[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":144},["ShallowReactive",2],{"lesson-/academy/account-executive/build-a-business-case-in-sales":3},{"path":4,"data":5,"html":48,"toc":49,"prev":62,"next":112,"track":116},"/academy/account-executive/build-a-business-case-in-sales",{"title":6,"description":7,"primaryQuery":8,"secondaryQueries":9,"module":13,"order":14,"tier":15,"intent":16,"asset":17,"publishedAt":20,"author":21,"reviewedAt":22,"relatedTool":23,"challenge":24,"exercise":45},"Build a Business Case: Turn Outcomes Into Value a Buyer Can Defend","A business case is how the buyer sells your deal internally. Build it from their own numbers: what the problem costs today, what fixing it saves or earns, and the payback. You don't invent ROI — you pull the buyer's numbers, sanity-check them with the champion, and write it up so anyone in the committee can defend the purchase. Value the buyer can defend is what turns a liked demo into an approved deal.","how to build a business case in sales",[10,11,12],"sales business case","how to quantify value in sales","roi business case for a sale",3,2,"A","informational",{"type":18,"title":19},"worksheet","The business-case worksheet: cost today → value of the fix → payback","2026-09-10","closers","2026-09-24",null,{"type":25,"id":26,"brief":27,"buckets":28,"items":31},"sort","ae-m3-l2-business-case","Which of these belongs in a defensible business case?",[29,30],"Defensible case","Not defensible",[32,35,38,40,42],{"key":33,"text":34},0,"A made-up ROI percentage you invented to look impressive",{"key":36,"text":37},1,"The payback period and the cost of doing nothing",{"key":14,"text":39},"The cost of the problem today, from the buyer's own numbers",{"key":13,"text":41},"What the fix saves or earns, checked with your champion",{"key":43,"text":44},4,"Feature-by-feature pricing with no link to value",{"prompt":46,"successCriteria":47},"Classify each as defensible or not, then draft the three lines of a business case for a deal you know — cost today, value of the fix, payback.","You can build a case from the buyer's own numbers that your champion could present to a committee without you in the room.","\u003Cp>A \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/demo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">demo\u003C/a> makes the buyer like the product; a \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/value-proposition/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">business case\u003C/a> makes them able to buy it. The case is how your \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/champion/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">champion\u003C/a> sells your deal to everyone who wasn't in the room — the \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/decision-making-unit/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">decision-maker\u003C/a> who signs, the \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/evaluation-criteria/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">evaluators\u003C/a> who judge it, the finance person who checks the math. If they can't defend the value, the deal stalls, no matter how good the demo was.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"build-it-from-their-numbers-not-yours\">Build it from their numbers, not yours\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The single rule of a defensible case: every number in it comes from the buyer. You don't invent ROI — you surface it. Walk through what the \u003Ca href=\"/academy/account-executive/find-the-real-pain/\">problem\u003C/a> costs them today (the hours, the missed deals, the errors), what fixing it saves or earns, and how that compares to the price. Your \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/champion/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">champion\u003C/a> will correct the numbers and, in doing so, take ownership of the case.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"the-structure-that-survives-a-committee\">The structure that survives a committee\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>A case that holds up has three parts:\u003C/p>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Cost today.\u003C/strong> What is the problem costing them in money, time, and missed growth? Use their figures.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Value of the fix.\u003C/strong> What changes when it's solved — and how does that beat the cost?\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Payback and urgency.\u003C/strong> How fast do they get their money back, and what does doing nothing cost while they wait?\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ol>\n\u003Cp>Write it in one page, in their language, with their numbers. That page is what your \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/champion/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">champion\u003C/a> hands to a \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/procurement/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">procurement\u003C/a> review or a \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/vendor-evaluation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vendor evaluation\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"where-the-case-connects-to-everything-else\">Where the case connects to everything else\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The case is the through-line of the whole deal. It shapes the \u003Ca href=\"/academy/account-executive/how-to-run-a-sales-demo/\">demo\u003C/a> you run, it becomes the core of the \u003Ca href=\"/academy/account-executive/write-a-sales-proposal/\">proposal\u003C/a> you write, and it's the anchor for \u003Ca href=\"/academy/account-executive/write-a-sales-proposal/\">the price you put on it\u003C/a>. Value isn't a slide you tack on at the end — it's the argument the entire deal is built on.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"start-here\">Start here\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Once you can quantify the value, the next skill is making sure you prove it to the people who matter — \u003Ca href=\"/academy/account-executive/how-to-run-a-sales-demo/\">demoing to the decision-maker, the evaluator, and the champion\u003C/a>, each in the language they'll defend.\u003C/p>\n",[50,53,56,59],{"id":51,"text":52},"build-it-from-their-numbers-not-yours","Build it from their numbers, not yours",{"id":54,"text":55},"the-structure-that-survives-a-committee","The structure that survives a committee",{"id":57,"text":58},"where-the-case-connects-to-everything-else","Where the case connects to everything else",{"id":60,"text":61},"start-here","Start here",{"path":63,"title":64,"description":65,"module":13,"order":36,"kind":66,"practiceCall":67,"core":111},"/academy/account-executive/how-to-run-a-sales-demo","How to Run a Sales Demo: Prove Outcomes, Not Features","A demo that lands proves the buyer's outcomes, not your feature list. Open by restating their problem and the outcomes you'll show, demo the product only as it maps to those outcomes, handle objections as they come, and end by tying what they saw to their decision process and timeline. A feature tour shows what the product does; an outcome-led demo shows what it will do for them.","order",{"persona":68,"industry":69,"objection":70,"difficulty":71,"goal":72,"difficultyOptions":73,"deal":75,"voice":110,"assessment":110},"ae_economic_buyer","saas","we-tried-that","standard","Run an outcome-led demo — prove the value you agreed solves Marcus's real problem, handle his 'we tried that' skepticism, and land a clear next step toward the proposal.",[71,74],"brutal",{"company":76,"product":77,"valueProp":78,"buyer":79,"benefits":80,"downsides":84,"features":88,"battlecards":94,"pricing":107,"competitors":108,"proof":109},"Northwind","a revenue platform that unifies pipeline, forecast and call activity in one view","sales leaders forecast with confidence and stop chasing reps for updates","the VP of Sales (the economic buyer who owns the number)",[81,82,83],"forecast accuracy without chasing reps for updates","pipeline, calls and forecast in one view","rep-level coaching from real call data",[85,86,87],"a real implementation — weeks, not days","needs clean CRM data to work","priced for mid-market and up",[89,90,91,92,93],"unified pipeline, forecast and call activity in one view","forecast roll-ups by rep, team and segment","call recording and transcription with deal-level notes","two-way CRM sync (Salesforce / HubSpot)","rep-level coaching scorecards from real calls",[95,99,103],{"competitor":96,"weWin":97,"theyWin":98},"Clari","call-level coaching data Clari does not surface, and a mid-market rollout your RevOps lead can run without a services contract","deeper forecast AI, an enterprise base your board has heard of, and a renewal already in motion",{"competitor":100,"weWin":101,"theyWin":102},"the CRM's built-in dashboards","real call data and coaching, not pipeline fields a rep can shade","already paid for, zero new vendor, and no security review",{"competitor":104,"weWin":105,"theyWin":106},"doing nothing until next quarter","board pressure does not wait for the budget window — a pilot inside this quarter gives the CFO a number to argue with","no risk, no procurement, and the miss may have been seasonal","annual contract from ~$30k, tiered by seats","Clari and their existing CRM dashboards","a 300-rep org cut forecast error from 18% to 6%",false,true,{"path":113,"title":114,"description":115,"module":13,"order":13,"kind":66,"practiceCall":23,"core":111},"/academy/account-executive/write-a-sales-proposal","Write a Sales Proposal the Buyer Can Defend","A sales proposal's real job is to let the buyer say yes and defend it internally. Write it from their discovery: restate the problem and the agreed outcomes, the solution that delivers them, the value and business case, the terms and price, and a clear next step. It should read like a plan the champion wrote — so anyone in the committee can approve it without you in the room.",{"slug":117,"title":118,"shortTitle":119,"crumb":119,"path":120,"positioning":121,"totalLessons":122,"modules":123},"account-executive","Certified Account Executive (CAE)","Account Executive Certification","/academy/account-executive","The free certification for the promotion from SDR — learning to run the full deal, from discovery and demo to negotiation and the close. The AE is the closer.",27,[124,127,130,133,137,140],{"id":36,"name":125,"lessonCount":43,"description":126},"The Promotion: SDR to AE","What changes when you move from booking meetings to owning a book and a revenue quota — and why the AE is the closer — 4 core lessons.",{"id":14,"name":128,"lessonCount":43,"description":129},"Discovery at AE Depth","Full discovery and multi-stakeholder qualification — the pain, the money, the people and the path to yes — 4 lessons.",{"id":13,"name":131,"lessonCount":43,"description":132},"Demo, Value and the Proposal","Turn discovery into a demo and proposal the buyer can defend internally — 4 lessons.",{"id":43,"name":134,"lessonCount":135,"description":136},"Negotiation and the Close",5,"Price, concessions and the final objections — then the ask. The AE is the closer — 5 lessons.",{"id":135,"name":138,"lessonCount":43,"description":139},"Pipeline, Forecast and Quota","Run a real book: honest pipeline, forecasting, and hitting a revenue quota — 4 lessons.",{"id":141,"name":142,"lessonCount":141,"description":143},6,"Getting Hired as an AE","Land the AE job — resume, interview answers, comp plan, and the certification assessment — 6 lessons.",1792888517422]