Budget Analyst --
Federal Agency Money Matters
<!--webbot bot="HTMLMarkup" endspan --> <a href="http://leader.linkexchange.com/2/X1097270/clicklogo" target="_top"><img src="http://leader.linkexchange.com/2/X1097270/showlogo?" width="468" height="16" border="0" ismap alt></a><br> OPINION: <a name="So how do you prepare and present a budget?">So how do you prepare and present a budget?</a> - It is related to marketing<p>Keep in mind that the budget document is primarily a sales tool, to be used to support whatever you are selling in the market you are selling in. If you know your market, you should be able to develop your sales pitch based on what the market wants in ways that the market accepts or that, at least, has an impact on the players in the market. The impact part is important - if you know your market well, you should be able to change the traditional ways to sell to it and increase your ability to sell.</p> <p>The first question about preparing the budget is: What is it that I am going to sell? Do you have a new program that needs increased resources? Do you want to save a program that is controversial and has many enemies? Do you want to cut what has many friends? Each of these presents a different marketing challenge. Deciding what you are selling and whether or not it is worth doing involves a large amount of time and effort in an agency’s budget process since this decision is made many times, at each decision level in the agency’s hierarchy.</p> <p>Once you have decided what to sell, you get to the next question: Whom do I sell it to? This may be easy to determine if you know who the players are in your program areas and have experience with the process, as well as if you are in a simple hierarchy - in some cases, "the boss" is the answer. In other cases, however, you may have to sell to others as well, such as staffs at various levels or to parallel organizations that may have a say in what you want. And you may conclude that you have to sell first to those who may not be the obvious ones when you first start to look for answers.</p> <p>Once you have answered the first two questions, you get to the third question: Which is the best way to make my case? To present your budget, you need to look at who your audience will be. Are they people in the know or are they amateurs in your business? Do they understand the technicalities of what you are dealing with, or are they strangers to your work? Have you dealt with them before, or do you have to deal with a new crowd? Will they be receptive to your pitch, or will they be a hard sell? These questions are no different from those related to any sales objective and presentation. You have to develop a presentation, deliver it, and be prepared for questions. You also have to be ready to change with every new audience or new instance of the presentation. Which leads to question number four.</p> <p>Which is the best way to prepare my presentation? This needs to be assessed in the light of the <a href="Technica.htm">technical requirements</a> that you have to meet. Forms have to be filled out, tables prepared, supporting evidence submitted, questions answered before any other communication can take place, analysis prepared. All these requirements masquerade as rational decision making, but they are mostly impediments to the sale - all can get in the way of preparing the best possible presentation. These chores, although necessary, are distractions that can keep you from focusing on the marketing job you have at hand. To succeed, you need to keep your focus. Remember, it is a sales job.</p> <p align="right"> </p> <!--mstheme--></font><!--msnavigation--></td></tr><!--msnavigation--></table><!--msnavigation--><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> <p> <!-- msthemeseparator--></p> <p align="center"> <img src="_themes/strart/strruled.gif" width="300" height="10"></p> <!--mstheme--></font><table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="759" height="1"> <tr> <td valign="top"><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> <!-- mstheme--> <h6 align="center"><!--mstheme--><font face="Comic Sans MS, Arial, Helvetica" color="#336699">Copyright © 1998-2007 by Laszlo Bockh and Mary Blakeslee. All rights reserved. Last revised: 11/24/07 01:51 PM. All trademarks or product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. The logo and BudCast™ images used herein were obtained from IMSI's MasterClips/MasterPhotos© Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA 94901-5506, USA<!--mstheme--></font></h6> <!--mstheme--></font></td> </tr> </table><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> <p> </p> <!--mstheme--></font></td></tr><!--msnavigation--></table></body> </html>
