Nowadays, prospects won’t invest in services unless it’s supported with visible proof. For many decision-makers, to see is to believe. In order to draw the attention of today's decision-makers, you need to make your offering relevant. And one of the most effective ways you can do at the beginning of sales calls or meetings with prospects is to quantify the value of your offering, or demonstrating the ROI (Return on Investment).

The addition of a compelling ROI could enhance your business case, speed up decision-making, and encourage your prospects to move forward with you. And, as always, there’s more than one way to convey your value to your prospects. In this post, I’ll share some statistics that will show you the different ways you can shift the conversation in your favor.

Get More Clients with Return-On-Investment (ROI)

As ergonomic service providers, we know that we have the skills and the tools to make a huge difference and enhance the productivity of businesses everywhere. However, there still seems to be miscommunication. Organizations in your area may know that you exist, but they don't know the degree of which you can help them. ROI is a powerful communication tool—coupled with reports and case studies—to convey the value your prospects can expect to get from investing in your services. 

Return on Investment (ROI) is a financial metric used to assess the profitability of an investment. A high ROI means the return compares favorably to its cost. Showing ROI to clients using an ROI calculator and giving a personalized and comprehensive business case are the key components you should have in place to have an effective sales process. Cornell has a great ROI calculator that you can use to estimate the potential financial benefits of an ergonomics intervention. 

In order to successfully convince a prospect to move forward with you, you need to do these three elements competently: determine their main ergonomic concerns, offer a compelling solution, and show them that it works. These three elements form the basis of an effective value proposition through a believable ROI. Using an ROI calculator, guide decision-makers through the numbers and show them how they’re calculated. Decision-makers are more willing to listen if your offer is supported with relevant financial information and presented to them at a level in which they understand and value. And to make your offer more persuasive, demonstrate a direct relation between your offering and reaching their goals. The best way to do this is by sharing ROI examples with case studies of previous client successes. Providing your prospects with useful case studies that they can reference, especially from clients who came to you with a similar ergonomic concern, is really helpful.

Who’s Your Ideal Client?

Before we dive into the statistics here, first and foremost, you need to know who your ideal clients are. This is very important to make sure that the ROI you’re presenting resonates with your prospect’s specific ergonomic needs and situation. Having a clear understanding of your prospect’s pain points allows you to have informative and compelling conversations with them. The key point here is to present a business case that justifies the investment that they’ll be making to resolve their issues. Remember to use language and metrics that show decision-makers or representatives how investing in your services creates value and solves their ergonomic problems.

Convey Your Value

Is improving productivity one of your prospect’s main business goals this year? Are they looking to reduce worker’s compensation and healthcare costs? We know our services provide value. It also provides value for your prospect’s situation. However, you need to help the decision-makers to quantify the value of your services by, again, making a business case that shows their ROI for working with you. 

Highlighting the economic benefits of implementing ergonomic measures is a great way to do it. And leveraging the power of a visually appealing ROI calculator allows you to provide concrete examples of potential cost savings when speaking with decision-makers. To give you an example, let’s look at some of the really game-changing statistics:

1. The positive cost-benefit of implementing ergonomic measures is undisputed in the scientific literature. In their calculations, the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) noted that the average OHS expenditures per employee per year was more than €1,200 in a convenience sample of approximately 330 employers in Europe. Employer representatives were also asked a question about their assessment of the ratio of the financial benefits to OHS expenditures. 

The average estimated financial return on these investments was about $2.20 for each $1.00 invested in prevention.

2. Using similar methods as the ISSA study, a U.S. survey of more than 400 senior financial officers reported a median of $2.00 of financial benefits for each $1.00 invested in prevention. 

3. One of the best opportunities for ROI calculation is risk reduction. Providing decision-makers accurate estimates of the impact of ergonomics interventions on injury costs can be a very powerful tool. For example, a study for the European Commission estimated the costs of work-related injury and illness in approximately 400 case studies, then worked with employer representatives to estimate the potential financial benefits arising from 56 specific prevention measures. Under conservative assumptions, the study estimated the ratio of financial benefits to OHS expenditures to be 1.29. Under a less conservative set of assumptions, the estimate was 2.18.

4. Another common ROI proof point that you should include is productivity gains. Here’s another statistics: In 1999, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation established a Safety Incentive Grants Program to provide matching funds to employers who were investing in engineering controls to improve OHS. An assessment of the economic benefits of this program concluded that the financial benefits of the program’s incentive expenditures in 2015 ($14.3 million) were in the range of $22 million to $39 million. These financial benefits, which consisted of employer productivity gains and avoided workers’ compensation costs resulting from avoided work-related injury and illness, represented a return on the program investments in the range of 1.6 to 2.9.

5. Lastly, a study focused on the construction industry in the United Kingdom collected information from approximately 80 construction contractors on OHS expenditures and measures of financial benefits that included estimates of both tangible and intangible benefits. The ratio of financial benefits to OHS expenditures was about 2.6.

And that’s it! Remember, decision-makers can better appreciate the value of working with you when you can quantify the operational and financial benefits of your services. Consider using the Cornell ROI calculator and the statistics above the next time you talk to your clients. 

---

If you're interested in learning more about ROI or other concepts to improve your marketing success and bring more clients in your consulting business, join the Accelerate program. Accelerate helps Ergonomics service providers like you use different modern marketing strategies to get more reach for your services. If you’re interested in joining my Accelerate program, just click on this link to get on the waitlist.