Put a one-page business case in the committee's hands.
“How do I give my champion a business case the budget holder will approve without me in the room?”
Frames the cost of the problem, the change, the value model, and the risk of doing nothing, in the buyer's own numbers.
What this skill does
Writes the one-page business case that a champion carries into a committee and a budget holder approves. It states what the problem costs today, the change you enable, a value model in the buyer's own numbers, and the risk of doing nothing. It is built to be defended by someone who is not you, in a room you are not in.
Inputs
- Works today with: the problem the buyer stated, the pain metrics you captured (hours, dollars, headcount, churn), and the price of your solution. Paste them and the skill builds the case.
- More powerful connected to a meeting or transcription tool: it pulls the buyer's own quantified pain from discovery, so the value model is built on their numbers, not yours.
- Sharper connected to a CRM: it reads the deal size, the stage, and the qualification fields, so the case matches the deal the pipeline already holds.
How it works
- 1The cost of the problem
Start with what the status quo costs today, in the buyer's numbers. Not what your product does, what the problem does. If the buyer gave you "roughly 6 hours a week per rep," that becomes the annualized cost of doing nothing. No stated pain, no case.
- 2The change you enable
State plainly what is different after they buy: the workflow that goes away, the time that comes back, the revenue that stops leaking. One paragraph, concrete, in their language, no adjectives.
- 3The value model
Show the math. Cost of the problem, minus the price of the solution, over the horizon, equals the value. Keep it simple enough that the champion can defend every line without you. Label each input as the buyer's number, a stated assumption, or illustrative. An illustrative example: "~6 hrs/wk x 20 reps x loaded rate" makes the assumption visible so the committee can test it, not swallow it.
- 4The risk of doing nothing
Name what happens if they defer: the pain compounds, the cost keeps running, the quarter they wanted to fix passes. Doing nothing is a decision with a price. The case shows that price.
- 5One page, one owner
It fits on one page because a champion has to carry it into a room and defend it fast. Anything that will not fit is a leave-behind, not the case. The page is built to be forwarded and defended without you present.
Output format
BUSINESS CASE · illustrative deal · one page
The problem, today
~6 hrs/wk/rep lost to manual prospecting. At 20 reps, that is roughly
6,000 hours a year not spent selling. [buyer's number: 6 hrs; assumption: 20 reps]
The change
Reps stop building lists by hand. That time returns to selling.
The value (12-month horizon)
Cost of problem: ~6,000 hrs/yr x loaded rate [illustrative]
Cost of solution: annual price [list price]
Net: value over 12 months, payback inside the year
The risk of doing nothing
The 6 hours keep leaking every week. The ramp problem repeats next
cohort. The quarter you wanted to fix passes unfixed.
Load-bearing assumption: the 20-rep count. Confirm before committee.
Tips
- Every number is labeled: the buyer's, a stated assumption, or illustrative. Nothing invented as real.
- The value model math is shown, not asserted, and simple enough to defend without you.
- The cost of doing nothing is quantified, not just described.
- The case fits on one page, and the single load-bearing assumption is called out.
Turn a discovery call into a qualification scorecard.
Runs your call against your qualification framework, captures the deal, and names the gaps you still have to fill.
Build a demo that maps to the buyer's problems.
Maps every feature you plan to show to a problem the buyer actually stated, and cuts what does not map.