Chance of Success vs Positive Outcome 2x2

Draw a square. Split into four quadrants with a pair of centrally perpendicular lines. Et voila. A 2×2 matrix.

A familiar trope yes, yet the ‘two b/two’ is remarkably durable in the salesroom.

Usually where the vaunted place of desire is top-right; ◳.

Think of the ‘priority matrix’, pitting value against effort. All other flavours of importance against difficulty. Even with echoes of the ‘magic quadrant’ where execution ability contrasts alongside vision breadth.

Longtime marketing blogger Seth Godin thinks so much of the device that his very first post of 2021 featured one.

Plotting each relative sizes for ‘chance of success’ and ‘positive outcome’ among ‘a portfolio of projects’.

Enabling the best guess selection of which projects to now focus on in the new year.

As is typical, where high chance of success meets the big positive outcome.

Projects anywhere else, ought be ditched.

As with any 2×2, you wonder if there’s a selling angle.

For this particular framing, qualification may well show an application.

Your odds of glory can be deal-wide. Whether the whole bid comes home. Positive Outcome the overall long-term profitability.

If that’s too simplistic, then go more specific.

What about for incumbent replacement ambitions? What are the chances of your target client switching, and will the time and effort and cost of sale be worthwhile in the long-run?

Or even go granular.

For an individual element of your sales process. What are the likelihoods an activity will move you forward, set against how much it might truly distinguish you from competing alternatives?