Sales and Business Case Development

Company executives are often very confident about their products, and will sometimes say that a product is so good, it sells itself. While the product in question may be good, as a rule, all products need a sales workforce to sell them.

The Science of Better Learning

Companies rely on sales to generate income. Whether the product is tangible, like a laptop computer, or intangible, like an insurance policy, it needs to be sold. Sales is linked to marketing. It is the Marketing Department's responsibility to create the image and identify the market for the product.

Answer the questions to compare and contrast the roles of marketing and sales in your own organization with the roles outlined in the topic.

The sales environment encompasses many different roles. These roles can vary in complexity and in the range of responsibilities that go with them. Successful salespeople must solve problems and provide the right solutions for customers.

The complex and often pressurized sales environment can be a harsh place for employees. However, there are certain key competencies that, if mastered, can prove to be very beneficial for a career in sales.

Professional selling is a discipline that's constantly changing. New theories and techniques are briefly heralded as the next great advancement in sales management. But all too often, they're quickly dismissed as obsolete, as newer trends emerge and require salespeople to adapt and update their skills and attitudes to remain competitive.

The buyer-seller relationship is finely balanced and subject to constant change. This is because buyers have become more knowledgeable, and their expectations have grown as a result. They expect salespeople to be as well informed as they are about products.

Key competencies for sales synoptic table

In all professions, there are some people who are good at their jobs and others who aren't. In sales, it's easy to tell the two apart. Good salespeople are patient, understanding, and knowledgeable about the products they're selling. They take a genuine interest in the needs of the buyer and will try to provide solutions to satisfy the buyer's needs.

Sales professionals use various models of consumer behavior to learn what makes consumers buy products and services. This topic uses the buying decision process as a model. Each step in the process is subject to the influence of internal and external factors that ultimately impact the buying decision.

In addition to examining the buying decision process, salespeople must consider the actual buyers themselves. There are two categories of buyer, consumer and organizational. Consumers are often referred to as the final customer by sales professionals, and their purchases are for personal, family, or household use. Organizational buyers include producers, resellers, governments, and institutions.

Though there are different versions of the process, several common elements remain the same. The approach covered in this topic has five stages:

1. finding potential buyers
2. qualifying
3. presentation
4. closing the sale
5. asking for referrals

The first stage of the sales process is finding potential buyers. This is also called prospecting. By taking the proper approach to this stage, sales professionals can save time and achieve greater market penetration.

The third stage of the sales process is presentation. This is when the seller tells the prospective buyer about the product's merits. To achieve success at this stage, a seller needs to know the product and the customer. The more information a seller has on each, the better the presentation will be.

There five stages in the sales process.

In this course, you will learn how to plan, write, and present a business case to persuade key decision makers in your organization that your proposal is a winning initiative.

This course will show you the principles for preparing an effective business case, and it will guide you through the writing process, from defining your business need and gathering relevant information, right through to assessing the financial impact of your solution.

The most obvious reason for putting together a business case is to persuade your organization to invest in a new project. However, a business case is not just a financial document.

It is important that you know when it is appropriate to write a business case, and that you have a clear vision of what you hope to achieve with it.

A business case is, above all, a selling tool. You use a business case to persuade senior executives in your organization that your proposed project is more deserving of budget approval than other competing bids.

You use a business case to convince the decision makers in your organization that your project is deserving of resources.

The basic components in a business case include a current and pro forma balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow analysis.

When evaluating your business case, company decision makers are interested in how your proposed project intends to reach customers and create sales. You present this information within the marketing components section of your business case.

1. Choose your business idea
2. Define your business objective
3. Determine the functions of your business case
4. Prepare a generic structure of a business case (marketing components included)
5. Research your business idea by needed topics and using appropriate research methods
6. Analyze and compile results of research
7. Align business idea, strategy and processes
8. Determine the best angle to sell your business case
9. Write your business case content
10. Adapt your business case to various decision makers
11. Emphasize high impact elements
12. Prepare to sell your business case

An effective business case must be well written, interesting, to the point, and able to communicate a message to the reader effectively.

For your project to be a success, you must complete a cost and benefit analysis to establish whether

• all benefits are identified and quantified within the business solution
• qualitative benefits are clarified and incorporated into the business solution
• high-level benefits are authorized and all assumptions are approved by the relevant department
• unproductive elements of the business case can be eliminated

You need to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), as well as any risks associated with implementing the solution.

A powerful tool for measuring performance, Activity-based Costing (ABC) is used to identify, describe, assign costs to, and report on agency operations.

A more accurate cost-management system than traditional cost accounting, ABC identifies opportunities to improve business-process effectiveness and efficiency by determining the "true" cost of a product or service.

It is important to research the costs, benefits, assumptions, and constraints associated with a project, and to include your findings in your business case.

The decision makers who read your business case need this information in order to weigh the pros and cons of the project. You need to know how to identify and categorize the costs and benefits of your project.

Certain departments within your company can assist you in building your business case. In most companies, these can be broadly classified into seven categories: Research and Development, Facilities and Equipment, Materials and Supplies, Sales and Marketing, Financial Services, Legal Services, and Human Resources.

Certain departments within your company can assist you in building your business case. In most companies, these can be broadly classified into seven categories: Research and Development, Facilities and Equipment, Materials and Supplies, Sales and Marketing, Financial Services, Legal Services, and Human Resources.

Mismatches between corporate and project strategies are a major cause of project failure.

A company's strategy integrates the company's major goals, policies, and actions into a coherent whole.

A business case is written to provide company decision makers with the data they need to determine the viability of investment in your project.

In order to convey your message effectively, it's worth devoting some time to researching the people to whom the case will be presented.

Users of your business case may need to refer to the case to stay focused, to remain committed to your product or service idea, and to explain the basic concept to new managers should management change during the development phase.

When you are preparing a business case, you must include the information that is relevant to, and will influence, the decision makers. Different decision makers have different expectations from business proposals.

The layout and design of your business-case document can help you get your case approved. Valid research and good writing are essential components of an effective business case. However, creating a document that is easy to read and professional looking can help to ensure that your business case is read.

The production of a good business-case document involves designating the writer or writers, organizing the content, and implementing layout and design guidelines for the finished document.

However, this does not mean that everyone on the team will write a section of the business case.

Background

This is a business case for usability in an organization. It is based on academic research, industrial research, case studies, consulting experience, and common knowledge found in the usability community.

Course wrap up and summary

You think knowing stuff changes the game? You think sitting in a library, stacking up facts like you’re building a Jenga tower, is gonna make you a winner? Man, that’s cute. But life ain't a trivia night. Information alone? It’s worthless. It’s like having a Lamborghini in your garage but you never learned how to drive. You just sit in it, making engine noises. Vroom vroom. People walk by, they see the car, but they also see you ain't going nowhere. You got all this knowledge, all these textbooks, but when life throws a punch, you’re still looking up the definition of "duck." It’s what you *do* with that information that actually matters. Don't be the person with the shiny car and no keys.