Show prospects what your product saves them, using their own numbers

Why most ROI calculators aren't believed

Buyers have seen calculators that turn every input into a sevenfold return. The usual faults are hidden multipliers, a time saving assumed at 100% adoption, and a cost side that leaves out the product's own price and the time it takes to set up. A calculator that hides its workings tells the buyer only that you'd like them to think the number is big.

The fix is transparency. Show each assumption as an editable value, start from conservative defaults, and include costs. A smaller number the prospect has adjusted themselves is far more useful in a buying meeting than a big one they don't trust.

A structure that holds up

1. Their inputs. Three to six figures the prospect knows: team size, hours a week spent on the task, average loaded hourly cost, error rate, current tool spend.
2. Your assumptions. The percentage of time saved, the reduction in errors, adoption in the first year. Each one editable, each with a one-line justification ("based on median results from our pilot customers" only if that's true).
3. Costs. Your subscription for their size, set-up time, training hours. Let them enter a price if yours varies.
4. Results. Annual saving, net saving after cost, payback period in months, and a three-year view.
5. The working. A breakdown table that shows each line of the calculation, so the result can be checked by hand.

The formulas

Keep them simple enough to state in a sentence. Time saving: people × hours a week × weeks a year × hourly cost × percentage saved × adoption. Net annual benefit: savings minus annual cost. Payback: up-front cost divided by monthly net benefit. ROI: net benefit divided by total cost. If a formula takes a paragraph to explain, the prospect won't trust it.

Building it with Anticode

Write the inputs, defaults, formulas and wording into your request: "An ROI calculator for a support-ticket tool. Inputs: agents, tickets per agent per day, minutes per ticket, hourly cost. Assumptions, editable: 20% faster handling, 70% adoption in year one. Cost: price per agent per month. Show annual saving, net saving, payback months and a three-year chart, plus a breakdown table. Under the result: the assumptions in plain words. Then a form: name, work email, company, 'send me this'."

The model writes it as one self-contained app. Results update as the prospect types, and the breakdown and chart are drawn in the page. You can ask for a technical, information-dense look to suit a B2B audience, or describe your own brand colours.

The "send me this" form

When a prospect submits the form, the app sends their contact details through Anticode's form pipeline with every input, assumption and result added to the message. It arrives by email and in your dashboard. You now have a lead who has told you their team size, their volumes and the number they'd need to see, which is most of a discovery call. Reply with a written version and an offer to walk through it together.

Note that Anticode sends the details to you, not a copy to the prospect. Say that on the form ("we'll email you a copy within a working day") and make sure someone does.

Test it like a buyer would

• Enter a tiny company (two people) and check the result doesn't claim a saving larger than their payroll.
• Enter a very large one and check the price scales.
• Set the time saved to 0% and make sure ROI goes negative rather than breaking.
• Ask a colleague in finance to reproduce one result with a spreadsheet.

Limits

• No live data. It can't pull the prospect's figures from their systems or yours from a pricing API; prices are what you set.
• Visible logic. The formula runs in the browser and can be read in the page source, which is usually fine for an ROI model, since transparency is the point.
• No per-prospect tracking beyond what they submit. Inputs from people who don't send the form stay in their browser.
• No branded PDF generated by Anticode. A print-friendly results view is something you can ask for; any formatted report comes from you.

For other sums you want to put in front of customers, see the custom calculator builder page; for price estimates for services, the quote calculator.

Questions people ask

Does an ROI calculator builder need my pricing on the page?

It works best with it, since cost is half the calculation. If your pricing is quote-based, let the prospect enter an estimated annual cost instead.

Can I see which numbers prospects tried?

Only those they submit through the form. Nothing else leaves their browser.

Can I change the assumptions after launch?

Yes. Ask for the change in words and the calculator updates; earlier versions stay in history if you want to compare.