2. Steps to Present the Business Case
1. Understand the Perceptions
2. Enlist Business Allies
3. Test Your Message
4. Hold the Calls
5. Stick to the Facts
6. Make the Problem ‘Real’
7. Do NOT Improvise
8. Insist on Immediate Action
9. Have a Clear Next Step
4. Understand the Perceptions
• Review any previous presentations that have been given on
the subject
• Engage informal influencers on the audience of the
presentation to gain insight to the audiences understanding
of the system / problem
• Research the background of the audience to understand
their concern points
5. Enlist Business Allies
• Use business allies to provide more than one dimension
to your presentation
• Present the problem as robust as possible
• Ensure to list the support of as many business allies as
possible as well as their reasons for being behind the
project
6. Test Your Message
• Enlist a few people, some supportive of your cause and
some against it and ask them to preview your presentation
• Deliver the presentation to your test group
7. Hold the Calls
• It’s a fair assumption that your target audience has a lot of
demands for their time during the day
• Ensure there is only one agenda item on the meeting where
you intend to present
• If you target audience has personal assistants then work
with them
• If your target audience manages their own schedule it may
warrant a one on one discussion before the presentation
9. Stick to the Facts
• Avoid trying to over educate your audience on detailed
processes or technology
• Focus on the risks of continuing on with the existing
process or system
• Use your business allies to help your expand on your risks
and consequences of remaining with the existing process or
system
10. Make the Problem “Real”
• Discussing a problem that is abstract will draw the
statement ‘This isn’t happening yet, so why should we make
changes?’
• Bring strong visuals to your presentation
• Research examples of companies where catastrophic
systems or process failure caused severe consequences to
customers
11. Do NOT Improvise
• Before your meeting prepare a best case, worst case, and
likely case scenario
• Do not develop “What if” scenarios on the fly, they will
likely be vague and built on opinion instead of facts
• Only speak to your prepared cases if the topic is brought up
by the audience
• Be prepared to defend your best case, worst case, and likely
case scenario assumptions and expected outcomes
12. Insist on Immediate Action
• Avoid trying to tell your audience how to do their job, and
what their priorities should be
• Ensure your presentation is infused with a sense of urgency
around the problem you are describing
• Provide a static timeline and make sure you highlight risk
and cost changes as time goes by
• Be prepared to defend how your timeline was created and
what your sources for escalating risk or costs are
13. Have a Clear Next Step
• Provide a single recommended solution and the reasons
that that solution is recommended
• Ask that your audience sell the project upwards to their
managers or executives
• Ensure that the audience understands how imperative it is
that they take the next step or provide their support to the
solution and business case
P1Look for usable collateral such as risk assessment and cost projectsBe sure to verify the collateral before incorporating itP2Ask questions like, Are they aware of the problem, do they understand the cause, do they consider it an important issue, where do they stand on these kinds of issues (process, tech, cost, etc)This will help you tailor your presentation to the type of issues the audience holds dearP3Technical backgrounds might respond better to a technical presentation while financial backgrounds might respond better to a cost focused presentation
P1If one aspect of the process or technology is out of date, likely so are the processes and technologies that touch the pain pointP3Examples of Allies would be those;Directly affected by outages, failures, staff losesConcerned about cost of maintaining an aging process or systemFeeling the business is being held back by not making the change
P2Be sure to gauge the reaction of both the supportive members and the members that are againstLikely a lot of discussion will be generated between the two camps in the room, be sure to take notes regarding the points they raise to either incorporate them or defend against them when delivering your presentation to the target audienceBefore the meeting ask a member supportive of your cause to play ‘devil’s advocate’ in case the members against your cause don’t feel they can speak up
P2This will prevent other items from running long and you not having enough time to present all your material, or, cutting you short to move on to other items.P3This will ensure that the correct amount of time is blocked off and that they are aware of how important it is that their boss attend and are able to focus on the presentationP4Again to ensure they understand the importance of their attendance and focus to the presentation
P1this takes up a significant amount of time and doesn’t really help illustrate the problemP2Costs associated with maintenanceRisk of downtime and catastrophic failure (staff sickness, technology failures)Comparison to competing companiesSupport situation with vendors \\ trading partnersStaff that fully understand the existing system and the surrounding risk of losing that staff
P2If there are manual process workarounds to system failure bring in the manual forms as well as a contrast of current process time to work around time during catastrophic failureIf your business is “customer centric” try to provide quantitative differences to the customer experience in the case of system outage or catastrophic system failureP3Comair’s legacy crew-scheduling software failed on Christmas Eve 2004, costing the company $20 million and stranding 200,000 passengers when 3,900 flights were delayed or cancelled
P1Include timeline, cost, effort, expectations of success, and ultimate results and ROIP2This will weaken your case for change and distract your audience in detailed discussion that is not effective in proving your caseP3Bringing up these cases unprovoked may cause detailed discussions that are off topic as your audience may have differing opinions on your assumptionsP4Have sources ready, have experiences from other companies to cite, etc.
P1Include cost, time, effort, likelihood of success, roi, etc…May want to list discarded solutions to show due diligenceIf doing this be prepared to list reasons they were discardedP2if they aren’t the final decision makersPrepare a list of actions the audience can take to move forward with solving the problem \\ selling the solution you are presenting
