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64 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

with another manager to try to convince a power station manager to tell the unions,
as early as possible in the buying cycle, about a new system that would involve them
all. We failed, and the strike lasted for three weeks and the settlement cost a fortune.

If a company you are selling to ignores this familiarisation stage in the imple-
mentation plan, you can gain competitive edge by helping the customer recognise
the need for early warning systems.

Step 3 - Agree the tactical business case including the cost justification

In almost all companies there is a standard method of making a business case and it
is vital that people who are going to sell capital goods to them know what that
process is. How close the customer allows you to that process depends on your
relationship, and how much value the customer believes you can add to the process.
If you know the value of the project to the customer, you are obviously in a much
stronger position when it comes to negotiating the price.

Step 4 - Establish implementation priorities and controls

During this step in the buying process, the sensible customer puts in the basics of
project management. It is crucial at this stage to see the project in its entirety and
plan the milestones which allow the business and technical mangers to control the
implementation.

The key is to document every action and ensure that all the milestones have
easy measurement. It is not enough to state, 'Test system for user acceptance.' The
salesperson and customer together must describe the tests in detail and agree the
measures of user acceptance.

The job of you the seller in this phase of the project plan is to suggest all the
activities involved to ensure a successful implementation. Very frequently there are