Dear Bob ... Do you have any ideas on how to sell infrastructure effectively? I especially have a difficult time fabricating (seems that way sometimes!) possible savings. I like to imagine that President Eisenhower had similar difficulties with his massive highway project, which was sold to a large degree for it's ability to distribute military aircraft over large areas -- one mile in every five was o Dear Bob …Do you have any ideas on how to sell infrastructure effectively? I especially have a difficult time fabricating (seems that way sometimes!) possible savings.I like to imagine that President Eisenhower had similar difficulties with his massive highway project, which was sold to a large degree for it’s ability to distribute military aircraft over large areas — one mile in every five was originally supposed to be “landable” — it’s benefits, however, have gone far beyond this). – Looking for closersDear Looking …Good question, good topic. Selling infrastructure is an interesting challenge because it doesn’t fall into the category of “value adding activities,” at least as the term is too-often used. Value-adding activities are those that contribute to the difference in cost between raw materials and finished goods. According to theory at least, only those activities that do so are worth the expenditure of time and effort.There’s another version of value-add that asks whether an activity creates new value – that is, whether it will make a company more profitable this year than it was last year. Infrastructure fails that test as well.The problem is that what infrastructure mostly does is preserve the value already added in past years. Consultants and pundits need to start talking about value-maintaining activities. So does everyone running an IT organization, because value maintenance accounts for at least 70% of most IT budgets. Which gets us to the answer: If you really have to sell infrastructure, it’s easy. Just offer to turn it off. (No, not threaten. Never threaten. Wrong tone of voice. That makes it a confrontation. Just look innocent and offer.)More likely, what you have to do is defend the infrastructure budget. That’s a more interesting challenge. You have two options (at least that I know about): The relational approach and the cost-accounting approach. Either can work; both in tandem works best.The cost-accounting approach requires a careful analysis of the infrastructure budget, breaking it down into fixed overhead and variable expenses. Fixed overhead is money you’ll spend whether the business grows or shrinks. Variable expenses depend on some measure of volume: Training costs depend on the number of employees to be trained and the number of projects completed along with their scope; telephone trunk costs are also proportional to the number of employees (and telephones); and so on. With the cost-accounting approach, you establish a public goal of shifting spending from value maintenance to value adding activities. The reason you need the fixed/variable analysis is to prevent the obvious (and stupid) way of doing so, which is cutting costs by cutting delivery. What you need to do instead is to cut fixed overhead and cut unit costs. That preserves delivery; it also lets you adjust for changing demand while still making your commitments.Which is to say, if you reduce the cost of delivering one unit but the number of units you need to deliver goes up, you’ve still cut costs even if your spending increases. You need the analysis to document this or you’ll be penalized for your success.The relational approach is easier, and probably better. It means establishing a relationship of trust with the other executives in the business. Doing so lets you say, with humor, “You have two choices. You can accept that this is what it costs to keep the lights on, or I can explain it to you. I’d be delighted to explain it to you. I figure it will take about an hour. At the end you’ll be experts in the details of IT infrastructure architecture, management, and operations. Ready?” Chances are they’ll beg for mercy and offer a 5% budget increase just to prevent you from explaining it.Which isn’t to say you should ignore the cost accounting and budget shifting. You should do that to. You’re best off, though, if it’s just part of the job and not something that gets a lot of visibility. It isn’t that it’s something to be ashamed of, merely something nobody other than you and your staff needs to care about.– Bob ——– Technology Industry