Secure your deal with a solid Metric

In my previous article, I covered one of the most used opportunity qualification frameworks: MEDDIC. If you missed it you can quickly review it below. As mentioned I’ll go through all the various elements and give you pragmatic tips on how to make the most of it. Let’s start with the Metric!

Characteristics

Simply put a metric is the projected business value the solution is expected to deliver and it’s expressed in an amount. This amount represents an increase in revenue or profit, or a reduction/avoidance of costs. 

You’re looking for a meaningful tangible, measurable business benefit. It’s necessary for the customer’s ROI to be credible and allow you to have conversations beyond the operational level. With a solid metric, you’ll be able to push back on price pressure, you can keep the customer’s focus on the business benefits and have a meaningful conversation with the Economic Buyer (see below).

Be aware of percentages. Often you’ll hear they want to reduce 20% on production costs, or reduce their digital marketing spend by 30%. But what does that % represent in actual value? 

I once was on a call where the prospect wanted to reduce their digital marketing spend by 50%, when digging deeper it turned out that spend was $100,000/y, so a $50,000/y savings. However, the solution we were offering would have been at least $75,000/y. So despite all their enthusiasm and conviction we were the perfect solution, we had to qualify out.

So make sure you understand whether you’re dealing with a ten, thousand or million dollar problem.

Key considerations

Do you have a real and real metric?

Most metrics people tend to come up with aren’t tangible or even measurable. Or the metric isn’t tied to the customer’s business but rather to the rep’s solution. You’ll get metrics like 500 users, 50 reports, 3 clusters, 20 sites, … Those may be good indicators of how big the deal could be and may contribute to the value of the Metric, but they aren’t real metrics.

Another common mistake is overly positive numbers. Make sure to keep it real! Be skeptical of any numbers you may get from the customer. You’ll lose credibility fast if you present an out-of-touch ROI with the Economic Buyer or anyone else.

Is the metric quantifiable and bound by time?

E.g. increase revenue by 10%. Great! But, as mentioned above, what does 10% stand for? And by when? Without the timeline increasing revenue by 10% means nothing. Increase revenue by 10% — which is +$10M — in the next 12 months is a lot more specific.

Who else has validated the metric? And how did they get to the number?

Make sure to validate any metrics with several people and how they got to the number. And ideally, find the most skeptical stakeholder at the customer’s side and get his/her input. All you’re doing is making sure there’s alignment on the size of the problem and you want everyone’s credibility safeguarded.

Have you shared the metric? Did you get any feedback?

A metric is not a well-kept secret between you and your Champion. Or something you burry in a proposal which you send to the Economic Buyer at the last moment for review. Make sure to share it and collect feedback — if there’s no belief in it, it won’t have any impact or value.

Don’t fall in the trap of thinking no news is good news. If you don’t get any feedback on the Metric, ask for it specifically. 

Be aware of personal and cultural differences

Not everyone is as comfortable as you may want to talk about money. It could be cultural, role-based, or personal. But don't let this be an excuse not to cover the topic and simply skip over any Metric conversation. If you feel you're talking to someone who isn't that comfortable then you can soften the approach and explain why it's so important. Or you can ask if someone else can help to discuss numbers. You'll have to show some empathy and you may need to develop your Champion a bit in this area but don't avoid the conversation simply because it may be somewhat uncomfortable. Sharing examples is always helpful in this area. And make sure you are comfortable in the first place!

Questions to ask

• What benefits do you expect from this project?
• How is this solution going to get you to those benefits?
• How do you measure and report on those? And who typically requests that information?
• How will you justify spending $$$ on this project?
• Who else will be impacted by this project and its benefits?
• How did you get to these numbers?
• Who else can help to validate these numbers?
• So what if [Metric] is achieved?

Conclusion

A great metric will be a huge asset during your conversations with the customer but if you don’t qualify and validate the metric itself it can quickly turn against you. This is where you need to coach and challenge some more inexperienced Champions, especially if they give you out of touch numbers. Or it potentially could be a red flag that your Champion isn’t really a champion.

It’s also good to understand a bit more what certain Metrics mean for the particular industry you’re selling into, and on what strategic trajectory your customer is within that industry. This additional context will be very helpful throughout the process and negotiations. A fast-growing company will look different a bottom & top lines, versus a legacy enterprise.

And lastly, don’t be afraid to qualify out. You won’t be successful selling a million-dollar solution for a ten dollar problem. You’d be amazed how many reps struggle to walk away because they get sucked in by the enthusiasm of the prospect.

Don’t forget if you want to receive the cheat sheet at the end of the series, put a comment in or DM me…