Exhibit I-4: The five viewpoints of the MeasureMax selling system.
An overview of the four selling phases of the MeasureMax system used to sell compensated value is illustrated in Exhibit I-5 on page 8.
MP 1: Spark Interest (salesperson viewed as a customer expert on initial contact)
Step 1: Research and Membership (salesperson confirms valid business reasons exist for contacting customer)
Step 2: Take Your Pick (customer selects a potential goal[s] he or she is interested in achieving from the ones you suggested)
Step 3: Track Record (salesperson documents success from same industry)
MPC 1: Interest Confirmed (customer agrees to meet to determine ability to achieve goals)
MP 2: Measure Potential (salesperson helps customer gauge ability to achieve his or her stated goal[s])
Step 1: Market Focus (salesperson reinforces industry expertise and knowledge)
Step 2: Purpose and Goals (salesperson reinforces that meeting is to help customer determine ability to achieve stated goals)
Step 3: Eliminate Unknowns (salesperson’s questioning helps customer provide measurable purchasing information)
Step 4: Yellow Light (salesperson summarizes the measurable purchasing criteria required to achieve the customer’s stated goal[s])
MPC 2: Potential Confirmed (customer agrees goals are worth pursuing)
MP 3: Cement Solution: (salesperson connects solution to customer’s goal[s])
Before meeting customer:
Step 1: No Blanks (salesperson sees what measurable purchasing data is missing and determines strategy to find them out)
Step 2: Benchmarks (salesperson connects features of products and services to the measurable benefits of customer’s goal[s])
Step 3: Oops! (salesperson determines what measurable benefits cannot be achieved and develops strategies to address them)
At the customer meeting:
Step 4: Purpose & Summary (salesperson reinforces that meeting is to present how selected solutions achieve customer’s goals and recaps measurable benefits)
Step 5: Connect the Dots (salesperson connects measurable benefits of customer’s goals to features of selected solutions)
Step 6: Conditions Met (salesperson demonstrates how all requirements of customer’s purchasing decision are satisfied)
MPC 3: Solution Confirmed (customer agrees that solution achieves goals)
MP 4: Implement Agreement (salesperson inks the deal)
Step 1: Deal (salesperson confidently asks customer to purchase agreed-upon solutions)
Step 2: Logistics (salesperson goes over details needed to start business relationship)
MPC 4: Agreement Confirmed (customer agrees to enter into a contract and inks the deal)
Exhibit I-5: The four phases of MeasureMax. (Note— MP stands for Measurable Phases, while MPC stands for Measurable Phase Changes.)
Change the Order to Get the Order
The way in which customers’ emotions affect their purchasing decisions has been the subject of countless books. The consensus is that you can venture only educated guesses about the influence of emotions; however, the outcomes of guesses are unpredictable. Yet, duplicating sales success is all about predictability—knowing what should happen next—and being prepared when it does (or does not) happen.
While you cannot make a sale void of emotions, use the processes and tools in this book to dilute the randomness of their impact. As Dr. Jack Katz wrote in his book How Emotions Work, “intellectual analysis seems to nullify emotions.” [2] You appeal to customers’ intellect when you make the value they receive from achieving their goals measurable in dollars. Motivate customers to change the order of their decision-making process so that everyone thinks clearer and reaps benefits. Make facts come first, emotions second. You can enhance the way you sell by enhancing the way customers buy. After all, customers do not willingly make illogical purchasing decisions. Yet, they will unwillingly make illogical decisions if they aren’t aware they are missing information that would make them decide differently.
Note Ironically, you usually find out the facts after you lose a sale or do not fulfill a customer’s expectations. You know emotions drove the customer’s decision when either one of you says, “If I had only known that, I would have …”
[2]Jack Katz, How Emotions Work (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 49.
Creating High-Return Opportunities
Sales opportunities involve either business-to-business or business-to-consumer transactions. Yet, not every sales opportunity affords you the ability to provide additional compensated value. Typically, these high-return opportunities involve the following “two-plus” requirements:
There are two or more decision makers.
They require two or more in-person sales calls to complete.
The more “two-plus” requirements you have, the greater the opportunity to sell compensated value. Individuals seeking only the lowest price or the quickest delivery would not need to make this type of investment in people or time.
Note In business-to-consumer transactions, there might be only one decision maker. However, if a sale involves more than one in-person sales call, it still allows the opportunity for you to use The Science of Sales Success’s processes, tools, and selling system.
Shattering Myths
When you add measurability to selling, it shatters the following ten common sales myths:
Selling is an art, not a science.
Customers buy primarily for emotional reasons, not logical ones.
Most salespeople are customer focused, not product focused.
Lost sales results from competitors’ lower prices, not from higher value.
More sales calls equal more orders.
Great salespeople know how to handle obstacles.
More product features produce more benefits for customers.
Salespeople can more easily sell value to existing customers than to new ones.
Strategies drive salespeople’s tactics, not the other way around.
A salesperson knows how well a sale is going at any given time.
The Building Blocks
Each chapter follows this format to make it an easy read:
Reading Section.
Example Boxes: Relate concepts to identifiable selling situations.
Exhibits: Consist of illustrations to visualize key concepts and charts to show how to put into practice the book’s concepts.
Two Case Studies (Chapters 2 to 8): One addresses processes on conceptual levels while the other case highlights tactical and strategic perspectives.
Summary.
Overview of Chapters
Chapter 1—Measurability Matters. Explains and demonstrates how to make key aspects of selling measurable so your productivity explodes.
Chapter 2—Defining Value. Explains and demonstrates how to make your products and services generate value.
Chapter 3—Receiving Value. Explains and demonstrates how customers determine the value they receive from achieving their goals.
Chapter 4—Tests of Reasonableness. Explains and demonstrates how nine preexisting factors determine if customers or you can achieve their goals.
Chapter 5—Every Question Counts. Explains and demonstrates how to use listening and questioning skills to encourage customers to provide measurable answers.
Chapter 6—Leave the Brochures Behind. Explains and demonstrates how to make sales calls that measure your potential to outvalue competitors—without mentioning specific products or services.
Chapter 7—Every Reason to Say Yes. Explains and demonstrates how to create proposals that vividly connect to customers’ goals.
Chapter 8—When the World Isn’t Perfect. Explains and demonstrates how to handle customers’ concerns by determining how they affect their goals.
Chapter 9—Using MeasureMax Your Way. Explains and demonstrates how you use this unique selling system to fit your sales opportunities.
Glossary. Lists the terms used throughout the book.
Bibliography. Lists further resources.
Note No quick fixes or “learn how to sell smart in sixty minutes” schemes exist when it comes to high-value sales and high-level decision making. In The Science of Sales Success, details replace anecdotes; logic replaces war stories. Understand its key points because each chapter builds on the previous one. Everything connects and continues to become clearer the further along you read, Scout’s honor.
The Rewards
You will increase productivity, exceed customer expectations, build long-term relationships, create golden referrals, motivate frustrated competitors to seek new career opportunities, own a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile, and earn a higher dollar W-2 to name a few benefits. You will also:
INCREASE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES BY LEARNING HOW YOU:
Define value by how customers measure it.
Focus on your unique strengths and make them measurable.
Ensure you do not dilute your products’ strengths.
“Create” new products and services with unique strengths.
INCREASE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS BY LEARNING HOW YOU:
Segment and prioritize markets by how they value your unique strengths.
Help customers define and assign value to their goals.
Spark interest in your customers to pursue specific goals.
Determine customers’ and your ability to achieve their goals.
IMPROVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS BY LEARNING HOW YOU:
Use active listening to encourage customers to provide detailed information.
Ask questions that make sense for customers to answer.
Make presentations that customers accept.
Ask questions that illustrate your customers’ expertise.
IMPROVE ABILITY TO HANDLE UNEXPECTED BARRIERS BY LEARNING HOW YOU:
Prevent them from forming.
Handle them so customers remove them for you.
Dilute the adverse affects of obstacles that do not go away.
IMPROVE CLOSING RATE BY LEARNING HOW YOU:
Qualify solutions so you know customers accept them before you make your presentations.
Make the close nothing more than the logical conclusion to a series of previous customer commitments.
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY (THE W-2 FACTOR) BY LEARNING HOW YOU:
Use a process that is structured enough to repeat success and avoid failures, yet flexible enough to accommodate different styles.
Qualify the business potential faster to determine whether your and your customer’s investment of time, effort, and resources is worth the expected return; and figure out what would have to change if it is not.