Forget the bells and whistles. Your clients want to know what you can do for them.

You might have the coolest product on the market, but if you can’t justify ROI for your solution, sophisticated buyers won’t care one bit about your innovative functionality and exciting new features.In a business environment where budgets are tight and every dollar counts, buyers only care about one thing: How will what you’re selling improve their business results? They want to hear about measurable outcomes they can expect if they do business with you, and they want it explained in the form of sales ROI—Return on Investment.

Sales Today: A Higher Standard

Gone are the days when a demo and some well-crafted marketing jargon could seal big deals. The bar has been raised, and modern salespeople must be just as savvy as their clients. That means learning to speak the language of ROI.

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Your clients expect major bang for their buck. They want to know up front whether their investments will pay for themselves time and time again in terms of increased revenue, profits, employee loyalty, or customer loyalty. And they won’t just take your word for it. You have to prove it—not by talking about benefits or features, but by justifying ROI. 

B2B salespeople who are closing big deals today are the ones who prove the business impact of their solution. They don’t wait for their customers to ask about ROI; they lead with it. They translate expected business results into ROI at the beginning of their sales cycles, with data-filled client examples to back it up.  

How to Measure Sales ROI

Business results are the quantitative, measurable changes that clients can expect if they use your product or service. 

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The result is a better way of getting something done—an improvement in business process, sales, profitability, conversion rate of prospects to clients, or retention of key employees. The client can monitor and measure the business impact and will know when and what results have been achieved.

ROI compares the dollar value of business results to the investment your client makes. For example, a dollar spent on a service today will return $10 to your bottom line in one year.

What interests your clients the most? Results! Why do they buy? ROI. How are we taught? Features and benefits. But these days—when everyone is slashing budgets and pinching pennies—salespeople must learn how to have a sales ROI discussion. 

A Referral Sales ROI Example

How you calculate ROI depends on what you’re selling, how it provides value to customers, and how much of that value your average customer actually experiences. I sell referral sales expertise—referral training programs and books that help my customers’ sales teams get referrals at scale. So, here’s how I talk about ROI in my sales process:

Imagine your team of 10 salespeople, each generating $5 million in revenue. Based on my experience and a growing body of research, referred salespeople (those who are introduced to their prospects by someone those prospects know and trust) close business between 50 and 70 percent of the time, on average. 

Assuming a 50 percent success rate, implementing a referral selling program can help companies double their revenue, so this hypothetical company would see a $10 million increase.

The investment? Just $150,000.

The result? A staggering 6,567% return on investment (ROI)!

Here’s the breakdown:

  • Initial sales: $50 million
  • Sales increase from referral program: $10 million
  • Total investment: $150,000
  • Net ROI: 6,567%

This is how referral selling can transform your bottom line. 

The ROI of Sales ROI

It’s your job to connect the dots from the product or service you provide to actual business results, and ultimately, to ROI. If you expect your customer to figure it out for you, you can kiss the sale goodbye.

On the other hand, if you can make the math make sense to your prospects—giving them something they can take back to the C-suite and quickly make the business case for doing business with you—then the sale is yours to win.

So, what business results can clients expect from your product or service? How do those results translate into revenue for your customers?  Don’t tell me. Tell them. And watch your sales soar.

Like what you’ve read? If we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, please invite me and tell me you’ve read this post. 

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