My Business Case (Value Calculator) Looks Like My Competitors

In a recent conversation, a client was frustrated because his competitor’s business case for a potential customer looked almost identical to his own. He felt a bit down because he believed his offering was superior and was proud of his business case.

Competitors often end up with similar business cases for a few reasons:

1.     Similar Performance: Sometimes, competing offerings perform similarly. When comparing alternatives, the differences don’t lead to significantly different or measurable outcomes.

2.     Shared Data: Competitors might use the same data to predict improvements. For example, suppose two companies offer value-selling training but don’t have data for their clients’ results. In that case, both might rely on third-party studies showing that value sellers outperform traditional sellers by 2x. If so, their value calculations will be the same.

3.     Comparison to the Status Quo: Value is comparative – we can't estimate the value of one option without comparing it to another. I asked my client what alternative was used in the competing business cases. He answered both business cases compared their offering to the status quo, assuming the customer would continue their current approach indefinitely.

Today, most customers won't consider a change unless their current method is clearly failing them. If your offering doesn’t present a compelling value proposition for improving a flawed solution, you have bigger problems than just building effective business cases.

Both competitors had strong business cases for why the customer should adopt a new approach. However, at this point in the sales process, customers are more interested in comparing the new offerings to each other. Neither vendor had developed this comparison, which is much more challenging – a topic for post on another day.

Having a business case for moving away from the status quo is crucial because your customer needs a compelling argument to get funding for any change. Often, there’s a two-step sales process:

✅ Convincing the customer that the status quo is less profitable, followed by

✅ Proving how your offering is better than the target customer’s next-best alternative to the status quo.

To make our business cases and value estimates more effective, we need to understand what question the customer wants answered. Are they seeking justification for trying something new, or do they want to understand the value difference between competing new alternatives?

👉 How have you made your business cases and value calculators more effective?