How long should a champion business case be?

One page — roughly 400–600 words. If it needs a deck, the deck expands the one-pager; it does not replace it.

Who should draft the business case — sales or the champion?

Co-draft: sales supplies structure and proof; champion supplies internal politics and exact problem wording. Champion name goes on the doc.

What numbers belong in a startup business case?

Only numbers the buyer provided or agreed to model — hours saved, tools replaced, deal velocity. Never invent their pipeline metrics.

When do you send the business case?

After technical validation, before procurement or legal — when the champion needs cover to schedule the economic buyer.

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August 1, 2026 4 min read Salestrics Team

Write a One-Page Business Case Your Champion Can Forward [2026]

Your champion loves the product but loses the Slack thread with finance because they forwarded a pricing PDF and said “thoughts?” Internal buyers need a one-page memo they can paste into their approval flow: problem stated in their words, options compared honestly, recommendation clear, risks acknowledged. You write it with them — not for them — and attach it to the deal where legal and procurement can find it later.

Why champions fail internal selling

Champions are not lazy — they are busy and untrained as sellers. They need:

Language safe to forward (no hype, no competitor trash talk)
A single ask (approve pilot, schedule EB call, release budget)
Risks named so finance does not invent worse ones
Attachments they did not have to build at midnight

Pair this doc with a champion kit — business case is the memo; kit is the forwardable proof bundle.

One-page template — six blocks

Block	Purpose	Length
1. Situation	Problem in buyer’s words	2–3 sentences
2. Impact	Cost of status quo (time, risk, revenue)	3 bullets max
3. Options	Do nothing, incumbent, recommended path	Short table
4. Recommendation	Clear pick + why now	1 paragraph
5. Investment	Pricing tier, term, implementation effort	Factual
6. Risks & mitigations	Honest + how you address	3 rows

Build in Workspace — link from the opportunity in Momentum so AE, champion, and founder see one version.

Situation and impact — use their discovery notes

Pull phrases from discovery calls — “reps live in Gmail,” “forecast is fiction,” “legal lost the thread.” Impact bullets should be their estimates:

Hours per week per rep on tool switching
Deals delayed because context was missing in handoffs
Renewal risk on incumbent if migration slips

If they did not supply numbers, use ranges with assumptions labeled — finance respects honesty more than precision theater.

Options table — include do nothing

Credibility requires a real status quo column:

Do nothing — cost of continued sprawl; no upfront spend
Incumbent / point fix — what they already pay; what still breaks
Recommended — your workspace; implementation time; expected outcome

For competitive deals, add the alternative they named — not a strawman. See buying committee map so each option addresses the right approver.

Recommendation and ask — one sentence

End with an explicit ask: “Approve a 30-day pilot starting [date] with success criteria in Appendix A” or “Schedule 30 minutes with [EB name] to confirm budget line.” Vague “move forward” language stalls in procurement.

Risks finance will raise anyway

Risk	Mitigation to document
Implementation time	Phased rollout, import plan, owner on their side
Adoption	Training week, exec sponsor, success criteria
Security / vendor review	Link questionnaire status, DPA path
Vendor viability	Platform status, roadmap link — not vanity metrics

Link system status for shipping cadence when buyers ask about viability.

Workflow — same day as the champion call

30-minute co-write call — screen share template
Champion edits situation paragraph in their voice
AE adds pricing and proof links
Founder reviews once if deal is strategic
Champion forwards PDF or shared doc link internally
Log forward date and recipients on opportunity

Finance-friendly formatting

Use their internal memo style if you can get a redacted example — font, header labels, bullet depth. PDF export from Workspace for immutable forwarding; shared link for co-editing until approval. Name the file: [Company]-revenue-workspace-business-case-[YYYY-MM].pdf — procurement searches inboxes by vendor name six months later.

Keep logos off page one. Social proof belongs in an appendix link — see social proof on pricing pages for what to attach without cluttering the memo.

Appendix — sample situation paragraph

Example champion-ready wording (customize with their terms):

Our revenue team runs pipeline in one tool, email in another, and proposals in Drive. Forecast calls take half a day because no one trusts the stage data. We need one workspace where mail, deals, and customer docs share context — without adding another integration project.

Notice: no product name in paragraph one — internal readers smell sales copy instantly. Brand and pricing belong in block five.

Business case checklist

One page; champion name on document
Problem stated in buyer language, not marketing copy
Options include status quo
Single clear ask with date
Risks section complete before procurement opens
Doc linked on CRM opportunity record