In a corporate setting, we often need to convince someone higher up the management chain to approve a course of action. When faced with this scenario, always start with your recommendation before explaining your rationale.
In other words, get to the point. Don’t distract your listener or reader by starting with how you arrived at the recommendation. Always start with the conclusion itself.
Why does it matter?
Consider this fictional conversation between a sales lead and their boss, the Sales Director:
Sales Lead (enters director’s office): Hey, boss. Can I talk to you about something?
Boss (pushes the keyboard away, leans back in chair): Sure.
Sales Lead: So . . . I was feeling really frustrated on the drive home from work last night because our new hire, Andy, has been having trouble putting together that proposal for client ABC this week. It took him too much time, and when he finally finished the first draft, it was just all over the place.
Boss (thinking): (Uh-oh. Does he want me to fire Andy?)
Sales Lead: I’d given him our proposal templates, and Andy tried to follow them, but the client is asking for a highly customized service offering we’ve not really done before. The draft proposal needs so much work that I’m thinking of canceling today’s team meeting so I can finish the proposal myself. It’s due at 9 am tomorrow, and you know how ABC is one of our strategic clients.
Boss (thinking): (Oh. Maybe my Sales Lead just wants me to run this week’s Sales meeting while they work on the proposal.)
Sales Lead: So anyway, after thinking about the whole situation last night, I want to block off a day on my schedule next week to create a new proposal template based on what we submit to Client ABC tomorrow. I know you prefer I be out doing calls, but I think this is more important.
Boss (nods, thinking): (Well, d’oh. Why didn’t you just say so in the first place? I didn’t need to know your life story.)
Sales Lead: I have some solid ideas about how to make the template too. I’m planning to modularize the service offering so we can pick and choose from the modules the next time we need to submit a proposal to another client. It’s slightly more complicated than our usual templates, and it will take some doing to create, but it will make putting together future bids a lot easier, and they’ll be standardized too.
Boss (nods): Okay. Makes sense to me. Let’s do that.
Here’s how it could have been so much better
Consider how much more efficiently and professionally the same conversation would have gone if the Sales Lead had started with the key point instead.
Sales Lead: Hey, boss. I’d like your approval to block off a day on my schedule next week to create a new proposal template based on the bid we’re submitting to Client ABC tomorrow. I know you prefer that I be out doing calls, but I think the investment in time will be worth it.
Boss: Oh? What brought this on?
Sales Lead: You know how the bid we’re submitting to Client ABC is a highly customized service offering? It’s a new approach, so none of our existing templates are a good match. I expect we’ll have more bids like it in the next two quarters, so we need to give our agents a better template as a starting point. More so if we’re assigning strategic clients to new hires like Andy. A template will mean future bids will be easier to create, and they’ll be standardized too.
Boss (ponders): Can we even make a template if it’s a highly customized offering each time?
Sales Lead (nods): Yes! I’ve figured out how to modularize the service offering so we just pick and choose from the different modules the next time we put together a bid. The modular approach lets us customize it to each client. It’s slightly more complicated than our usual templates, though, which is why I think I’ll need a day to get it all written up.
Boss (nods approvingly): That’s quite clever. Okay. You’ve convinced me. Let’s do that.
Why This Approach Makes a Big Difference
There are many benefits for both speaker and listener when we start with the recommendation:
- Our listeners won’t have to guess where we’re taking them. They’re not distracted by inconsequential details.
- Our listeners can easily confirm that our recommendation is sound because we established the context first.
- We save our listeners the effort of trying to solve the problem as they listen.
- The conversation does not waste time.
- We project a more professional image because our listener sees us as solution-focused, not problem-focused.
- We didn’t have to speak ill of our new colleague to get the desired outcome.
Learn More
If you’d like a meaty guide for how to structure your thinking, writing, and presentations, consider reading The Minto Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto. Ameet Ranadive provides a great overview if you want a quick reference to skim.
