Business case template
A business case is a one-page document that tells the buyer's decision makers what to do, why now, what it will return and what it costs. A good one is written in the buyer's numbers and co-signed by your champion, so finance reads it as their team's recommendation, not your pitch.
- Who owns it
- Your SC or AE drafts it from discovery. The champion supplies the numbers and puts their name on it.
- When to use it
- Before the deal goes to finance or the economic buyer
- When the buyer asks "what's the ROI?"
- When the decision is between you and doing nothing
The template
- 1.
Title
The outcome, not the product. Write it the way the buyer would describe the win.
Example: Cut returns handling across 14 depots and get the hours back by Q3
- 2.
Headline
Who should do what, by when, and why now. State the outcome in a number. Five sentences at most.
Example: Northwind operations should move every depot onto one returns process by 30 June, before peak. Handling is costing about 2,600 hours a quarter and rising with volume. Doing it now saves an estimated £410k a year.
- 3.
Problem statements
One sentence of context, then three problems, each with a number: a cost, a time or a risk.
Example: Each depot runs returns its own way. Handling takes 11 minutes a parcel against a 4-minute benchmark.
- 4.
Recommended approach
What to put in place, by when, and how it fits what they run today. Then why this approach beats the alternatives, including doing nothing.
- 5.
Target outcomes
The total return, then a small table: metric, today, target. Show how each figure is worked out and label estimates as estimates.
- 6.
Required investment
Cost, the people and time needed from the buyer, and the dates for scoping, signature and go-live.
Examples use Northwind Freight, a made-up company.
What good looks like
- The numbers came from the buyer, and the buyer can say where
- It fits on one page. Detail goes in an appendix nobody has to read
- It names the cost of waiting a quarter, not only the return
- Your champion would sign it as their own recommendation
In a Deal Room
In a Deal Room the business case is drafted from your discovery notes and call recordings, edited with the champion, and shared as one link that tells you when finance opens it. We can print it and post it to the CFO as a bound pack, with a QR back to the room.