Making Monetary Numbers Tangible

What can $100 buy? $1,000? $25,000? $1,000,000?

 

It is often hard to associate an amount with a tangible deliverable, and it gets more difficult as the numbers grow larger:

 

·      In the U.S., $1 buys a pound of fresh vegetables, on average (454 grams).

·      A typical book costs about $16.

·      The average cost of dinner in a restaurant for two in the U.S. today ranges from $50 (two seniors, sharing a burger with fries and two beers, including tax and tip) to $150 or more (highly dependent, of course, on location, appetite, and selection!).

·      $2,000 buys you the average combination of washer and dryer in the U.S. (installation not included).

·      The typical lower-end compact car costs $23,000 (registration, insurance, taxes, fuel, and maintenance are not included!).

·      $419,000 is the price for the average house in the U.S. (I won’t even begin to list what is not included in this amount, so be prepared!). For most people, this is the most expensive item they buy in their lives.

 

Above this amount, it gets harder and harder to comprehend:

 

·      What can you buy for $1 million? A really nice house? (Or a garage in the heart of Silicon Valley?)

·      What can you do with $10 million? A penthouse in New York? A small private jet?

·      $100 million? That’s a typical cost for a new freeway interchange in California (of course, the original estimate was that the job could be done for $35 million…!).

·      A billion? I have no idea…!

·      A trillion? I’m not even sure how many zeros to use!

 

So, when communicating value, especially with large numbers, we need to tie them to things that are concrete. In our healthcare example (from Monday January 5: https://greatdemo.com/arithmancy-the-magic-of-numbers/), the three minutes saved with each interaction translated into the equivalent of gaining twelve additional doctors: That’s something that most of us can visualize.

 

To give you example that might be close to home, a successful SaaS company generating $24 million annually could be your company, if you have about 120 employees (based on a good ratio of $200,000 of revenue per employee). You can use this ratio to scale up or down: A smaller successful company of 60 employees would generate $12 million, etc.

 

Here’s another: I am sad to report that I have flown over 3 million miles on United Airlines. How far is that? It’s like circling the earth 120 times at the equator or traveling to the moon and back six times! (“Aaaaaagh!” was my quiet scream when I realized this!)

 

The challenge when communicating value is to find tangible examples that your prospect players can comprehend. Be prepared with a few concrete examples!

 

And here are ideas to help with those examples – enjoy!

https://greatdemo.com/analogies-and-metaphors-in-demos-and-discovery/