If you’re in B2B sales, product marketing, or customer success, you’ve probably heard about value calculators. The idea is simple: show prospects—in their own numbers—how your solution pays for itself. But building something interactive that actually helps (and isn’t just a cringy Excel download) takes more than a template. That’s where Leveragepoint comes in. If your company’s using it, or you’re considering it, here’s how to get real value out of its calculator builder and actually share those results with prospects and colleagues.
Why Value Calculators Matter (But Only If They're Good)
Let’s be clear: a “value calculator” isn’t magic. If it’s confusing, one-sided, or just spits out a huge “ROI” with no explanation, buyers tune out. The goal is to help your customer see the impact in their own context—ideally live, so they can poke at the numbers and ask tough questions. Leveragepoint gives you a platform for this, but you’ll need to do the heavy lifting up front.
Step 1: Get Your Inputs Straight
Before you even open Leveragepoint, collect the real numbers that matter to your target buyers. Don’t just guess. Talk to sales reps, look at closed-won deals, and dig up things like:
- Average volume/usage for your solution
- Typical cost of their current approach
- Any metrics your solution improves (time, error rates, etc.)
- Common objections (“That’s not how we do it…”)
Pro tip: If you skip this, you’ll end up with a calculator nobody trusts. Garbage in, garbage out.
Step 2: Build Your Value Model in Leveragepoint
Once you’re ready, log in to Leveragepoint. The workflow breaks down like this:
a) Start a New Model
- From the dashboard, click “Create New Value Model” (the wording can vary, but it’s obvious).
- Give it a clear name—something you’d actually say to a customer (“Cloud Cost Savings Tool” beats “Q4 Value Analysis Model”).
b) Define Customer Inputs
- Map out the fields your prospects will interact with. Keep it simple. No one wants to fill in 30 boxes.
- Typical inputs: current spend, number of users, hours per week, error rate, etc.
- Set default values based on your research, but make them editable.
c) Set Up Your Calculations
- This is where you turn those inputs into actual outcomes (e.g., “You’ll save $X per year”).
- Use plain language for output labels. “Annual Cost Reduction” is good. “Delta_Cost/Annualized” is not.
- Double-check your formulas. If they’re off, your credibility tanks.
d) Add Visuals
- Leveragepoint lets you build charts, graphs, and side-by-side comparisons.
- Keep it readable—one or two clear visuals beat a dashboard of pie charts.
What to skip: Don’t overload your model with every bell and whistle. If the core story isn’t compelling, no chart will save it.
Step 3: Make It Interactive (and Buyer-Friendly)
Now, preview your calculator as if you’re the customer.
- Test with real numbers—does it spit out believable results?
- Adjust input ranges so users can’t break the model by entering wild numbers.
- Add short tooltips or help text for any field that isn’t obvious.
- Hide any “back-end” variables that will just confuse people.
Reality check: If your calculator needs a 10-minute tutorial, it’s too complicated. Simplify.
Step 4: Test with Sales and Customer Teams
Before you roll this out to the world, get feedback from the folks in the trenches.
- Run a quick live demo with a few reps. Ask them to break it.
- Watch for confusion, eye rolls, or “Wait, what does this mean?” moments.
- Tweak the wording and visuals based on their feedback—not just what looks good to you.
What works: Real-world phrasing and fewer steps.
What doesn’t: Internal jargon or any step that feels like homework.
Step 5: Publish and Share Your Calculator
Leveragepoint gives you several ways to share calculators:
a) Private Link
- Generate a unique URL for your calculator. You can send this directly to prospects or embed it in emails.
- Set permissions—do you want users to save their results? Download a PDF? Decide up front.
b) Embed on Your Website
- If you want leads to self-qualify, you can embed the calculator on a landing page.
- Check with your web team: embedding is usually a copy-paste of an iframe code.
c) Share with Your Sales Team
- Push the calculator to your CRM or sales enablement tools if your setup allows.
- Train reps on how (and when) to use it in their conversations.
Heads up: Some buyers get suspicious if you ask for too much info up front. Keep required fields to a minimum if you’re using public links.
Step 6: Track and Iterate
Once it’s live, don’t just forget about it. Leveragepoint tracks usage and inputs, so you can see:
- Which inputs people actually change
- Where users drop off or get stuck
- Which outcomes resonate (and which fall flat)
Use this data to:
- Refine your defaults and messaging
- Kill off fields nobody uses
- Surface new objections or questions
Pro tip: The best calculators are updated every few months based on real feedback—not just when marketing remembers.
What to Ignore (and What to Watch Out For)
- Don’t try to automate “closing the deal.” A calculator is a conversation starter, not a magic close.
- Don’t overcomplicate the math. If a buyer can’t explain it to their boss, you’ve lost.
- Watch out for optimism bias. If every scenario spits out a 10x ROI, folks will doubt everything.
- Skip vanity metrics. “Number of clicks” doesn’t matter if nobody’s convinced.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Relentlessly
Interactive value calculators work best when they’re dead simple, brutally honest, and easy to share. Don’t chase perfection—get a basic version live, see what real buyers do with it, and improve from there. The more you treat your calculator like a living tool (not a set-and-forget asset), the more you’ll learn what actually convinces people—and what just sounds good in a meeting.
Now go build something useful. And remember: if you’re bored using your own calculator, your prospects definitely are too.