196 Understanding the Numbers
With such an awesome description of the importance of selling the bud-
get, one might conclude that it is an exceedingly difficult process. Not so. Actu-
ally, the process requires a mixture of logic and diligence. There is no precise
formula for success, but some common suggestions are:
- Know your audience.
- Make a professional presentation.
- Quantify the material.
- Avoid surprises.
- Set pr ior ities.
Know Your Audience
A large part of a budget-selling strategy may depend on the budget review au-
dience, whether it is one person or a group of people. Information that may
prove essential to the successful budget approval effort includes: Strategies
that have succeeded or failed in the past; pet peeves or special likes of review
members; and a variety of other committee characteristics.
Make a Professional Presentation
A professional presentation is critical to gaining acceptance of the proposal.
This typically includes:
- An enthusiastic and polished presentation.
- A neat, concise, and understandable budget proposal.
- Ample supporting documentation.
- A willingness and ability to answer relevant questions.
Quantify the Material
Because most resource allocation decisions are in some way affected by their
cost-benefit relationships, it is necessary to quantify both the costs and benefits
of virtually all budget proposals. Cost estimation is seldom easy, but it is usually
far easier than the measurement of benefits. Even in the private sector, bene-
fits are not always easy to measure in terms of the corporate goals of profitabil-
ity and liquidity. In the nonprofit sector, benefit measurement is even more
difficult. For example, how does one measure the benefits of 20 new park
rangers, 10 new police cars, or a decorative fountain in the city park? Obviously
the quantification process would be different for each of these, and direct com-
parisons could be inconclusive. Yet, such comparisons may be necessary in ar-
riving at final budget allocations.
It is easy to dismiss the value of quantification when the resulting num-
bers are hard to compare with other budget proposals or the numbers are hard
to verify. Nevertheless, some quantitative support typically is better than just