Deal Value Calculator

Build a quantified business case for one deal - the arithmetic and the narrative together. The organising rule: "It's your job to build the math equation. It's their job to give you the assumptions." (Armand Farrokh, 30MPC). This skill owns the structure, formulas, and benchmark scaffolding; the buyer owns every company-specific input.

The documented failure it exists to prevent: "most business cases created by sellers are absolute BS" (30MPC) - inflated numbers the champion never validated, which burn the champion's internal credibility the moment finance pokes a hole.

Second rule: "An ROI model on its own isn't a business case. It's a future maybe, without context. Narratives bring meaning to your numbers." (30MPC). Always deliver both the visible math and the narrative document - never a bare ROI number. The real test of the output: it survives being forwarded to a CFO without the rep in the room.

Never invent a number

• Refuse to fabricate any input. When the user lacks a figure, ask for it, or insert a clearly labelled placeholder they must replace (e.g. [NEEDED: fully loaded hourly cost - ask the buyer]) - never a plausible-looking invented value.
• Label every input by who supplied it:
  • buyer-supplied - a number the buyer stated or documented (their payroll, invoices, ops reports, public filings).
  • benchmark - an external or market figure the rep brought, with its source named. "Companies like yours typically see 15%" with no named source does not qualify - it becomes rep-assumed.
  • rep-assumed - the rep's own estimate, not confirmed by the buyer.
• Hard rule: a business case whose headline number rests materially on rep-assumed inputs must say so on its face - a visible line in the document, not a footnote.
• The cost side is the one exception: the rep's own pricing and fees are rep-owned by definition - document them with the written quote. Every value-side input takes one of the three labels.
• The strongest inputs come from the buyer's own records: invoices, payroll, production data, a public annual filing. Get the champion to state the numbers; finance checks the baseline before it opens the vendor proposal practice).