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Business Case Template for B2B Sales (Google Doc + Slides)

A portable business case built to travel internally without you in the room, as a document and as slides.

  • Free
  • Google Doc + Google Slides
  • By David Weiss
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Business Case Template preview

A business case isn’t a spreadsheet you attach to a proposal. It’s the document that lets your deal travel to the people who set priority and release funding, in rooms you’re not in.

If you can’t justify change in a way an executive would defend, you’re not managing a deal, you’re collecting data.

What’s in the template

The Google Doc version walks through a worked example (a fictional ACME project, so you can see what “good” looks like) with these sections:

  • Title block: the project name, executive sponsor and key stakeholders.
  • Executive summary: the whole case in one paragraph.
  • Current state: the measurable problems today, in the buyer’s language, with the opportunity quantified.
  • Proposed solution: what you’re recommending and why it closes the gap.
  • Cost of delay: what every month of waiting costs, and the risk that compounds while nothing changes.
  • Financial justification for change: a side-by-side table of current state versus future state, split into hard costs, soft costs and one-time implementation costs, rolling up to year-one and year-two ROI.

The Google Slides version turns the same story into an executive narrative: current state and monthly cost of delay, desired future state with year-one targets, the solution and delivery plan, and the justification with payback.

How to use it

  1. Build it with the buyer’s numbers. No generic benchmarks. If they can’t see their own business in the math, why would they prioritize it?
  2. Separate hard costs from soft costs. CFOs discount soft numbers. Put the firm ones where they can see them.
  3. Put a price on waiting. Take the agreed-upon business value and divide by 250 working days. A million-dollar ROI is $4,000 lost per day.
  4. Get it challenged. A business case isn’t real until the people who fund and sponsor the change have pressure-tested it and are willing to stand behind it.
  5. Send it before the proposal, or attach it. Never send pricing without the reason to change.

For the full method, read How to Build a Business Case. To make the future state tangible for executives, pair it with the PRFAQ template.

Questions

What should a sales business case include?

Current State pain, Desired Future State outcomes, the justification for change, cost of delay, expected impact, who benefits, Why Change, Why Now, and what decision is required. The template gives you the core of it: an executive summary, current state, proposed solution, cost of delay and a financial justification table. Add who benefits and the decision required for your executive review.

What's the difference between hard costs and soft costs?

Hard costs are fixed operating expenses like headcount, tools and technology. Soft costs are estimated: morale, turnover, market share gains, revenue lifts. Anything not guaranteed is a soft cost. The financial table separates them so the CFO can see which numbers are firm.

Should I send a proposal without a business case?

No. The proposal tells them what you're selling. The business case tells them why the business should change. Build the case with the buyer's own numbers and get it challenged by the people who set priority and fund projects before you send pricing.

Document or slides: which should I use?

Both are included. The document is the detailed version your champion can forward and defend. The slides are the executive narrative for a review meeting: current state, desired future state, the solution and the justification.

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