Question

Topic: Strategy

How Do I Make A Business Case ?

Posted by Anonymous on 7/9/2004 at 3:47 AM ET 250 Points
I am working with a leading System Integrator in India. We are resellers/integration partners for a particular high-end router. The product is used widely in the Network Core and is a leading name worldwide. I would like to know if anyone can help me make a business case for this particular product. What I am looking for is the sectors my company can address and also some tips on how to go about with this including defining Value Propositions for our existing customers , whom we are going to target first?
Please let me know any links where I can get more information to make the business case and advice on what to avoid in your experience.
Thanks
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 7/9/2004 at 9:04 AM Member
    Hello Sudev

    First, a few questions:

    Have you segmented your market yet? If not, do you know how to do this?

    The router you mention - is this a new product you wish to launch? Or one already being sold?

    If already in the market, who buys it? Why?

    Have you analysed the competitors products? How do your products stack up against them?

    Have you already defined a value proposition, or are you starting from scratch here? If you already have some kind of VP, can you tell us here?

    Look forward to your reply. I shall watch this thread and come back when I see your answers.

    Regards

    ChrisB



  • Posted by tjh on 7/9/2004 at 10:27 AM Member
    Also, since you're reselling the router, have you read/researched the manufacturer's documentation and sales material concerning it's benefits, USP's etc? As a reseller, I'd expect the manufacturer to be quite helpful on this front.

    Your reseller rep or channel manager at the manufacturer would be a good place to start...

    Without knowing which router, it's more difficult to for us to discuss. If you're unable to tell us, that's ok. So ...

    If the router contains a variety of filtering, reporting and monitoring hooks, and requires reasonable expertise to integrate it's systems fully, then you should also closely define your company's value add to the mix.

    What does your company bring to the table that your prospects can't easily do on their own? What will you do for them that their IT or telecom department can't or won't compete with?
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 7/9/2004 at 10:34 AM Member
    Yes, amplifying tjh's comments a little, I suppose the real question is

    What problem does this product solve?

    Why does it solve it better for a client than a competing product?

    What happens if the customer does not get the problem solved (i.e. they don't buy the product, from you or anyone else)

    Once we start to understand these issues the real value proposition starts to become self evident.

    Pls advise...
  • Posted by telemoxie on 7/9/2004 at 10:31 PM Member
    We may have a question of language here. You are asking about a "business case", but from your examples it sounds like you want to develop a "marketing plan" or "promotion plan" or "sales plan".

    To me, a "business case" is a sample justification you would provide to a prospect, to help them purchase the product. For example, if a product cost $100, and saved $50 per month, the fact that the product would pay for itself in 2 months and generate $500/yr in ongoing savings is a part of a "business case".

    Regarding a marketing plan: if I were in your shoes, I would begin by asking the vendor if they have any examples of successful programs. They will certainly share in your success, and will probably be happy to help.

    I would personally be less interested in segmenting te market by type of company, and much more interested in prioritizing propects by finding a way to determine the size of their network infrastructure. One way to find companies with signficant network infrastructure is to look at the help wanted ads, to see who continually advertises for network engineers.

    Regarding current customers - you may be able to look at the quantities and types of products and services your customers have purchased, to give you a clue as to which may be your best prospects.

    Good luck !
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 7/9/2004 at 11:22 PM Member
    I think we all need to hear back from sudev to get some clarification on the real issues here...
  • Posted by telemoxie on 7/15/2004 at 7:59 PM Accepted
    I sold to Telcos for three years, but on the quality of service side, not infrastructure, but you've asked for opinions, so I'll do the best I can...

    If I may, I would offer the following observations:

    Your point number 1 should be number one. You have a huge strategic advantage due to your existing relationships, and you need to leverage this.

    Your point number 2 is irrelevant. If your firm is focused on a primary market, then whether the market as a whole moves up or down or left or right is of less concern than the perceptions and requirements of your primary market - see point number 1.

    Your comment about "high end routers targeted at service providers" worries me. If they are high-end, does that mean expensive? When I think of India, I think of technical folk implementing low cost solutions. Will they go for a "high end" solution? And why does it matter whether or not Juniper is "targeting" them? Doesn't it matter much more what the carriers think? Aren't they the ones who are writing the checks?

    You say that you are resellers for "a high end router". Is this your only offering? If it were me, I would put ten or twenty times as much effort into understanding what my best customers want, rather than spending time trying to please some fickle and possibly high priced vendor.

    If I try to read between the lines, it may be that your CEO has invested in carrying this line, and is anxious to receive a return on the investment and profit from the situation. Certainly this should be a key focus, but you can't risk existing relationships by pushing a product without understanding your client requirements, this could damage existing relationships.

    Certainly I don't know very much about your situation from this brief exchange, and it is certainly possible I'm all wet - but if it were me - I'd gather as much info as I could, and then I'd visit my best customers - not with a "single high end solution" to sell them, but with a committment to better understand THEIR requirements from THEIR end, so that you can best apply and deploy your expertise to deliver the solutions they need.

    If you have pressure from your CEO to sell this product fast, I would intially focus on some key accounts outside your prime group of best customers. This way, if you make mistakes, the problems won't be so bad. And, when you go back to your best customers, you will have succeessful implementations under your belt.

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 7/15/2004 at 9:39 PM Accepted
    I'm going to suggest something outside the "box-shifting" paradigm (which as telemoxie suggests, might very well be the way to ease the immediate pressure on you from the CEO) in the hope of suggesting a way to define the process for long-term future success.

    Why don't you enlist the help of some key customers to tell you what they like or don't like about the product you're trying to sell them and they way you're trying to sell it, your pre/post sales service, value-added services, and so on.

    You could do this through a form of focus group conducted by a third party research organisation - then you need not identify your company, if you don't want to. That would be one way to gather the views of a number of players quite quickly.

    On the other hand, a direct, more personal approach to decision-makers, and people who perform competitive and technical analysis and recommendations to the decision-makers, inside a couple of your key target accounts, might reveal as much if not more. You can bare all, in effect, and look for their honest inputs to assist you to make the relationship between your companies more successful for both sides.

    Which way would work best for you?

    Let me know what you think.

    ChrisB

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