Selling More With Fewer Numbers: The One-Page Financial Analysis™

Most decisions are made emotionally and then justified financially. Smart sellers of energy solutions realize that the financial decision-maker may not be as emotionally motivated to approve the proposal as the internal champion is, at least not initially. With that in mind, smart sellers always prepare a concise and compelling financial analysis that the internal champion can forward to the capital budgeting folks. That single-page analysis clearly maps all cash inflows and outflows throughout the analysis term, discloses all assumptions (discount rate, inflation rate, etc.), clearly depicts the six key metrics that financial decision-makers use to evaluate the merits of any expense-reducing capital project, and facilitates sensitivity analysis (i.e., changing various variables to see their relative impact on returns). This session will first introduce the key inputs and outputs of a compelling one-page financial analysis, then model several of the most common scenarios that sellers face when seeking project approvals. As just one example, knowing how to compare the relative merits of all-cash, financing, and phasing-in upgrades helps quantify the true cost of delay and motivate more immediate deployment.