How many times have we heard the phrase – I’m sorry but there is no budget for your proposal/idea!

Of course there is no budget. If you are leading your sales teams to look for budget you really are going to be very disappointed.

Look at it this way, what is a budget? A budget is a financial representation of a set of policies agreed upon around one to two months prior to the end of the financial year relating to the following financial year.

In other words in most big companies that means budgets are signed off in November & December. So of course when you approach a customer, they will not have factored into their budgets your specific project!  They are not mind readers. Now as you approach your “suspects” or existing customers with a new idea to deliver a specific business result for them, don’t thing budget, think attractive ROI.

Management are employed by shareholders to deliver a set of results based on a return on capital deployed not whether they have spent the budget or not!

Sales Tip: Frame your sales idea in terms of a business result you can achieve. Ensure the problem you are addressing has a cost.

A problem without a cost to the business is not a problem. Join your proposition to that cost and talk in terms of ROI. Talk like a businessman.

Your customer will “find the money” for attractive projects because I can assure you it will not be in the budget.

Good luck.

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