2 min lesson
ROI is a journey: qualitative → quantitative → dollars
Walk the 'ROI maturity journey' and name the numbers and the dollar framing that land with a CFO.
Step 1 of 2
ROI is a journey: qualitative → quantitative → dollarsmeet the buyer where their proof is
Proving ROIReturn on Investment. The value gained versus what it cost, the language an economic buyer funds deals in. Press Enter for the full definition. isn't one number, it's a staged climb and where the customer sits on it tells you what evidence they'll accept. Start with qualitative signal (are engineers excited, do they feel more productive), move to quantitative productivity (PR velocityHow quickly pull requests are merged; the easiest delivery metric to measure, though it sits furthest from the customer outcome. Press Enter for the full definition., code quality, bug counts, % of code turned over), then land on real dollars.
- Velocity
- Cursor reports velocity increases upward of 30%.
- Automations
- Save ~30-60 min/day per person; an automation costs a tiny fraction of an engineer's salary but can make them 10-20% more effective.
- Dollars framing
- 'Pull-forward revenue': when AI collapses deployment from weeks/months to days, teams pull roadmap items (and their revenue) forward.
- Dogfooding proof
- ~30-40% of Cursor's own merged PRs are created end-to-end by cloud agents; a power-user engineer estimates ~70% of theirs. (Verify before quoting.)
Use the highest-credibility evidence the customer is ready for, and reach for the dollar framing the moment a CFO is in the room. The 'pull-forward revenue' line is the one that lands with finance, because it reframes the spend as revenue acceleration rather than a cost. (Treat the specific percentages as perishable and verify before quoting them.)
Don't map every capability to every persona. That's a feature dump in a table costume. Map the two or three pains worth real money to this org and translate those hard. Depth over coverage.