HOW TO DELIVER A STRONG BUSINESS CASE: SUCCESSFULLY SELLING YOUR SOLUTION TO TOP MANAGERS

Business Cases are a proven sales tool for helping sales channels rapidly sell a consulting engagement leading to the larger sale of hardware, software, and services solutions. Because it focuses on the business issues that the solution addresses, rather than the technical minutiae, a reseller can quickly and easily sell a technical solution to Line of Business (LOB) Managers by focusing on outcomes and benefits instead of implementation and technology. The Business Case toolset delivers a scenario that executives can immediately grasp so they can make a swift decision.

The Business Case gives resellers a roadmap that makes them successful even if they’ve never sold the solution before. It forces them to understand the client’s business initiative, processes, strategies, and criteria for vendor selection, before they discuss their offering. The client knows that the reseller understand their business and aren’t just another product pusher. This automatically positions you and the reseller in the mind of the customer as a respected vendor and consultant. Using Business Cases, resellers will be able to justify their investment, build value, and present recommendations in a way that is virtually irresistible.

One of the reasons why this works so well is that technology-savvy consultants from Outsource Channel Executives, Inc. (OCE) extract the business case from your technical description. Then they create a list of focused questions to ask managers. These questions are based on what we know motivates a manager in that job and the questions reflect solutions to business challenges that a manager faces. The result is that the manager becomes motivated to work with the sales team that delivers the Business Case.

WHY THIS SELLS SOLUTIONS FAST

In our experience, while most product managers clearly understand the customer’s technical benefits and business issues, they don’t always concisely communicate these in a way that executives understand. OCE consultants bring clarity of communication to the evaluation process for a technical solution. And this clarity results in a process that’s easy for the reseller to understand and use, and comfortable for the prospect to grasp and choose.

HOW IT WORKS

The Business Case is a solution overview that’s short on technical detail and long on questions that extract critical information and data about the client’s the business issues. It provides a framework and process that puts the answers to those questions into a Report of Findings and Recommended Action Plan to which the executive can say “yes.’ This usually collapses the sales process into a three to four week time frame.

There are two pieces to the tool:

1) A Standard Business Case has been created to help quickly identify, gather and document the information needed. Consists of detailed questions, tips and templates explaining how to create the proposal, prototype demo and competitive customer information and present the findings

2) Application and solution based modules that include product and solution content, industry specific trends, pains, questions, check lists and ROI calculation sheets.

Used together, the Standard Business Case and the application and solution-specific modules will help resellers better understand and analyze the business needs of the prospect. A very compact process, the overview section can be learned in only 90 minutes and Solution Specific Modules can be covered in about 30 minutes.

SOLUTION SPECIFIC MODULE CREATION OVERVIEW

Outsource Channel Executives will create product-specific modules for your products or solutions. The modules will stand alone for resellers who have been trained on the Business Case Overview. They will include the questions, check lists, ROI calculation sheets and competitive analysis guides. The printed material will be delivered to you in Adobe PDF format.

As an option, we can create a recorded training e-seminar of the appropriate length (15–30 minutes) for delivery on-demand via the Internet for your resellers. The training can be delivered in two configurations using streaming video for high-bandwidth connections and streaming audio for low-bandwidth connections. Hosting of the on-line training and Business Case modules can be done by you or by Outsource Channel Executives for a monthly charge.

LIVE E-SEMINAR TRAINING OPTION

Outsource Channel Executives, Inc. can deliver live, interactive e-seminar training to increase learning and retention.

ON-SITE TRAINING OPTION

Outsource Channel Executives, Inc. can deliver on-site training to groups to increase learning and retention.

ON-GOING CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Outsource Channel Executives, Inc. will provide non-technical e-mail support at no additional charge for users of the Business Case tools during the life of this product.

CONTENTS OF A SOLUTION SPECIFIC MODULE

We’ve learned that the resellers need certain information to make the module successful. The information requires a certain level of detail, but isn’t designed to replace existing training or marketing materials. Were appropriate, we can reference these materials as additional support available to the reseller.

We avoid detailed technical discussion and focus on how a client can address their business issues with the solution.

BUSINESS CASE – AN OVERVIEW

Delivers an overview of the Business Case process. Directs first-time users to the Business Case Overview.

OBJECTIVES

Outlines the objectives of this particular Business Case.

TRENDS IN THE MARKET

Reviews market trends and business opportunity, motivating a reseller to consider the solution. Includes researched facts and figures the reseller can use in their presentations.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR THE SOLUTION

Reviews the business issues that the solution addresses. Discusses these issues in a way that can be related to a line of business manager. Avoids technical discussions.

TOP INDUSTRIES’ CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Identifies and discusses the issues in the marketplace. Helps the reseller know where to prospect for business.

SCENARIOS

Includes a list of possible scenarios where the solution may be used. This gives the resellers an idea of where to look for opportunities in their market.

CUSTOMER VALUE

Clearly shows where customers find value in the solution from a business standpoint. Where appropriate, the value will be discussed at a department level, letting the reseller identify power players and have focused discussions about their unique issues.

RESELLER VALUE

Identifies why a reseller would be interested in offering this solution to their clients or prospect for new clients.

UP SELL AND CROSS SELL OPPORTUNITIES

This lists other sales opportunities that work with this solution. Cross reference other Business Case modules here.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Offers technical support for the Business Case process, supplied by Outsource Channel Executives.

(OPTIONAL) RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) CALCULATIONS

Where possible, identifies ROI opportunities and how to calculate them.

BUDGET CHECKLIST AND FUNDING SOURCES

Helps identify where to look for a budget or funding to purchase the solution.

EXECUTIVE QUESTIONS

What if you only have five minutes with the CEO? What questions do you ask to move the sale forward? Questions are crafted to identify issues at the department level as well as corporate level. These aren’t a replacement for the detailed questions, but what you could ask over coffee or in an elevator.

DETAILED QUESTIONS

The heart of the Business Case, these questions identify the motivations and issues facing a business manager. Specifically created to bring out the most important issues, these questions let a reseller quickly decide how to make a winning presentation. These questions fit into the standard Business Case’s question flow for a complete business case evaluation.

In this section, there will be very few closed questions (questions answerable with yes or no). For example, don’t start questions with “Do you…” or “Have you…” or “Will you…” Use open-ended questions that bring out the key criteria of a client’s needs. For example, these questions would start with, “Tell me about…” or “What impact would…” or “What would happen if…”

(OPTIONAL) LETTER OF INTENT

This is a sample letter of intent to help lock down the engagement if the client isn’t ready to go to contract. This section is covered in the Business Case Overview so we would include this if the solution requires a different letter of intent.

(OPTIONAL) SAMPLE CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

We recommend executing a confidentiality agreement before asking questions and delivering your report of findings. Here’s a sample that you can use. This section is covered in the Business Case Overview so we would include this if the solution requires unique provisions.

REQUIREMENTS CHECKLIST

Identifies the documents and information necessary to create a powerful and persuasive proposal.

(OPTIONAL) COMPETITIVE EVALUATION

If it’s possible to evaluate a client’s competition and their capabilities, it will be identified here. Sometimes, just the fact that the competitor is doing something is all the business justification required by a client. This section is covered broadly in the Business Case Overview.

REPORT OF FINDINGS AND PROPOSAL TEMPLATE

A sample report. Offers a cut and paste approach to building the report, building on the issues identified by the Business Case questions. This can include sections such as:

Overview of Objectives (Executive Summary) Services Predicted Outcomes Software Specs Hardware Specs

(OPTIONAL) PROTOTYPE SOLUTION

If your solution can easily build a prototype, include recommendations here.

BUSINESS CASE QUESTIONNAIRE

A complete list of questions with blanks for the reseller to use during their client interview.

THE CREATION PROCESS

It typically takes three weeks to create the Business Case, with the Optional training module requiring an additional week. The approval process includes a review of the Business Case Product-Specific Module by the (Subject Matter Expert) SME, resolution of SME’s questions with our consultants, recording of the training, and final acceptance of your manager for this project.

A typical authorship and approval process will be:

1. You requests that a product-specific module be created. We agree to the complexity of the project and the fee level. A project leader and SME are identified. Limit the number of SME’s/content providers or make one SME the Point of Contact.

2. SME submits materials for review by our consultants (1-2 days scheduled). The best materials are sales enablement kits, marketing material, “lunch and learn” materials, white papers, articles, industry reviews, etc.

3. SME and OCE consultant have a phone conference to discuss any outstanding questions (1-2 hours). We’ll ask questions about areas that we don’t feel that we have enough information to create the necessary training materials. We find that this phone discussion streamlines the creation process and eliminates unnecessary and costly rewrites.

4. OCE consultant creates the product-specific module and submits it to the SME for content review (1-3 days scheduled).

5. SME reviews the product-specific module for content-specific issues (1-2 hours). If you wish others to review the document, have them review it now. We recommend that you limit the number of people who will review the content and that they be familiar with the intention of the Business Case by reviewing this document first. If your reviewers don’t understand the intention of the Business Case, you may find that they are adding too much additional content or wish to take the Business Case in a direction that is outside of the scope of the project.

6. SME and OCE consultant review SME’s questions and concerns, negotiating the product-specific content changes (1 hour). This works best when you make notes on the Business Case document and then have a phone conversation with the author. We’ll review your position and if necessary explain our rationale for taking our position and negotiate language to create the outcome we both desire. An alternative is to mark up the document using MS Word’s “track changes” tools that we can then accept, modify, or reject. What doesn’t work well is faxed pages with notes.

7. OCE consultant makes negotiated changes to the product-specific module (1 hour to 1 day scheduled).

8. SME makes final review of changes for content accuracy (1-2 hours). Limit the number of final approvers to one or two. There should be no major changes at this time. This should be a final review of the document for issues. Now is NOT the time to send the document out for further peer review. Additional rewrites beyond this point will be charged a rewrite fee of 20 percent of the project fee.

9. Optional: OCE consultants designs and records the training module (1 day scheduled).

10. SME and project manager reviews training module for acceptance (1-2 hours).

11. Project released to resellers.

YOUR NEXT STEP

Contact us to discuss your specific needs and schedule a consultation to create an action plan and budget for you Business Case.

Contact Mark.Smith OCEinc.com.