product
Any goods or services that you sell.
product expert
A salesperson whose expertise lies in the features and benefits of his or her products, not the customers’ goals.
product profile
Sales tool used to define your products by their features benefits, value, focus, rating, and unique strengths.
productivity equation
Formula you use to measure selling and marketing skills, and predict trends that help you influence performance.
product-oriented
Sales mentality that starts with the initial focus on features and benefits of your product, and not on the customers’ goals.
professional relationships
The business bonds that develop when salespeople document how they help customers achieve measurable goals, not a function of time.
progress
The rate at which you obtain Measurable Phase Changes that concluded with MPC 4: Agreement Confirmed.
proposal
A written document that outlines the business and legal conditions under which you will provide your products and services to a customer.
pulled-through proposal
Customers wanting to achieve their goals are the major catalysts for generating proposals.
pulse check hinge
Customers show no interest in any goals or potential benefits you described in your spark interest statement.
purpose and goals
The second step in MP 2: Measure Potential. It involves confirming that the meeting’s purpose is to understand the customer’s ability to achieve his or her goals.
purpose and summary
The fourth step in MP 3: Cement Solution. It involves explaining to the customer that the purpose of the meeting is to demonstrate how your proposed solutions achieve their conditional commitments and measurable benefits.
pushed-through proposal
Salespeople, not customers, are the major catalyst for generating a proposal.
Q-S
qualifying
Questioning process used to gather initial information about customers goals, benefits, filters, and systems of evaluation.
quick entry sales management (Q) sheet
Sales tool that records, guides, and measures the progress of salespeople to help them manage and maximize their sales opportunities.
quote
See proposal.
quote inventory
Process by which you limit yourself to a set number of MP 3 proposals. If you bring in a new one, take out the oldest one.
quote ratio
The number of calls needed to generate a quote. The total number of calls divided by the total number of written proposals calculates its value.
receiving value
The process by which you demonstrate how your products and services achieve customers’ measurable goals.
relationship selling
The selling mode used with long-term customers who freely discuss their goals, benefits, filters, and systems of evaluation.
requests for proposal
Bid documents with technical specifications sent to competitors to solicit their products and services. Lowest price or fastest delivery usually wins this type of sale.
research and membership
First step of MP 1: Spark Interest. This step conveys to customers specifics of their organizational characteristics and positions. It lets customers know that you selected them for valid business reasons rather than on a random basis.
revising
One of the three steps in downplay to handle hinges. It involves trying to change a filter or product selection to satisfy unfavorable requirements.
rip-off hinge
Customers consider the price of a proposed solution excessive even though it meets their conditional commitments.
safety zone
Questioning process and strategy in which you reference your filter questions to customers’ goals.
scope of work
Detailed list of proposed solutions sent to customers for them to review. Customers comment on whether the outlined products and services achieve their goals within their conditional commitments. They then return the list to the salesperson for corrective action (if necessary). A scope of work does not include price or delivery information and occurs before making formal MP 3: Cement Solution presentations.
silence is golden
Tactic to handle hinges by pausing and not saying anything for five seconds, as you analyze the impact of the customers’ comments.
simple
Explaining tactic where you use customers’ jargon and terms to help them understand how features achieve their measurable benefit.
smokescreen
A hinge that a customer does not feel comfortable to disclose for fear of embarrassing himself or you.
solution
Goods and services that achieve customers’ goals within their conditional commitments in MP 3: Cement Solution.
strategy-driven
Sales process where established plans and benchmarks drive the structure and tactics of your sales calls.
subjective decision making
One of two components that make up customers’ decision making. It focuses on emotions. You want this component to follow, not precede, the objective component.
supplier
Salesperson who focuses on providing solutions that help customers achieve short-term goals.
sway
Amount of influence a contact exerts on the purchasing decision.
systems of evaluation (SOEs)
The methods customers use to calculate value they receive from achieving their goals.
T-W
tactics-driven
Sales approach where tactics and techniques dictate your sales strategy on a random basis.
take your pick
Second step of MP 1: Spark Interest. You let customers choose goals that might interest them from a broad array.
target confirmed
The third step in handling hinges. Salespeople verify they understand the impact of the hinges before attempting to remedy them.
test of reasonableness
Customers test if they can achieve their goals within their conditional commitments during MP 2: Measure Potential.
think positively
One of the six active questioning tactics. It involves using questions where you make positive assumptions, not negative ones.
third-party intermediaries
Owners’ representatives and seasoned practitioners of the bid system. They place a high premium on the dollar value of price and delivery in Column 1.
top-five buzzing
Overview letter sent to the top five decision makers to generate initial interest. It outlines the company goals you could help them achieve.
track record
The third step of MP 1: Spark Interest. You provide references of your successes in similar or the same market segments.
trial close
Process where salesperson asks for a product purchase commitment from customers if certain conditions are met. It indicates a lack of understanding of customers’ goals, measurable benefits, filters, and systems of evaluations—and obtaining Measurable Phase Changes.
two-plus sales
Opportunities that involves two or more decision makers and in-person sales calls. When both of these situations occur, they present the best opportunity for you to provide more value than competitors and receive higher profits for doing so.
unique strengths
The features only your product, service, or company possesses that produce measurable benefits to a specific marketplace.
universal feature
Any feature created at the organizational level (not at the product or service level) such as size in dollars or employees, years in business, number of distribution centers, and number of customers. A universal feature should only be used if it helps a customer achieve a measurable benefit of his or her goals.
vague
The first tier of customers’ responses that provides nonspecific answers to salespeople, usually in response to qualifying questions.
value
Perceived or measurable benefits that customers derive from the features of products as it relates to the achievement of their goals.
vendor
Salesperson who focuses on satisfying customers’ requests for specific products and services to satisfy specific needs.
verifying
Process that uses yes-or-no questions to validate and confirm complete understanding and agreement of goals or filters.
vivid
Explaining tactic that uses descriptions to create powerful images.
watering crops
The selling stage associated with the number of in-person sales calls invested in MP 3: Cement Solution.
“What do they do for you trap”?
The tactic and common sales mistake that occurs when salespeople find out that a customer does business with a competitor. They ask customers to tell them what a competitor’s products or services do for them. The focus is now on the difference between your features and competitors—which leaves out how your products help customers achieve their goals.
wish lists
What customers think they want to achieve without understanding their goals and filters. You find these lists in needs-satisfaction selling.
Y
yellow light
The fourth step of MP 2: Measure Potential. It involves a summary of the measurable benefits of the customers’ goals and the attainment of the conditional commitments.
“You can only manage what you can measure”
Powerful business axiom that fuels the MeasureMax selling system.