Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, 14/e

Quantify the Solution

In Chapter 6, we explained that the process of determining whether or not a sales proposal adds value is called “quantifying the solution.” If the cost of the proposal is offset by added value, closing the sale will be much easier. In business-to-business selling, quantifying the solution is very common. Let’s assume you represent a manufacturing company that sells robots—a reprogrammable machine capable of performing a variety of tasks. The two primary benefits are (1) payroll cost savings and (2) vastly improved quality. One way to quantify the solution in this case is to use a simple cost–benefit analysis (see Table 6.1). This involves listing the costs to the buyer and the savings to be achieved from the purchase of ...