MEDMEN: What People Get Wrong About Metrics

00:09 Andy Whyte: Welcome to The MedMen Show. This is Andy — 00:11 Pim Roelofsen: — and this is Pim. And what are we talking about today? 00:14 Andy Whyte: Today we're talking about what people get wrong with metrics. Metrics is probably — no, not probably. It's definitely the element of MEDDIC that people have the most problem with. And I think that's fair enough, because they're not easy, are they? 00:29 Pim Roelofsen: They're not easy. And I think that's the very first thing to say here — assuming that they're easy is a mistake. But equally it provides a great opportunity. The fact that they're not easy means that if you can do it well, you have the edge. 00:39 Andy Whyte: Yeah. It's like a lot of things in selling — if it's easy, if your competition is doing it, then you're not differentiated. Just like your solution needs to be differentiated, you can differentiate yourself by selling better. That's why getting deeper into metrics holds a lot of value, right behind the difficulty they present. 00:56 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah. And one of the things I think people often get wrong about metrics is they think they have to be what I'd call McKinsey-esque. 01:14 Andy Whyte: Oh yeah — like a full report. Completely detailed. And I know what you mean. There's some interesting insight in that thought, because what we're saying is metrics don't have to be that deep. Sometimes they can't be that deep. And the reason they can't is because even McKinsey — and they're pretty good at this — they don't just walk in, lick their finger, stick it in the air and say "this process here is inefficient by 23% and it's costing you three million a year." They have to do the work. And that's what you have to do with metrics. 01:52 Pim Roelofsen: That's true. But at the same time, it's also not the case that you go in expecting the customer to already have these metrics and you can just extract them from them. 02:03 Andy Whyte: Exactly. And when you say "the customer has these metrics" — I think one of the things people really get wrong is they think about the customer as a single entity rather than an organization full of multiple different stakeholders who all have different interests. So if you're a seller listening to this right now, consider a deal you're working on. If you think you've got great metrics — cool. But ask yourself: who cares about those metrics? And if you think everybody cares about the same metric in the same way — probably not. It's very unlikely. 02:38 Andy Whyte: What you need to make sure you're doing is getting into what each person cares about. And that goes back to pain, of course. It goes back to making sure the metric attaches to the overall business initiative the company is driving towards. So what people get wrong about metrics: they see them in isolation. They don't think about them in relation to multiple stakeholders. They don't think about them in relation to the pain they've uncovered and implicated. And they don't think about how the metric supports the organization's wider business initiative. 03:13 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah. And the thing is — if you start doing it properly, it also scales. As it pertains to persona: when you identify how a pain would typically look for a given persona, and the metrics that relate to that pain, that scales up. So if people do go down the path of really getting to a deep understanding here — and again, that takes time, it's difficult — there's a lot of value to be unlocked. 03:37 Andy Whyte: Yeah. And that's a really good point in terms of our M1, M2, M3 framework — which we can talk about in a moment. But the concept behind it: M1 is where you're taking value you found with other customers to a potentially new customer, and using the story behind that value. The story behind the metrics — what state they were in before, what value was being lost, what value you uncovered and delivered, and the metric that measures that value. That is the nucleus of an M1. And to your point about scaling — the more you develop your metrics, the more you can deliver personalized metrics to the customer, which is what we call an M2. 04:29 Andy Whyte: And then of course, once you win the deal — because you will be more likely to win it if you're using metrics properly — you can do the handover to our friends in post-sales, where an M2 becomes an M3. And this is again a point where I think a lot of people go wrong. The thinking is: OK, we're in the closing stage, the selling motion is taking place, and the deal is won — great, metrics are done. But really it extends beyond that. And the M1s are already delivering value for your business before the customer is even talking to you as a seller. 05:17 Pim Roelofsen: Right. So the thing people get wrong there is thinking about metrics only in the closing and selling stage, as opposed to the entire customer lifecycle. Because once the M3 is in place — which is the target of the partnership after the deal has been won — when that value is delivered, and customer success is clear on that being the target and it's now realized, it becomes an M1 again. And marketing can use it. Yeah. And I don't want to go too deep into solutions here — but the challenge, or the thing people get wrong, is quite clear. And the flip side of it is a massive opportunity if you start doing this right. 05:41 Andy Whyte: Yeah. So to summarize: it's not easy. You don't have to be McKinsey-esque. And you shouldn't be expecting the customer to have the metrics for you. 05:50 Pim Roelofsen: Yes. The customer is very unlikely to have metrics ready. It's almost like — if they do, there are some question marks there. That mindset of "professional seller meets professional buyer" — probably not. 99% of their day is spent on other activities, not buying your type of solution. 06:10 Andy Whyte: So: not easy. Don't be McKinsey. Don't expect the customer to have metrics. Make sure you tie your metrics back to the pain. Make sure you're considering all stakeholders. Make sure you tie into the business initiative the customer really cares about. What else, Pim? 06:26 Pim Roelofsen: Not thinking about it in the context of the full customer lifecycle. That's the big one. 06:32 Andy Whyte: Now that wraps it up nicely. Thanks everyone!