Go/No Go

GO/NO GO

If your Metrics are strong and the Pain and implication is big enough, your Champion will be more willing to bring you in front of the Economic Buyer, the ultimate decision maker.

There might be a lot of initial objections or even pushbacks from the EB, as these guys are pretty busy and usually don’t want to waste any time.

There are plenty of objections than you might come across, like

  • “The EB does not meet with vendors,” or
  • “The EB is not interested in details and will be involved in a later stage.”

This is when you can test if you have a real Champion. He or she will understand that buy-in from the EB is essential for a successful project. If you picked the right Champion well, they will be able to arrange this meeting.

The goal of this GO/NO GO meeting with the EB is to present your preliminary business case that includes the pain points, metrics of the consequences if nothing is done and a potential ROI. Ask for sponsorship and finally define what the next steps could be.

Question to ask the EB

  1. Do you sponsor the project?
  2. How does success look like for you?
  3. What are the next steps, if we fulfill the success criteria?

If you get answers to these questions and the ‘GO’ from the EB, then you are possibly 66% percent through the process.

By discussing ROI and business outcome, you might have built a potential segue to the executive management. The EB should provide clear steps of what needs to happen to lead to a decision and who needs to be involved.

Now you can outline your next steps, such as a Proof of Value, Process Audit or any other Validation Event that will allow the customer to make a decision

note Please make sure you define a follow up meeting (Echo Back) with the EB to make sure you have and anchor point along the process where you have the right to come back.

In the Go/No Go Stage, you will find the following qualifiers and milestones by default:

Dp – Decision Process

EB – Economic Buyer