skip to content

← back to the plays

independence4 unconnected
standing

contested · 6 claims against 4

applies to

b2b, no audience needed

assumes $100 and up

this one failed

confidence

high

evidence

10 claims · 4 articles · 4 receipts

window

2012-10-10 → 2024-10-01

4 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Make the money case, or refuse to

Whether to build the pitch on a projected financial return is the sharpest disagreement in this channel. One side models the lift on the buyer's own numbers and prices against it; the other spent years watching cost-savings arithmetic fail to close anything, because the money saved never sits in the budget that pays you.

Where this splits

Consultants open on the revenue their work will produce and price against that projection, while a software founder reports that in seven years and hundreds of deals a savings case never once won one.

  1. side 01 · 6 claims

    Refuse the savings spreadsheet, sell belief in the change

    Jason Cohen

    1. 1Do not build your pitch on a cost-savings return-on-investment case, even when the buyer explicitly demands the spreadsheet: it does not close the deal.
    2. 2Savings arguments fail because the money you save sits in a different budget line from the one that buys you, and nobody moves it across.
    3. 3The other reason savings pitches fall flat is that the gain is never actually measured inside the customer, so it stays invisible even where it is real.
    4. 4Aim for belief rather than arithmetic: buyers purchase because they are convinced the team will work better, and no spreadsheet converts someone who is not convinced.
    5. 5Create a change so large that nobody needs to calculate it: rework the daily workflow, or lift their campaign results, to the point where the value is self-evident.

  2. side 02 · 4 claims

    Model the revenue lift and price against that projection

    Brennan Dunn · James Dixon · Zach Swinehart

    1. 1Model the improvement live on their own numbers by proposing a specific lift, then converting it into revenue over a realistic period.
    2. 2Stack several funnel levers in the projection so the client sees a multiple rather than an increment: lead magnets and stronger calls to action for signups, content for traffic, onboarding and lifecycle email for trial to paid conversion.
    3. 3Walk the prospect through what a conversion improvement on their page is worth in revenue, and price against that instead of the going rate for the deliverable.
    4. 4Open client conversations with how you will increase their return rather than what you will build, which both raises what you can charge and separates you from competitors quoting on the build.

What it returned

  • 10

    Across seven years selling Smart Bear's Code Reviewer, in deals from 10 seats to 2,500, the savings argument never once won a sale.

  • 30

    His own leave-behind did the maths instead: two developers at 30 minutes a day is 20 hours a month, at $150 an hour that is $3,000, halved gives $1,500 saved monthly against a one-time $499 per developer, and it still never worked.

  • In seven years of selling he never saw a company grow its tools budget on the strength of savings in the salaries budget.

  • He contrasts a software development department, which has a tools budget, with marketing, which may fund services but not tools.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.

More in sales

all sales plays

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.