Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case, Business Case Buying, Business Case Selling
Friday, January 28th, 2011
As with building skyscrapers, the temptation for sellers in building a business case is to add another floor of benefits in a bid to achieve the highest possible ROI for the buyer. However, it is important to remember that the higher the ROI, the greater the danger of the buyer simply toppling your figures. With this in mind, you need to help the buyer create a more credible business case on three levels…
Posted by Ray Collis
Buyer Risk
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
In an effort to minimize risk buyers are taking smaller steps as they progress towards major buying decisions.
Posted by Ray Collis
Why Buyers Buy
Monday, November 15th, 2010
As a salesperson it is easy to assume that buyers are obsessed with price, or more to the point getting the lowest price. But is that really true? Is it perhaps too easy to blame our sales failures on an unreasonable buyer obsession with price? Well, let’s ask buyers and in particular public sectors buyers. [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
The term business case can mean different things to different people. For this reason it is helpful to explain the key elements of a business case in terms of other more universally understood business planning and analysis tools. The business case combines four elements as shown in the diagram. Fig: The Building Blocks of the [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Predicting the future is not easy, but that is exactly what the business case must attempt to do. This is particularly true in a time of market turbulence. Today’s perfect plan could be completely invalidated by a change in the competitive situation, an upset in the market or any one of a host of other [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Why do buyers do what they do? Why do they choose one supplier over another and choose some projects to be scrapped, while others are advanced? These are questions that understandably intrigue salespeople. Buyers tend to reveal little, leaving many salespeople complaining that they don’t know what buyers are thinking. They may even complain buyers [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
One of the most powerful realizations for sellers is that when it comes to the complex sale there are no buying decisions, only business decisions. The implication is that buying decisions which in the past focused on the what, where, when and how, are now purely concerned with the ‘why?’ Peel back the layers of [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Would you be surprised to know that many large organizations require a business case for purchases of as little as €20,000? As one UK veteran salesperson told us recently, ‘I have seen more business cases in the past year than I have in the previous 19 years.’ There is more strategic business logic being applied [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Why is the business case so important? Well, the key reasons the business case is now at the center of major buying decisions are listed below. The business case: 1 Drives business success: It ensures any projects, purchases or investments enable the organization to achieve its objectives. 2 Allocates scarce resources to maximum effect [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
The business case can take many forms, but at its core is one key question — why should we buy? or more to the point: How will this purchase help the organization (department/unit) succeed? The business case clearly outlines the value equation of the proposed purchase that reflects not only costs, benefits and risk, but [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
The business case requires much more than a cost-benefit analysis — that is too simplistic for complex business decisions. For example, a more in-depth analysis would highlight that while the payback from project A might be twice that of project B, this benefit may be negated when higher levels of risk are considered. Managers are [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
A business case is an economic argument for investing in a project or purchase. However, it is not purely economic, but also political. In this context the successful business case will involve a process of extensive involvement with stakeholders and will be written, or at least reviewed, by cross-functional committees. This is essential to creating [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Clearly one of the key trends in respect of organizational buying is the movement towards the application of business logic to business decisions. It is clear that features and benefits will not swing the big sale, forcing the seller to address the key economic, strategic and political issues if the purchase is to be sanctioned. [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying, Uncategorized
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
When the numbers of the cost-benefit equation stack up and an attractive payback is evident, even making allowance for risk and compliance, is the result a compelling business case? Perhaps not, because managers must demonstrate that the project fits with the pre-existing jig-saw of organizational priorities, goals and strategies. They must demonstrate the purchase will [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010
There Is No Getting Away From ‘The Business Case’ ‘When all you have got is a hammer everything looks like a nail’. Well this principle clearly seems to apply to the buying decision. There is simply no getting away from the business case when it comes to dealing with today’s buyers. Here are just 3 [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Why Buyers Buy
Monday, August 16th, 2010
There is a word we find ourselves using more and more in respect of managing sales cycles and that seems to keep coming up again in reviewing pipeline opportunities and accounts. That is COMPLICATING FACTORS. When it comes to the complex sale, things are never straightforward. There are certain to be complicating factors. Understanding what [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Buyer Risk, Tips for Sellers
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
Selling Technology to Increasingly Cautious Buyers If analysts are to be believed, then as many as 2 out of 3 IT projects go south (Standish Group 2003). That is they go over budget, fall behind schedule or gets scrapped. So, according to the statistics, then as many as 2 out of 3 buyers will have have [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Buyer Risk
Friday, August 6th, 2010
Finding the issue of trust a little difficult to deal with? Well, look at it interms of the buyer’s risk can help. Specifically the risk of making the wrong buying decision and the consequences in terms of; embarrassment, annoyance and cost. Your concern for and efforts to reduce the buyer’s risk are probably the most effective [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Business Case Buying
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
We met with some pharma buyers around a barbeque recently. Although the food was rich, the talk was of lean. Lean manufacturing, lean distribution, lean marketing and of course lean buying! Naturally ‘lean’ is a word that appeals to buyers, more than sellers. That is because rather than spending more it means: Doing more for [...]
Posted by Ray Collis
Why Buyers Buy
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Indeed, to understand the full complexity of the purchase requires that the salesperson ‘walks a mile in the buyers shoes’. That is because as the Spanish puts it ‘it is much easier to be in the bullring, than to talk about bulls’
