ROI gets to the heart of this value and helps accelerate the purchase decision.
Personalized and Pertinent
First and foremost, you need to ensure that the ROI you demonstrate is customized to reflect the prospect’s specific needs and situation. As your discovery process reveals key pains and opportunities to address them, you can create a highly personalized business case for prospects in any industry.
Sales reps can generate detailed output illustrating the benefits of implementing your solution based on expert discovery. This professional output enables informative and compelling conversations between buyers and sellers that spur decision making.
The whole idea is to deliver a business case that justifies the investment the prospect will be making to solve their problem, by purchasing your solution. Be sure to use language and metrics that show stakeholders how their investment creates value and solves problems, at a cost that’s acceptable to the CFO.
Clear Benefits for Both Buyer and Seller
Consider how demonstrating ROI using an ROI calculator can give your sales team a significant edge, especially when used throughout the sales cycle:
1. Helps justify and obtain budget approval.
If leadership has not yet established a budget, the calculator will help them arrive at one that’s more likely to be approved. And if a budget has been set, the tool provides insights into the time to payback. It’s also helpful to demonstrate ROI across all modules. Many buyers don’t start off with the full suite of solutions. They buy one and add others over time. Use the calculator to show ROI over the lifecycle of the product.
2. Supports quantitative and qualitative analysis.
In addition to justifying the investment, an ROI calculator produces data that leads to strategic conversations that inform, enlighten, and encourage buyers to move forward through the sales cycle. Sales reps can walk buyers through the numbers, explain exactly how they are calculated, and show a direct connection between your product and achieving organizational goals. Buyers then become advocates for your solution when they take this information back to the buying committee.
3. Demonstrates the risk of delayed decision making. Organizations seek solutions because something isn’t right. Whether it’s poor productivity or missing revenue goals, doing nothing is not a solution and it’s never free of charge. There’s a real cost to inaction that, when presented in no uncertain terms, can motivate buyers to take action.
An ROI calculator establishes a direct link between perceived problems and individual and/or organizational performance. It shows the actual cost to delay, over time, and reinforces that if nothing changes, one cannot achieve strategic goals or improve revenue by improving performance. When buyers analyze the cost to delay vs. the proposed investment in a new solution, the purchase decision becomes clearer and easier to make.
4. Establishes credibility through industry data.
ROI calculators are populated with comprehensive industry benchmarks and data. This information is often obtained from independent, third-party sources specific to each industry. Your familiarity with this data and its sources reinforces that you know the buyer’s industry and you have done your homework.
5. Provides professional presentation of ROI.
A professional ROI calculator presents the data behind your business case in a concise, expert manner. Unlike sellers working with Excel spreadsheets, your reps can sell with confidence knowing their presentation includes all essential elements in a high quality package that always knocks it out of the park.
Using objective data in the ROI calculator produces accurate, more credible results that make your business case stronger and more persuasive. Buyers also appreciate your use of comparable data in the calculator because it isn’t always possible for them to reveal confidential organization data during the sales process.
Conclusion
Demonstrating ROI using an ROI calculator and delivering a detailed and personalized business case should be core elements of any professional sales process. Sales reps are empowered with consistent, comprehensive tools that distinguish your offering from the competition, establish your credibility as a trustworthy business partner, and strengthen your position in your industry and marketplace.
The result? More sales to more satisfied customers, and a solid foundation for achieving revenue goals.
