The Indispensable BA and the Surprising Truth: You Work in Sales!

The Indispensable BA and

the Surprising Truth: You work in sales!

Adrian Reed [email protected]

@UKAdrianReed

First: What this presentation isn’t saying…..!

What/ How?

AGENDA

Why sales? Why

sales?

No clear statement of problem

Early “solutioneering”

Key stakeholders not engaged/involved

early enough

Inadequate assessment of

situation & data

Some of the likely causes…

And a lot more!

Where was the analysis?

The FOI game….

Request: All requirement

artefacts

No requirements held beyond

business case

Request: Team structure,

number of BAs

No information held by the department

Maybe sales isn’t optional…

Our environment is complex…

Competitive Rivalry (Internal)

Suppliers Bargaining

power

Buyers Bargaining

power

Threat of new

entrants

Substitutes

Land Grab Other

Professions?

Do they have to engage you?

External consultants? Shadow BAs? Vendor + “JDI”

Tools? Tech?

Why sales?

What/ How?

AGENDA

What is selling?

• Compete • Hostile/Tricks • Short termism • Needs of

salesperson • Solution not

problem focus

• Collaborate • Influence • Long term

relationship • Needs of all

parties • Solve problems

The “Bad” sell A better way..

Monitor Analysis

Landscape

Manage Funnel

True situation & need

Craft the message

Opportunity

Proposal

Deliver! + Anticipate future need

1. Monitor analysis landscape

? ?

?! 2. Manage the funnel…

Or it’ll manage you!

Suspect

Prospect

Opportunity

Client

Managing the top of the funnel

Who to convince?

UCOB

User

Customer

Owner

Beneficiary

Who uses the end product?

(Economic Customer )

Who pays?

Who owns and maintains the product?

Who benefits?

For analysis.…

3. Situation to proposal

Away From Move

Towards

Curiosity

Empathy

Challenge

Understanding their situation

Avoiding the

“Analysis Factory”

Tailoring our approach

Craft the message

(& Proposal)

Features and Benefits

Feature Benefit Up front problem analysis

De-risk the whole project by doing the right thing. Save money. Reduce timescales.

Feasibility analysis

Helping you to “pick the winners” and make informed decisions about which projects to progress

Etc…

Know the features but sell the benefits

Good story telling

4. Deliver & Anticipate Future Needs

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re

going to do.”

– Henry Ford

Getting over the wall

Monitor Analysis

Landscape

Manage Pipeline

True situation & need

Craft the message

Deliver! + Anticipate future need

Opportunity

Proposal

PR: Shout about successes

Continual development of practice capability

• Where in your organisation are your business analysts located ?

• How are you adding value?

• Where do you think the BA adds most value?

• How do we measure that value?

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