How to Visualize Your Prospect’s Return on Investment

return on investment

The final step in the Discovery phase, and the fourth type of Discovery Question, is the Desired Results Question. Desired Results Questions help buyers identify the returns and benefits of the desired state. It is the opposite of the Impact Question in that it asks, “What are the positives?”

The answer to a Desired Results Question requires your prospect to visualize the best possible scenario, one in which you and your prospect are able to fix the problems and achieve the goals.

Most sales training follows the rule of selling using the Features and Benefits Method. The feature is something the product does, and the benefit is what the product does for the buyer. The problem with this method is assuming that every buyer wants the same benefit, and they don’t.

What we do in the Discovery phase is determine how to customize our benefit precisely to the individual buyer, and we do so by asking Desired Results Questions.

Transitioning from Pain to Pleasure

Although the Desired Results Question is the fourth and final kind of Discovery Question, we are still not offering a solution. Rather, we are determining if the solution—the best possible outcome—is worth pursuing.

Most business decisions are based on a simple formula, Return on Investment (ROI).  Buyers are quick to grasp the Investment portion of the formula—the total cost of the seller’s solution—but it is typically much more difficult to envision the Return. The Return is the most important part of that formula because prospects are always concerned with themselves and their business. They want to know, and with good reason, the answer to the question: “What do I get?”

Desired Result questions focus the buyer on what they want, the Return, before they have the chance to become preoccupied with the Investment. In other words, once you and the prospect both know that your solution will save them a million dollars every year, both parties know that the investment in you of $100,000 is worthwhile.

Three Performance Indicators

There are three areas in which you should focus the visualization of the Desired Results. They are as follows:

  1.  Financial: Illuminate how the solution will increase sales and reduce expenses.
  2.  Competitive: Focus on customer satisfaction and installation/delivery time in comparison to other leading companies in the industry.
  3.  Personal: Remind the prospect of the stress reduction, increase in fun, and proactive measures they’re taking.

Sample Desired-Results Questions

To guide the delivery of Desired Results Questions, here are some sample questions that illuminate the aforementioned Performance Indicators while aiding the visualization of the desired result:

  • If the problem didn’t exist, what would that allow you to do?
  • How would that help the business?
  • What aspects of the business would improve?
  • Who would that benefit?
  • What’s the difference between today and the desired result?
  • What’s the difference overtime?

The following are the main tenants to remember about the differences between Impact Questions and Desired Results Questions.

  1.  Impact Questions are about deciding to change. In this phase, we are helping the prospect realize that a change is necessary and very much needed by playing out the scenario in which no changes are made.
  2. Desired Results Questions focus on the best possible outcome and help the prospect envision all the positive attributes of solving or preventing his or her crisis.
  3.  Assigns the Return in ROI, the more difficult aspect to visualize, so that later, the Investment seems worthwhile and minimal.
  4.  The secondary goal of the Discovery phase is that it extends rapport and continues to cultivate the credibility you’ve developed with your buyer.

Conclusion

There are three stages that every lead must go through before they become a customer. The first was qualification; the key to getting through this stage is establishing trust, and we execute that through the Educational Briefing.

The second stage is Consideration. The key to getting through this stage is creating urgency, and that is done with the Discovery tool. Before we ever present our proposal we want buyers to become “thirsty for a solution.”

The final step in the Discovery phase, and the fourth type of Discovery Question, is the Desired Results Question. Desired Results Questions help the buyer identify the benefits of the desired state. Remember, the answer to a Desired Results Question requires your prospect to envision the best possible scenario, one in which you and your prospect are able to fix the problems and achieve the goals.