deal-value-calc

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---
name: deal-value-calc
description: Builds the ROI and business case for one deal - value drivers, full investment, ROI, payback, three cases conservative-first, and a one-page case the champion can forward. The buyer supplies every assumption, each number labeled buyer-supplied, benchmark, or rep-assumed, and none invented. Covers B2B and high-ticket B2C. Use whenever the user mentions ROI, business case, payback period, TCO, cost of doing nothing, "justify the price", or CFO sign-off, even without the word value. Do NOT use for price rebuttals (mbfinotti/sales-skills@sales-objection-handling) or discount trade planning (mbfinotti/sales-skills@negotiation-concession-planner).
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Maya-Beth Finotti
  version: "1.3.3"
---

# Deal Value Calculator

Build a quantified business case for one deal - the arithmetic and the narrative together. The organising rule: "It's your job to build the math equation. It's their job to give you the assumptions." (Armand Farrokh, 30MPC). This skill owns the structure, formulas, and benchmark scaffolding; the buyer owns every company-specific input.

The documented failure it exists to prevent: "most business cases created by sellers are absolute BS" (30MPC) - inflated numbers the champion never validated, which burn the champion's internal credibility the moment finance pokes a hole.

Second rule: "An ROI model on its own isn't a business case. It's a future maybe, without context. Narratives bring meaning to your numbers." (30MPC). Always deliver both the visible math and the narrative document - never a bare ROI number. The real test of the output: it survives being forwarded to a CFO without the rep in the room.

## Never invent a number

- Refuse to fabricate any input. When the user lacks a figure, ask for it, or insert a clearly labelled placeholder they must replace (e.g. `[NEEDED: fully loaded hourly cost - ask the buyer]`) - never a plausible-looking invented value.
- Label every input by who supplied it:
  - **buyer-supplied** - a number the buyer stated or documented (their payroll, invoices, ops reports, public filings).
  - **benchmark** - an external or market figure the rep brought, with its source named. "Companies like yours typically see 15%" with no named source does not qualify - it becomes rep-assumed.
  - **rep-assumed** - the rep's own estimate, not confirmed by the buyer.
- Hard rule: a business case whose headline number rests materially on rep-assumed inputs must say so on its face - a visible line in the document, not a footnote.
- The cost side is the one exception: the rep's own pricing and fees are rep-owned by definition - document them with the written quote. Every value-side input takes one of the three labels.
- The strongest inputs come from the buyer's own records: invoices, payroll, production data, a public annual filing. Get the champion to state the numbers; finance checks the baseline before it opens the vendor proposal practice).

## Interview

Ask one question per message; offer multiple-choice options wherever possible; skip anything the deal description already answers.

1. B2B, or considered high-ticket B2C (solar, home improvement, real estate, private education, financial advisory)?
2. Deal segment: transactional (single decider, low price), mid-market, or enterprise (buying committee, procurement/security in the path)? This sets the artifact size.
3. What date must the result land by? A hard near date promotes the drivers computable from documents the buyer already holds - retired contracts, the hiring plan - and deletes any driver needing a time study or a cohort analysis.
4. One-off win, or a compounding asset the buyer reuses as a renewal or QBR baseline?
   - Compounding promotes error/rework and downtime avoided, whose measured baselines outlive the deal.
   - One-off keeps the artifact at its lightest rung.
5. Effort ceiling: how many hours can the champion spend, and can they reach finance data at all? A low ce