How I turned a stalled enterprise sales motion into a repeatable, product-led system that influenced $2M+ in ACV -- without writing a single line of code.
Role: Senior PM / Value Engineer
Type: Internal tool + sales motion
Outcome: $2M+ ACV influenced
The problem
Enterprise deals were stalling at the business case stage. Prospects understood the product, were engaged through discovery, and had internal champions -- but couldn't get CFO sign-off without a quantified ROI story. The sales team was losing deals not to a better competitor, but to "no decision."
The blocker wasn't product. It wasn't pricing. It was that prospects couldn't build the internal case. They needed a number, and they needed it fast enough to maintain momentum.
The existing solution was ad hoc: AEs would ask a value engineer to build a custom model, which took days and often missed the renewal window. The process didn't scale, and it created a bottleneck that slowed the entire enterprise pipeline.
Context and constraints
- No dedicated engineering resources -- this had to be built with tools AEs already had
- Models needed to work live in customer meetings, not just as leave-behinds
- Output had to be credible enough to go directly into a CFO's approval process
- Reps had varying levels of financial fluency -- the tool had to be simple enough for anyone to run, sophisticated enough for a finance audience to trust
Process
I started by interviewing AEs and value engineers across a range of deal sizes to map exactly where deals were dying. The consistent pattern: deals stalled when the champion asked "what's the ROI?" and the rep couldn't answer with the prospect's own numbers.
I audited the existing custom models to identify the inputs that actually moved deals -- not theoretical value levers, but the three to five metrics that finance teams consistently pushed back on. That audit shaped the model architecture: simple inputs on the front end, rigorous NPV/TCO/IRR logic underneath, clean output the rep could defend in the room.
I designed the tool to work in two modes: a live calculation view for use during the meeting, and a formatted PDF export the champion could take directly into their approval process. The second mode was the insight -- most internal approvals happen in a room where the vendor isn't present, so the leave-behind had to be self-sufficient.
Decision
I chose to build in Excel with a structured output layer rather than a custom web app. The reasoning was deliberate: AEs trusted Excel, could customize inputs without breaking anything, and the format was already familiar to finance audiences. A slicker tool that required IT approval or a browser extension would have died in procurement.
The best tool is the one that gets used. A sophisticated product nobody runs is worth less than a spreadsheet that closes deals.
Outcome
ACV influenced
$2M+
Deals using the model in final stage
Sales cycle impact
73%
Increase in closed sales vs. prior period
Adoption
Standard
Part of enterprise sales playbook
The model became a standard part of the enterprise sales playbook within one quarter. What started as a bottleneck-breaking tool became a competitive differentiator -- in several late-stage deals, the quality of our business case was cited as a reason for selection over a lower-priced competitor.
What this taught me
Value engineering is product work. It requires the same discovery discipline, the same ruthless scoping, and the same attention to the user's real workflow that any software product requires. The user just happens to be a sales rep under pressure, and the use context is a live customer conversation.
It also reinforced something I carry into every AI and SaaS product I build: the job isn't to impress people with the technology. The job is to remove the specific friction that is costing the business money right now.
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