- Blog Categories
- Project Management
- Agile Management
- IT Service Management
- Cloud Computing
- Business Management
- Business Intelligence
- Quality Engineer
- Cyber Security
- Career
- Big Data
- Programming
- Most Popular Blogs
- PMP Exam Schedule for 2024: Check PMP Exam Date
- Top 60+ PMP Exam Questions and Answers for 2024
- PMP Cheat Sheet and PMP Formulas To Use in 2024
- What is PMP Process? A Complete List of 49 Processes of PMP
- Top 15+ Project Management Case Studies with Examples 2024
- Top Picks by Authors
- Top 170 Project Management Research Topics
- What is Effective Communication: Definition
- How to Create a Project Plan in Excel in 2024?
- PMP Certification Exam Eligibility in 2024 [A Complete Checklist]
- PMP Certification Fees - All Aspects of PMP Certification Fee
- Most Popular Blogs
- CSM vs PSM: Which Certification to Choose in 2024?
- How Much Does Scrum Master Certification Cost in 2024?
- CSPO vs PSPO Certification: What to Choose in 2024?
- 8 Best Scrum Master Certifications to Pursue in 2024
- Safe Agilist Exam: A Complete Study Guide 2024
- Top Picks by Authors
- SAFe vs Agile: Difference Between Scaled Agile and Agile
- Top 21 Scrum Best Practices for Efficient Agile Workflow
- 30 User Story Examples and Templates to Use in 2024
- State of Agile: Things You Need to Know
- Top 24 Career Benefits of a Certifed Scrum Master
- Most Popular Blogs
- ITIL Certification Cost in 2024 [Exam Fee & Other Expenses]
- Top 17 Required Skills for System Administrator in 2024
- How Effective Is Itil Certification for a Job Switch?
- IT Service Management (ITSM) Role and Responsibilities
- Top 25 Service Based Companies in India in 2024
- Top Picks by Authors
- What is Escalation Matrix & How Does It Work? [Types, Process]
- ITIL Service Operation: Phases, Functions, Best Practices
- 10 Best Facility Management Software in 2024
- What is Service Request Management in ITIL? Example, Steps, Tips
- An Introduction To ITIL® Exam
- Most Popular Blogs
- A Complete AWS Cheat Sheet: Important Topics Covered
- Top AWS Solution Architect Projects in 2024
- 15 Best Azure Certifications 2024: Which one to Choose?
- Top 22 Cloud Computing Project Ideas in 2024 [Source Code]
- How to Become an Azure Data Engineer? 2024 Roadmap
- Top Picks by Authors
- Top 40 IoT Project Ideas and Topics in 2024 [Source Code]
- The Future of AWS: Top Trends & Predictions in 2024
- AWS Solutions Architect vs AWS Developer [Key Differences]
- Top 20 Azure Data Engineering Projects in 2024 [Source Code]
- 25 Best Cloud Computing Tools in 2024
- Most Popular Blogs
- Company Analysis Report: Examples, Templates, Components
- 400 Trending Business Management Research Topics
- Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK): Guide
- ECBA Certification: Is it Worth it?
- How to Become Business Analyst in 2024? Step-by-Step
- Top Picks by Authors
- Top 20 Business Analytics Project in 2024 [With Source Code]
- ECBA Certification Cost Across Countries
- Top 9 Free Business Requirements Document (BRD) Templates
- Business Analyst Job Description in 2024 [Key Responsibility]
- Business Analysis Framework: Elements, Process, Techniques
- Most Popular Blogs
- Best Career options after BA [2024]
- Top Career Options after BCom to Know in 2024
- Top 10 Power Bi Books of 2024 [Beginners to Experienced]
- Power BI Skills in Demand: How to Stand Out in the Job Market
- Top 15 Power BI Project Ideas
- Top Picks by Authors
- 10 Limitations of Power BI: You Must Know in 2024
- Top 45 Career Options After BBA in 2024 [With Salary]
- Top Power BI Dashboard Templates of 2024
- What is Power BI Used For - Practical Applications Of Power BI
- SSRS Vs Power BI - What are the Key Differences?
- Most Popular Blogs
- Data Collection Plan For Six Sigma: How to Create One?
- Quality Engineer Resume for 2024 [Examples + Tips]
- 20 Best Quality Management Certifications That Pay Well in 2024
- Six Sigma in Operations Management [A Brief Introduction]
- Top Picks by Authors
- Six Sigma Green Belt vs PMP: What's the Difference
- Quality Management: Definition, Importance, Components
- Adding Green Belt Certifications to Your Resume
- Six Sigma Green Belt in Healthcare: Concepts, Benefits and Examples
- Most Popular Blogs
- Latest CISSP Exam Dumps of 2024 [Free CISSP Dumps]
- CISSP vs Security+ Certifications: Which is Best in 2024?
- Best CISSP Study Guides for 2024 + CISSP Study Plan
- How to Become an Ethical Hacker in 2024?
- Top Picks by Authors
- CISSP vs Master's Degree: Which One to Choose in 2024?
- CISSP Endorsement Process: Requirements & Example
- OSCP vs CISSP | Top Cybersecurity Certifications
- How to Pass the CISSP Exam on Your 1st Attempt in 2024?
- Most Popular Blogs
- Best Career options after BA [2024]
- Top Picks by Authors
- Top Career Options & Courses After 12th Commerce in 2024
- Recommended Blogs
- 30 Best Answers for Your 'Reason for Job Change' in 2024
- Recommended Blogs
- Time Management Skills: How it Affects your Career
- Most Popular Blogs
- Top 28 Big Data Companies to Know in 2024
- Top Picks by Authors
- Top Big Data Tools You Need to Know in 2024
- Most Popular Blogs
- Web Development Using PHP And MySQL
- Top Picks by Authors
- Top 30 Software Engineering Projects in 2024 [Source Code]
- More
- Tutorials
- Practise Tests
- Interview Questions
- Free Courses
- Agile & PMP Practice Tests
- Agile Testing
- Agile Scrum Practice Exam
- CAPM Practice Test
- PRINCE2 Foundation Exam
- PMP Practice Exam
- Cloud Related Practice Test
- Azure Infrastructure Solutions
- AWS Solutions Architect
- AWS Developer Associate
- IT Related Pratice Test
- ITIL Practice Test
- Devops Practice Test
- TOGAF® Practice Test
- Other Practice Test
- Oracle Primavera P6 V8
- MS Project Practice Test
- Project Management & Agile
- Project Management Interview Questions
- Release Train Engineer Interview Questions
- Agile Coach Interview Questions
- Scrum Interview Questions
- IT Project Manager Interview Questions
- Cloud & Data
- Azure Databricks Interview Questions
- AWS architect Interview Questions
- Cloud Computing Interview Questions
- AWS Interview Questions
- Kubernetes Interview Questions
- Web Development
- CSS3 Free Course with Certificates
- Basics of Spring Core and MVC
- Javascript Free Course with Certificate
- React Free Course with Certificate
- Node JS Free Certification Course
- Data Science
- Python Machine Learning Course
- Python for Data Science Free Course
- NLP Free Course with Certificate
- Data Analysis Using SQL
6 Tips To Write Compelling Business Cases
Updated on 03 May, 2017
8.53K+ views
• 6 min read
It’s not that easy to earn the trust of your prospective customers. However, coming up with a compelling business case is how you can earn this kind of trust and faith from your clients. To achieve this, the business case should be captivating to the reader to make them interested, and thus, it should involve a lot of creativity and professionalism.
Do you want to make your business case compelling to prospective and existing customers? Can business case writing really help you? Here’re some tips for writing a compelling business case
Why do you Need a Business Case?
A business case should justify implementing an idea or initiative. It must be a reference point before, during, and after the project. It defines a project's tangible and intangible goals, from what to why. It serves as a guide throughout the project and helps you to assess the project's outcomes after completion. The most commonly discussed purpose for publishing case studies is to increase brand recognition, but it is not the only one. Numerous unnoticed benefits exist to firms creating regular case studies and keeping this a best practice.
Here are some reasons to write compelling business cases.
1. Address Internal Challenges and Best Practices
Every enterprise, regardless of technology or product, will face problems. It can be excellent before and after tools for your IT team to help break down and examine those difficulties and the solutions used to overcome them.
Even though no customer or implementation is ever the same, business case studies assist you in gaining visibility on a project and identifying what succeeded and what has to be changed for the next time. As you face comparable issues and client challenges, write compelling business case studies that will help you to compare and contrast previous solutions.
You may then use your case studies to create an ongoing best practice guide for your internal team to follow. It will boost your team's productivity by eliminating the need to start from zero with an implementation proposal, saving time and money.
2. Increase Your Media Visibility
It can be an excellent resource for starting talks with the media since you provide something rather than asking for something. Editors can effectively deliver your vital concepts to your intended audiences.
Editors, like customers, are filled with customer success stories. Editors are fact-based, and case studies present real-world instances that demonstrate your organization is a market leader. Including a customer perspective allows editors to communicate a practical, results-oriented tale with their readers who may be facing similar difficulties rather than simply discussing what a product/service could do to help.
3. Secure Funding
A business case is frequently used to seek project funding. It includes a full explanation of the anticipated expenses and prospective returns on investment, letting decision-makers decide whether to participate in the project.
4. Ensure that the Project has been thoroughly thought out
The business case process adds clarity and discipline to the project review and approval. The sponsor will need to produce a rationally thought-through business case in an attempt to present the project with the highest possibility of acceptance. It implies that they must complete a level of analysis.
Using a business case to collect and analyze critical components of a project allows difficulties to be addressed early, potentially leading to an alternative approach (or even making the project non-viable). It is advantageous since it saves money by starting a project, discovering that the strategy is incorrect, and then spending extra time and money investigating an alternative.
5. Acquire Credibility for Both Change Management and Yourself
The business case is a trustworthy document in itself. Senior executives and project managers are conversant with a business case's structure, format, and application. When evaluating an initiative and deciding on priority and resources, leaders want to see situational evaluations, solution descriptions, project descriptions, and cost-benefit analyses. All of these are covered in your business case for change management.
You get credibility by putting up the effort to create a business case. It demonstrates that you have analyzed and thought through numerous areas of change management and have taken the extra step of documenting your thinking. You are portraying change management in the same way that other organizational endeavors are.
Finally, a business case challenges the common misconception that change management is fuzzy and soft. You can clearly illustrate the need, value, and strategy for managing the individual side of change using the business case as your vehicle.
Tips for Writing Compelling Business Cases
1. Use a Concise and Clear Format
First and foremost, it’s important to write a brief and self-explanatory business case. This is because you want your target audience to understand the kind of business you want to start easily. Therefore, you should summarize information about the product or services you want to offer so that it’s clear to your audience. The clients will get interested and may want to seek more information about the business.
Secondly, being organized is also very crucial when writing a business case. This is because the clients usually look out for structured businesses. In any case, who would want to peruse an unstructured business case? I wouldn’t either. Furthermore, as long as it’s not well organized, the customers lose interest as they find it very complex to understand.
2. The Writer Should Be Realistic and on Point
This means that you should be factual and real. Your content should be genuine and not exaggerated. It’s advisable to use accurate information when writing a business case. This is because a business case can either build your work or destroy it. The business case is meant to make the customers want to invest in the business or buy a product, so genuineness is a key attribute in any business. The fact that the business case should be compelling does not mean that the writer should use information that’s not reliable. This calls for transparency and accountability. The customers need to believe in the services or products that you’re offering.
Being precise in your business case is very important. The customers do not need to go through the whole business case. Making it clear and straightforward makes them want more information. The business case should be captivating in that it should not bore the reader. Hence, it is imperative to make sure the clients can understand what it is that you have to offer in a few words.
3. The Writer Should Write with a Sense of Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is vital when writing a business case. This is because you need to make your prospective clients want to get involved in your business. Urgency is created by making clients realize that they have no option but to use your idea or product. In most cases, urgency makes the customers take action. At some point, it triggers them to invest in the business. For instance, when urgency is created in financial institutions, it mainly focuses on greater returns. I could give an example of insurance companies. The business cases of such companies are self-explanatory, and they work within a certain time frame. A custom writing service can be of good help here. This business case writing course really helps you to attract your customers to get into the business.
4. In Case You Use Figures and Graphs, Ensure that They Are Easy to Understand
Most financial business cases use graphs and diagrams to illustrate their idea. It’s very clear that when one sees the graphs and diagrams, they get a clear and good explanation of the business. In my opinion, using graphs and charts also shows how serious the business is. For instance, graphs are often used in online trading to show the market trend, whether bear or bull. Other similar figures known as candlesticks are also used to depict the stronger of the two at a particular time.
It’s very important to ensure that your charts and figures are self-explanatory and easily understood by your target audience. This could be done by labeling your charts and graphs appropriately in such a way that they do not confuse the reader. Coming up with well-defined graphs for the business case shows an element of the organization. Customers are more compelled to deal with an organization that is well coordinated.
5. As a Good Writer, Use Statistics and Verified Data to Convince the Clients
Using verified data and statistics is important as it makes the business case appear more credible to the clients. The use of statistics makes the case look more accurate as the figures distinctly show how much is needed or how much is used for an investment. A good business case consists of reliable statistics and data. Everyone wants to invest in a thriving business that’s sustainable. It is, therefore, very important that the business has accurate data and information about the feasibility study.
How viable is the business? Are there any chances of survival within the current market? These are some of the questions that the business case should answer. Statistics in the business case should also show the history of the business and how profitable it became with time. This generally creates trust between the investors and the sponsors who are the brains behind its existence.
6. Include Different Types of Information and Other People if They Support Your Case
The different types of information could be competitors who are offering a similar kind of service or product. This could make the business case more compelling as the prices, quality, and durability of the products being sold could be compared. As a matter of fact, other case studies could also be included in the business case as well as scenarios that could relate to the business. Activities like benchmarking with other companies are also allowed as they bring an element of comparison thus giving a client an opportunity to weigh all the options before they make a decision.
It should be noted that the business case is the key driver of the decisions made in your business. Therefore, engaging with other stakeholders is very crucial when writing a compelling business case. Talking to other or potential stakeholders opens up your mind. You are able to understand the interests of the customers and come up with a plan to satisfy their needs. You can also understand the chances of survival in the market and how profitable the business may become.
Unlock the Power of Data Science with our Certification Exam. Gain the skills and knowledge needed to excel in this rapidly growing field. Start your journey today!
Conclusion
The aim of a business case is to answer some of the questions that the customers could have concerning the business. The business case at some point also acts as a perfect marketing strategy. Therefore, coming up with a compelling business case is crucial as it brings the customers on board. It also gives you an edge over other businesses that choose not to have one or don’t know about its importance.
What is your experience with writing a business case? And how has having one helped you connect more with your customers?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What does a compelling business case clearly outline?
A persuasive business case explains a proposed company decision's prospective benefits and costs. It should include a product description to introduce your reader to the project's details. It should also include a full cost-benefit analysis encompassing financial, operational, and strategic aspects.
It should also include a risk assessment for the choice and any alternatives that should be examined. Finally, it should recommend whether the proposed choice should be implemented. It should highlight the primary themes that prompted the project's creation. It should describe the answer in broad strokes.
2. What are the 3 stages when developing a business case? Problem Identification
It is the first step toward developing a business case. It entails comprehending the problem or opportunity that the business case is meant to address. It comprises data collection, analysis of the current problem, and identification of viable solutions.
Solution Development
It is the second stage in the process of creating a business case. It entails creating a solution to a problem or opportunity that has been discovered. It entails investigating alternative solutions, weighing the costs and benefits of each, and deciding on the best option.
Implementation
It is the third and last step of business case development. It entails putting the chosen solution into action. It includes creating an implementation plan, providing resources, and tracking progress.
3. Which is a key step in building a business case?
Identifying the issue or potential that the business case is addressing is critical in developing a business case. It entails investigating the current situation, comprehending the needs of stakeholders, and evaluating alternative solutions. After identifying the problem or opportunity, the following stage is to devise a plan to solve it. It involves setting objectives, defining the project's scope, and calculating the costs and benefits.
4. Which section of a business case is considered the most important?
The executive summary is the most crucial part of a business case. This section should briefly explain the proposed project's purpose, objectives, scope, schedule, and projected outcomes. It should also briefly describe the project's financial consequences, such as estimated costs and potential return on investment.
The executive summary must be written in simple language and no more than two pages long. It should be written convincingly and captivatingly so that the reader is assured of the project's potential. The executive summary must be written to catch the reader's interest and motivate them to read the entire business case.