Summary

• Use measurability to influence performance, not judge results.

• Strategy determines structure and tactics, not vice versa; use a strategy to make customers' goals measurable so you can outvalue competitors, and receive compensation for doing so.

• Avoid wanting to accomplish something for customers more than they want to achieve it for themselves.

• You can only manage what you can measure.

• The salesperson with the most long-term customers wins.

• Relationship selling and long-term (and loyal) customers go hand-in-hand.

• You use brinkmanship and courtship selling with prospects and new customers, respectively.

• Time powers the progression from brinkmanship to courtship to relationship selling.

• Long-term customers and relationship selling do not need to depend on time.

• Introduce measurability into the sales process and you shrink time; prospects and new customers respond like long-term ones on the first sales call.

• You can make measurable the dollar value of features and goals, the ability of you and your customers to achieve their goals, and your sales progress.

• Measurable Phase Changes (MPCs) are like a road map of where you started, how far you have gone, how fast you travel, and how much farther you need to go to reach a sale. MPCs enable you to evaluate performance in a measurable manner so you influence and calculate chances for success.

• The four Measurable Phases (MPs) and associated Measurable Phase Changes (MPCs) are:

  • MP 1: Spark Interest and MPC 1: Interest Confirmed

  • MP 2: Measure Potential and MPC 2: Potential Confirmed

  • MP 3: Cement Solution and MPC 3: Solution Confirmed

  • MP 4: Implement Agreement and MPC 4: Agreement Confirmed

• Every sales opportunity has two columns that customers use to weigh their purchasing decisions. In Column 1, customers always assign the dollar value of price, delivery, relationship, and cost of change. In Column 2, which always starts out empty, only the sales-person can help customers assign dollar value to the measurable benefits of achieving their goals.

• Productivity jumps when you concentrate more on Column 2 sales situations than on Column 1, which can waste selling investments of time, effort, resources, and profits.

• Every sale involves an owner or beneficiaries with goals other than lowest price or fastest delivery.

• The customer's measurable goals must be clear before salespeople present solutions.