I was recently working with three different clients who had their own version of the same challenge: how do you get someone to buy into their offer:
- Senior design manager seeking promotion to director
- Founder selling a product with proven revenue-generating benefits
- Founder selling a product meant to reduce risk exposure
Despite their different situations, these clients were dealing with the same fundamental challenge: how to make the strongest case for their offer.
People typically try to argue their case using one of three arguments:
- Effort & tenure—how hard you've worked on something or how long you've been with the company
- Abstract savings—how much money you've saved (or would save) the company through your work or service
- Technical features & expertise—how smart or skilled you are or how powerful your software is ("speeds and feeds")
The problem with these approach is they are framed from the vendor or employee's perspective. I worked hard on this, our product prevented you from spending more, our features are the most innovative.
This is a pattern I've seen repeatedly throughout my coaching career.
Smart, capable professionals pour their hearts into their work, yet struggle to get buy-in because they can't effectively communicate its value. They hope the quality of their work will speak for itself.
It rarely does.
The truth? The most compelling business cases aren't about who you are or what you've accomplished—they're about what value you're going to create:
- Measurable upside—what concrete future benefits can I expect by accepting your offer? Think increased sales, higher profit margins, better employee retention when buying your product, service, or hiring you.
- Narrative opportunity—what story can I tell myself about accepting your offer? My company stays on the cutting-edge, I'm a smart capital allocator, I'm a manager who cares about people.
- Protecting downside—how does accepting your offer increase my likelihood of success while reducing the possibility of a failure (or worse, embarrassment)?
Impact vs Opportunity
My senior manager client was stuck in a "look at what I've done" mindset. She'd meticulously documented her past achievements but hadn't connected them to business impact or future value.
"What will the company gain by promoting you that they wouldn't get otherwise?" I asked.
Her gears started turning. She talked about the chief product officer just embraced the new vision she developed with her VP. It would require overhauling significant aspects of the product, which was to become more cohesive and integrated.
"That vision has your fingerprints all over it. He'd be stupid to let you go after that."
The pitch stopped being about what she had done, and more about her value in leading this redesign.
Revenue vs Cost Savings
The revenue product founder had built out a great presentation and a robust outbound sales pipeline, but focused primarily on how much the software outperformed a contractor.
"If they were to hire someone to do this work, it would cost 4-5x more easily" he said.
The crucial word there was "if".
The reality is that every product competes with the status quo: do nothing. His prospects weren't weighing one decision against another, so his project cost-savings pitch fell flat.
"How much new revenue are you bringing in the door for your clients?" I asked.
One client recently received a $980,000 check they'd been chasing for months. Nearly $1M finally in the bank, ready to be used.
"More cash on hand in the business every month—that's your value proposition."
The amount a company could expect varies based on factors like total outstanding invoice amounts and their ages. But for nearly every company, the idea of keeping more of what you rightfully earned—and getting it faster—creates a compelling narrative.
Quantifying Risk
The risk-reduction founder had a similar challenge: he was stuck framing his tool as an alternative to hiring more risk analysts. When I challenged him on this, he told:
"The real benefit is helping protect them from regulatory fines but that's hard to quantify"
Hard but not impossible. We pulled out a spreadsheet in the session and started working the numbers.
Using some simple assumptions (regulatory changes made per month, number of product lines, chance of violation, average fine etc) we were able to model the multi-million dollar risk exposure this product could remove.
This product not only protected the company but offered a cost that would grow far more slowly than hiring additional analysts—something they'd inevitably need as the company expanded.
That's a quantifiable win the executive sponsor can highlight in their year-end summary. It positions the executive as a strategic hero to the CEO while freeing up budget for their team to invest elsewhere.
Putting This Into Practice
Remember, a business case isn't about proving you're good—it's about proving you're valuable. And in business, value is always ultimately expressed in numbers that tell a story about the future.
Consider a customer retention initiative. Instead of saying "I'll improve customer satisfaction," build the narrative with numbers: "Our current churn rate of 8% costs us $2.4M annually in lost revenue. By implementing this retention program, we'll reduce churn to 5% within 12 months—that's $900K in incremental revenue in year one, growing to $1.8M annually as our customer base expands. Over three years, this single initiative will generate $4.2M in revenue that would otherwise walk out the door."
This is not a cost savings story. It's a story of expansion and growth.
Those retained customers don't just maintain their current spending; they expand their accounts, refer new business, and provide the stable revenue foundation that allows for confident investment in new initiatives.
If you're struggling to articulate your value—whether for a promotion, product, or project—here's my framework for building a compelling business case:
1. Avoid the three common traps. Stop leading with effort and tenure, abstract savings, or technical features. These arguments are framed from your perspective, not theirs.
2. Frame your value in terms of upside, not cost avoidance. Instead of "this will save you money," say "this will make you money." People buy growth much more readily than they buy savings. Focus on measurable upside (increased revenue, higher margins, better retention), narrative opportunity (the story they can tell about being strategic), and downside protection (reducing risk of failure or embarrassment).
3. Open a spreadsheet and do the math. Don't make them connect the dots—draw the lines for them. Model the specific financial impact using real numbers. For revenue impact, calculate exactly how much new cash flow they can expect. For risk mitigation, quantify their current exposure and show how much you'll reduce it. Make your assumptions transparent so they can correct them (and start owning the business case).
4. Connect to their growth story. Show how your value compounds as the organization scales. A promotion isn't just about your current contributions—it's about your ability to handle bigger challenges. A product isn't just solving today's problem—it's enabling tomorrow's growth without proportional increases in cost or risk.
5. Prepare them for the second-level conversation. Your boss needs to defend your promotion to their boss. Your champion needs to justify your product to their CFO. Give them clear, compelling talking points that will stand up to scrutiny. What specific numbers can they cite? What strategic narrative can they tell? How will this decision make them look smart to their stakeholders?
6. Test their commitment. If they're not willing to invest something meaningful to unlock the value you've outlined, how bought-in are they really? This might mean co-investing in implementation, putting down a deposit, or committing to specific success metrics. Real commitment requires skin in the game.
