Selling Uphill: The Pitch
by Rick Brenner
Whether you're a CEO or a project champion, you occasionally have to persuade decision-makers who have some kind of power over you. What do they look for? What are the key elements of an effective pitch? What does it take to Persuade Power?
o what about Marigold?" Sara asked. She and Karl were concerned that Wolf would argue for trying to fix Marigold first, before even looking at their proposal for Metronome. But Karl had an idea.
"Maybe we don't say anything about Marigold. Suppose we critique a third idea — not Marigold — that looks at least as good as Wolf's. Then we're not arguing against Marigold, and it's a lot less personal. But it still raises questions about his approach."
Sara was impressed. "Yes, and if Metronome is an even better idea, it might be easier to turn the discussion back to Metronome. Interesting…"
Karl and Sara are devising one of the key elements of any proposal — the discussion of alternatives. By demonstrating the advantages of their proposal relative to all plausible alternatives, they effectively turn attention to the approach they're advocating.
Here are the key elements of an effective proposal. Some might not apply in your situation, so be selective.
To effectively advocate
for a position,
understand first
what your audience
cares about.
Let that drive
everything else.
- What's the issue?
- What issue does your proposal address? Present the issue from your management's perspective. Stick to one issue — complexity is a demotivator.
- What's the impact?
- What was the impact of this issue on a current or recently completed project? Did it affect schedules? Budgets? Relationships? Customers?
- What's the impact of inaction?
- Project what will happen if this issue isn't addressed effectively. Estimate budget and schedule effects, showing how the issue affects future or current projects. Estimate the financial costs and lost revenue associated with these factors, going forward quarter by quarter, for three years.
- Where will the impact be greatest?
- All projects are unique. What kinds of projects are most likely to be affected by this issue? Rank project types by impact, and estimate schedule, budget and revenue consequences. This is especially persuasive if your proposal helps favored projects or customers.
- Are there alternatives?
- Every problem has multiple solutions, and no solution is best all around. Explore the advantages and disadvantages of three alternatives. Include financial consequences. This is the piece that Karl and Sara are working on.
- What do you recommend?
- Of the alternatives you explored, which one are you proposing and why? Take a position and defend it.
- What should we do next?
- Assuming that your proposal is adopted, what's the next doable step? Sketch a plan for implementation, including a schedule with milestones, and a budget. Include a risk plan.
- Who should do it?
- Who would work this plan, and how much of their time would be required? Are consultants involved? New hires?
- How will we know if we succeed?
- What criteria determine success? Will we need resources to determine success? How much? When?
Do you have a rejected proposal in a file somewhere? Dig it out. How many of these key elements were covered? Can you see ways to improve it?
Top
Next Issue
The article you've been reading is an archived issue of Point Lookout, my weekly newsletter. I've been publishing it since January, 2001, free to all subscribers, over the Web, and via RSS. You can help keep it free by donating either as an individual or as an organization. You'll receive in return my sincere thanks — and the comfort of knowing that you've helped to propagate insights and perspectives that can help make our workplaces a little more human-friendly. More info
Your comments are welcome
Would you like to see your comments posted here?
Send me your comments by email, or
by Web form.
About Point Lookout
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful,
and that you'll consider
recommending it to a friend.
Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive
of past issues. Subscribe for free.
Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout,
as an individual or as an organization.
Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in,
anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.
Related articles
More articles on
Personal, Team and Organizational Effectiveness:
When Meetings Boil Over
- At any time, without warning, you can find yourself in a meeting that boils over. Sometimes tempers rise, then voices rise, and then people yell and scream. What can a team do when meetings threaten to boil over — and when they do?
Express Your Appreciation and Trust
- Some people in your organization have done really outstanding work. You want to recognize that work, but the budget is so small that anything you could do would be insulting. What can you do? Express your Appreciation and Trust.
Abraham, Mark and Henny
- Our plans, products and processes are often awkward, bulky and complex. They lack a certain spiritual quality that some might call elegance. Yet we all recognize elegance when we see it. Why do we make things so complicated?
Food for Thought
- Most companies have employee cafeterias, with the usual not-much-better-than-high-school food service. By upgrading — and subsidizing — food service, these companies can reduce turnover and improve productivity dramatically.
Email Antics: Part II
- Nearly everyone complains that email is a time waster. Yet much of the problem results from our own actions. Here's Part II of a little catalog of things we do that help waste our time.
See also Personal, Team and Organizational Effectiveness, Effective Communication at Work and Managing Your Boss for more related articles.
Coaching services
I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates.
Contact me for details at
rbrenner@ChacoCanyon.com
or (617) 491-6289, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.
Get the e-book!
Past issues of
Point Lookout are available in four e-books:
Reprinting this article
Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline?
Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site.
More info
Public seminars
- The Race to the South Pole: Ten Lessons for Project Managers
- On 14
December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough, but to project managers, the story is fascinating. Lessons abound. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:
Download to
your calendarCrowne Plaza Hotel, Cromwell, CT: September 15, Monthly Meeting, Southern New England Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
Download to
your calendarFort Wayne, IN: September 22, Monthly Meeting, Northeast Indiana Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
Download to
your calendarOverland Park Convention Center, 6000 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66211: October 4, Professional Development Day, Kansas City Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
Download to
your calendarAppleton, Wisconsin (tentatively): December 6, Monthly Meeting, Northeast Wisconsin Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
Download to
your calendarWeston, Wisconsin (tentatively): December 7, Monthly Meeting, Northeast Wisconsin Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
Download to
your calendarMITRE, in Bedford, MA: February 15, 2011, Monthly Meeting, Boston SPIN.
- Organizational Politics for People Who Hate Politics
- Have
you ever felt powerless to implement an important new idea? Have you ever been "blind-sided" at a meeting? Have you ever lost two good employees because you could find no way to keep them from attacking each other? These are some of the issues of organizational politics. Many of us have become enmeshed in them from time to time, but we've also known some people who seem to be able to engage and prosper. How is that done? We'll inventory the challenges of organizational politics, and provide tools for anticipating and addressing them. The focus of this program is practical — attendees learn concrete techniques for dealing with the problems that arise in workplace politics, while keeping their integrity intact. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:
- Managing Virtual Teams for Real Results
- Manag
ing global or dispersed teams is challenging — miscommunications, misunderstandings, and interpersonal conflict all thrive in the typical environment of the distributed team. And they're even more common in global teams, because of time-zone offsets and language and cultural differences. We'll inventory the challenges distributed and global teams face, and provide tools for anticipating and addressing them. The focus of this program is practical — attendees will learn concrete techniques for preventing and dealing with the problems that accompany global and distributed teams. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:
- Person-to-Person Communications: Models and Applications
- When
we talk, listen, send or read emails, read or write memos, or when we leave or listen to voice mail messages, we're communicating person-to-person. And whenever we communicate person-to-person, we risk being misunderstood, offending others, feeling hurt, and being confused. There are so many ways for things to go wrong that we could never learn how to fix all the problems. A more effective approach avoids problems altogether, or at least minimizes their occurrence. In this very interactive program we'll explain — and show you how to use — a model of inter-personal communications that can help you stay out of the ditch. We'll place particular emphasis on a very tricky situation — saying no to power. In those moments of intense involvement, when we're most likely to slip, you'll have a new tool to use to keep things constructive. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:
- Person-to-Person Communication for Project Managers
- When
we talk, listen, send or read emails, read or write memos, or when we leave or listen to voice mail messages, we're communicating person-to-person. And whenever we communicate person-to-person, we risk being misunderstood, offending others, feeling hurt, and being confused. There are so many ways for things to go wrong that we could never learn how to fix all the problems. A more effective approach avoids problems altogether, or at least minimizes their occurrence. In this very interactive program you'll learn a model of inter-personal communications that can help you stay out of the ditch. In those moments of intense involvement, when we're most likely to slip, you'll have a new tool to use to keep things constructive. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:
- The Race to the South Pole: Lessons in Risk Management for Leaders
- On 14
December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough. But to organizational leaders and project managers, the story is fascinating. We'll use the history of this event to explore lessons in risk management and its application to organizational efforts. A fascinating and refreshing look at risk management from the vantage point of history. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:
- The Organizational Politics of Risk Management
- Organ
izational politics presents a risk not often accounted for by risk models. It creates one of the many components of risk management risk — the risk that the risk management process itself is inadequate. Political considerations can lead to risk products that seem acceptable but which are fatally flawed; or worse, the risk products are plainly unserviceable, but everyone chooses not to acknowledge the problem. In this program we'll examine how organizational politics influences risk management, and discuss several measures for mitigating its effects. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program: