Runaway ROI

Last week I had a call with a very concerned vendor sales rep who had calculated an ROI more than 5000% for a prospect. I took a quick look at their ROI tool and it was clear the benefits were very strong compared to the costs. The problem in this situation was that the benefit estimates were pretty good, making the ROI a reasonable number. What we had was a “runaway ROI,” a number too high to believe. The very first slide I present during sales training builds from a 2% ROI to a more than 35,000% ROI. At each step I ask the audience if they feel comfortable presenting the number to a prospect. Of course they don’t like low numbers but they get equally uncomfortable with high numbers. Discarding and discounting benefits can be counter intuitive but managing the ROI to a number the prospect believes, usually in the 200% to 1300% range, rather than a high ROI that may not be credible will make for a more successful sales outcome. For sales (and also you marketing folks) resist the urge to add every last benefit. The goal is to win the deal, not generate the highest ROI ever.