The Conservative Value Table: Why ERP Deals Die Without One
ERP proposals that lead with cost get compared on cost.
That is where many ERP deals start to drift. The prospect opens the proposal, sees the investment figure, and immediately asks whether it can be cheaper, delayed, reduced, or compared against another vendor.
Not because the solution is wrong. Because the price has nothing meaningful beside it.
There is no agreed cost of the problem. No quantified business impact. No commercial reason why the investment makes sense now.
A conservative value table changes that. It puts the cost of the problem on the table before the cost of the solution.
If the buyer sees investment before value, you are asking them to judge price in isolation. That is how strong ERP opportunities become procurement exercises.
What a conservative value table is
A conservative value table is a structured estimate of the business impact of the problems being solved.
It is not a glossy ROI calculator. It is not a spreadsheet full of inflated savings designed to make the proposal look good. It is a practical sales tool that captures the value already uncovered during discovery.
It might include:
- Hours lost to duplicate data entry
- Cost of stock errors or rework
- Delays in month-end reporting
- Margin leakage from poor project visibility
- Manual finance effort caused by disconnected systems
The important part is not just the number. It is the confidence level attached to the number.
Every line should be tagged:
Confirmed — the prospect told you directly.
"Finance spends 20 hours per month reconciling data between systems."
Implied — a reasonable inference from what they said.
They told you three people touch the same invoice process, so you estimate duplicated handling time.
Assumed — your estimate based on similar businesses.
Implementation delays usually cost similar businesses a certain amount of margin or utilisation.
That tagging matters. The prospect can see what is solid, what is inferred, and what needs validation.
That is why it works.
Why conservative wins trust
Inflated ROI claims destroy credibility.
ERP buyers have seen the big numbers before. "You will save $2M" sounds impressive until nobody can explain where it came from.
When the value case feels manufactured, the buyer discounts the whole proposal.
A conservative value table does the opposite. It acknowledges uncertainty, separates evidence from assumptions, and gives the buyer something they can challenge, correct, and own.
The tone changes when you say:
"We've estimated this conservatively. Even if we only count the lines you confirmed, the business impact still shows roughly 2x return on investment in year one."
That lands differently from:
"This solution will save you $2M."
One sounds like a commercial case. The other sounds like a vendor claim.
Conservative numbers are easier to defend internally. Finance can interrogate them. Operations can correct them. The executive sponsor can use them in the approval conversation.
The 1.5x threshold
Before a proposal goes out, annual business impact should clear a simple test:
Does the conservative annual value exceed 1.5x the proposed investment?
If yes, the proposal has a value case that can survive scrutiny. If no, the deal needs a conversation before pricing is issued.
That does not mean it is a bad deal. It means the buyer needs to understand the value gap before they see the price.
There are only a few reasons a deal sits below 1.5x:
- Discovery has not uncovered enough measurable pain
- The problem is real but not urgent
- The proposed scope is too large for the first phase
- The buyer has not confirmed the value in financial terms
- You are selling a solution before the commercial case is ready
Sending a proposal anyway is how you get ghosted.
The prospect sees the investment, cannot connect it to enough business impact, and moves the deal into "reviewing internally." Usually, nothing is happening.
The better move is direct:
"Before we send pricing, I want to check something. Based only on what we can confirm, the value case is not strong enough yet. Either we're missing part of the impact, or we need to adjust the scope. Can we work through that before we propose?"
That conversation feels uncomfortable. It is what senior sellers do.
Build value discipline before proposal
Most ERP resellers do not lose because their software is weak. They lose because the commercial case is not clear before the proposal lands.
Sales-Logic builds conservative value table discipline into ERP reseller sales teams. That means discovery questions that surface measurable impact, CRM fields that capture confirmed value, pre-proposal reviews that test the 1.5x threshold, and proposal processes that lead with business impact before cost.
Your proposal should not be the first time the buyer sees the investment.
It should be the moment they see a price attached to a value case they already believe.
Book a discovery call and we will review how your team currently builds value before proposal — and where deals are losing commercial momentum.
