Build a Business Case Without Inventing ROI
Help a buyer organize its own evidence with documented sources and assumptions.
The buyer moment
A prospect wants a business case but has no verified baseline for time, cost, or risk.
A business case can be useful before exact savings are known. Suppose a support team says supervisors spend Fridays reconciling three reports. Record the observed work, its owner, and the source of any time estimate. Then let the buyer decide whether the issue deserves measurement. Avoid turning a vendor benchmark into the customer’s forecast. A simple assumptions table—source, confidence, owner, and validation date—gives finance a way to improve the case while keeping the seller’s contribution factual and transparent.
A useful way to open
“What evidence do you already trust about the current process, even if it is incomplete?”
Move the decision forward
A credible business case can begin with ranges, observed workflow friction, and a plan to validate assumptions. It should never present seller guesses as customer facts.
Coach reps to label assumptions, ask who owns the data, and separate a hypothesis from a committed outcome.
Practice before the next call
Roleplay a buyer who asks, “What ROI do your other customers get?” Practice bringing the conversation back to their own evidence.
Next step
Create a simple assumptions sheet with source, owner, confidence level, and validation date.
Practice these next
Create an escalation path when a pilot has activity but no person accountable for a decision.
Use comparison requests to uncover the decision criteria behind the checklist.
Expand stakeholder access while keeping the champion informed and helpful.
Reframe the conversation around the new leader’s priorities without erasing prior work.
Keep a roadmap conversation useful while respecting what is approved and committed.
Keep buyer experience clear when direct and partner teams overlap.