Partnering With the CIO: The Future of IT Sales Seen Through the Eyes of Key Decision Makers

Developing a Solid Business Case

Many of the CIOs we interviewed told us stories about sitting through business case presentations that were largely irrelevant to their specific business challenges.

Several years ago, it would have been okay to assume that a business case written about a company within an industry in one vertical would be relevant to a prospect at another company in the same vertical.

It is no longer safe to make that assumption. Today, any business case that you present must be directly relevant to the target audience. For example, if you’re selling to a manufacturer, the business case that you present should be directly relevant to the experiences of that manufacturer.

A well written business case recently helped a sales account team at SAS Institute win a major contract and deepen its relationship with a client. Here’s the story in brief.

In mid-2004, a major telecom decided that it needed a large-scale CRM solution and approached several IT suppliers with an RFP (request for proposal). As the suppliers responded to the RFP, it became apparent that the cost of a large implementation would be an insurmountable hurdle. So the telecom decided to scale down the project.

The field of competitors quickly narrowed to SAS and another supplier. SAS decided to differentiate itself by developing a detailed business case analysis that clearly defined the value of its product suite.

The sales account team determined that a strong business case would be an important element ...