Make a business case like a divorce attorney

My personal favorite way to make a business case to get to invest a lot of money in a bigger program is to think like a divorce attorney.

A friend of mine was facing a big divorce where she was absolutely unfairly cheated on and her wealthy husband had squirreled away all the money and it was looking grim.

Then she found out a friend of hers was a really great divorce attorney.

In their conversation, the divorce attorney asked her, “What do you want out of the settlement?”

And she said “You know, just the minimum.”

The divorce attorney looked at her and said, “I’ll tell you what. I’m going to get you all of it, and you can decide if you want to give it back.”

What I love about this story as it parallels new product development is that it’s so much easier to sell someone when you’ve already succeeded. Then you get to them, it’s ok if you don’t want me to develop this, if you don’t want this money, then I’ll just put it aside.

So what I like to do with an initial product is I like to figure out a way that you can prove success and prove the business model works before having to ask for the bigger pitch. Then you’re in the position of having won the settlement and having your investors or your board either fund you or say, no, we don’t want any of that money or impact.

It’s a much more way of thinking about how to create a new program that’s going to win. If you’d like help thinking about your business case and making your best preparation so you know you’re going in with a winner, get in touch. I can help.