Measurable Phase Change 1: Interest Confirmed

You express and verify mutual interest to invest more time, effort, and resources in exploring the customer's stated goals. Your focus is on the customer's goals and benefits, not on your product's features and benefits. Do not mention specific products until MP 3: Cement Solution. You still need to perform a test of reasonableness on the customer's goals and filters before you know what the customer can achieve and what you can offer.

If customers ask about specific products or a price (a common customer question), tell them a few come to mind or give them a wide range. However, you really do not know which ones, if any, fit their circumstances until you understand them better. Do not box yourself in with a specific product—and without a specific product, you cannot provide a specific price. It is unfair to customers and to you to try to guess what, if any, products can help them before you know their measurable goals and filters.

You also risk coming across as presumptuous. After all, how can you, one or two minutes into a conversation, claim you can help them solve a problem or achieve a goal? Anything you do not say about specific products today, you can always say tomorrow. The reverse is not true. You cannot "unsay'' something. If customers push you for detailed product information do the following two things:

Ask them specifically what they would like you to discuss—that is, operational, financial, or technical aspects of your products. Then, explain that without knowing the specifics of their goals, situation, and purchasing considerations (filters), you would not know which one to highlight yet.
Promise to bring a general product or company capabilities brochure to leave with him or her after you meet.

MP 1 ends with MPC 1: Interest Confirmed. Customers confirm there is an interest in achieving a goal and determining its potential. They agree to your call for action, which is a recommendation to the customer to implement a measurable and physical activity. Besides a purchase order, this could be a meeting, a survey, a review of past records, a job-site visit, a factory visit, or another sales call.

Note

Make sure you do not sound as if you are doing the customer a favor in pursuing this opportunity further. You just want to confirm that you are not the only one motivated to pursue their goals. Remember the pitfalls of being more motivated than customers (Chapter 1).

Case Study

Steven tells Olivia that he is willing to invest time in pursuing her goal of reducing downtime based on the potential benefits if she is willing to invest time also.

Steven schedules an appointment to meet in person with Olivia to conduct the second phase, MP 2: Measure Potential.