
Why “saving money” and “ROI” are probably the wrong way to sell your product - joeyespo
http://blog.asmartbear.com/roi-selling.html
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ryanlchan
Golden nugget that that Jason just starts to uncover here: the reason
customers purchase your software is _rarely_ the same reason as why you
started creating the software in the first place.

As a consultant, the one-line zinger that was thrown around was that we were
selling "profits at a discount". You pay us, we reduce costs or boost revenues
to pay for the service ten times over. The description certainly appealed to
the firm's employees; we'd like to think that our analytical rigor and
probing, independent viewpoint added value. Our jobs were supporting a raw,
logical, business-driven decision.

But the longer I stayed in the field, the more I realized that making money
was _rarely_ the reason a case got purchased. There were situations where a
short project would've had ROI's in the tens of millions of dollars if
implemented, but never got picked up.

The real product we were selling were _careers_. Buyers would bring in the
firm to help themselves hit specific milestones or objectives they had for
themselves. Did we benefit the company in achieving those? Greatly. But the
reason people were willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a month
were because of the coaching, the 'white-glove service', and the network a
successful case would entail. They were buying a promotion to SVP, the key
results which got them their own division, or the track record to shoot for
the CEO spot for the next company.

Jason's tips are pragmatic - over-deliver on value so that your customer never
even tries to do the math and price according to how they pay are two great
ways to grease the purchasing pathway. But understanding the customer's pain
and guiding them towards their aspirations will have them fighting for your
service, budgets be damned.

