Building ROI-Driven Business Cases With Your Internal Champions

The Sale Doesn't End When the Customer Shows Interest

Even when a potential customer recognizes the severity of a certain business issue and understands that the product can solve this issue, the sale won't always close. In the complicated environment of corporate sales, the individual who can see the value isn't always the one who is in charge of finances and can make the final decision. The internal champion should use this opportunity to involve finance, executives, procurement, and other departments.

It is exactly why the ROI-driven business case is necessary. It helps the internal champion justify this investment by building a business case. However, the seller shouldn't provide a generic business case only. The best Deal Architects collaborate with their internal champions to develop the most convincing business case, which is based on the business problem of the customer, impact, outcomes, and investment specifics.

The goal is rather obvious – help the internal champion to build a business case which they will be able to use inside the company to justify their position.

Start from the Business Problem

A well-developed ROI-driven business case always starts from the business problem. Before considering the possible return on investment, the seller and the internal champion should clarify the context of the current environment and the problem that this organization faces.

The business problem should have a link to the measurable consequences which were found during the discovery stage. If there are any ineffective processes that consume the working time of employees, you should estimate the lost capacity. If there are any problems with customer retention, find out how much money it costs the business. If the slow sales cycles affect the growth of the business, clarify what kind of negative consequences they produce.

All these steps will help to create a clear connection between the problem and the proposed investment. The solution isn't valuable due to its characteristics. The problem is important and has to be solved, so the organization has to invest in it.

This is the basis of the enterprise sales business case.

Build the Business Case With the Internal Champion

The internal champion possesses information that the seller cannot get either through product demonstrations or external research. He knows the priorities of his organization, its decision-making processes, budgets, stakeholders' concerns, and internal dynamics.

On the other hand, the seller has a completely different skill set. He can help the buyer perform a business impact analysis, provide his experience on how to solve similar issues, benchmarks, and other related information.

When the business case is created using the input of both the seller and the buyer, it becomes stronger.

The seller and the champion should work together on the definition of the business impact, numbers, assumptions, and stakeholders who will review the proposal. The champion should participate in the process at all stages instead of just getting a finished document at the end of the day.

It is crucial because the champion will have to sell the investment to the decision-makers without the seller.

Connect the Investment to Measurable Business Impact

An ROI-based business case requires showing that the investment provides some measurable value for the business. This connection should be established with the help of the seller and the champion by defining metrics which are most relevant to the problem.

It might be growth of the revenues, cost savings, productivity increase, improvements in customer retention, conversion rate, sales cycle length, and many others – depending on the specific case.

The main thing here is to define the relationship between the current state and the desired future state.

For example, if the company loses hundreds of employee hours each month on performing a manual process, the business case should show how much time could be saved. If the company has an obvious loss of revenue because of a high customer churn rate, the business case should evaluate how much this indicator could be improved.

Again, it is not about trying to squeeze some attractive numbers out of the business case. It is about proving how the investment solves a real problem of the company.

Make the ROI Calculation Credible

A credible business case ROI relies very much on the assumptions used in the calculation.

A business case needs to be clear about what the organization now spends or loses, what improvement it expects, how much investment would be required, and over what period the benefit would accrue.

If the assumption in the ROI calculation is a certain amount of improvement in productivity, the seller and the champion need to justify why this assumption is valid. If the ROI calculation is based on improvement in revenue, they should know where the numbers came from.

Transparency in assumptions is needed since internal stakeholders will challenge the assumptions.

What is better than an inflated percentage ROI that can easily fall apart under scrutiny is a conservative estimate that holds water. The seller's job is not to blow up the numbers but to work with the champion in creating an ROI calculation that can reflect the true business situation of the customer.

Build a Business Case the Organization Can Challenge

An effective internal champion will be ready for the tough questions.

Finances will want to know the source of the return on investment. Executives will wonder whether the investment is a priority. Procurement will question its commercial worth. Other stakeholders will challenge whether the expected improvement is valid or even realistic.

It is important for the seller to assist the champion to anticipate these challenging questions beforehand.

Questions that can test the business case include: Where did this number come from? What assumptions are we making? What happens if the expected improvement turns out to be less? What are the metrics of success? What part of the business case would get challenged?

This would make the business case stronger rather than weak.

The Deal Architect is practically helping the champion to spot the weak points of the business case before any other stakeholder does. Once the assumptions have been scrutinized beforehand, the champion will be better equipped to defend the investment.

Give the Champion a Clear Business Narrative

Spreadsheets can demonstrate the financial logic, but the internal champion needs an uncomplicated story that tells that logic.

The business case should be easy to articulate: the organization has a certain problem, this problem has some measurable impact on the business, the investment solves this problem, and the expected impact justifies the investment.

The story should be consistent but adapted for different stakeholders.

Finance will want to know about costs and return on investment. Executives might be interested in strategic impact. Operations might be interested in efficiency. The seller needs to communicate the same business case using language that will be understood by each particular stakeholder.

The salesperson's role is to assist the champion in developing such a story but not to take the responsibility away from the champion.

The most effective strategy for engaging the internal champion is developing the story so the champion would be able to articulate the value independently from the seller.

Conclusion: Build a Business Case Your Champion Can Defend

The enterprise seller cannot assume that creating value will automatically result in getting approval. The value of the solution has to be translated into a business case that can withstand internal scrutiny.

This is why the Deal Architect works with internal champions.

Together, they diagnose the business problem, determine its measurable impact on the business, make credible assumptions, calculate the expected value, and anticipate questions from finance, executives, procurement, and other stakeholders.

It is not about having the most impressive ROI figure. It is about creating a credible, buyer-specific, ROI-driven business case that gives the organization justification for investment.

AI can assist in calculations and financial modeling, but the seller has to have expertise and understanding of the business of the buyer in order to help the internal champion to navigate the buyer's decision-making environment.

A good business case is not something that the seller will have to articulate. It is something that the internal champion will be able to defend once the seller is out of the room.