Recast in the decision-maker's own stated priorities and pressures, such as the margin target or the customer complaint they own, a proposal becomes a way to advance their agenda.
An example
Twice the warehouse manager at a family-owned plumbing supply distributor had asked for a warehouse management system, both times as a modernization project, and twice the owner, the founder's son, had seen a cost with a vague return. Before the third try, the manager read the owner's last three memos to staff. Each led with the same two goals: lift gross margin by two points, and stop losing contractor accounts to the national chains over delivery errors. The manager rebuilt the case around them. Mis-picks had cost $410,000 in credits and returns the year before, and three contractors who had left in the past year had cited wrong orders. The system would cut both, with payback in nineteen months. The word modernization did not appear. The owner approved it in the meeting and asked him to present the error numbers at the next sales meeting.
Why it works
Leaders weigh a proposal by what it does for the goals and pressures they own, which often differ from what the sponsor finds compelling. Tying the issue to those goals, and making the business case in their terms, makes the proposal look better to the one person who decides and gives them a reason to want it. It depends on the link being real, on knowing their priorities from what they have said and done, and on the proposal truly delivering against them.
The thinking behind it
Jane E. Dutton Moves That Matter: Issue Selling and Organizational Change (2001), by Dutton and colleagues, found that managers who sold issues successfully used packaging moves, such as making the business case and tying the issue to goals the organization already valued. The findings rest on retrospective accounts from managers in one hospital. Recasting a system upgrade as margin and lost accounts is a packaging move of exactly that kind.
Allan R. Cohen Cohen and Bradford's Influence Without Authority (1990) rests influence on exchange: people cooperate when they receive something they value, and each person trades in particular currencies. An owner who cares about margin and contractor accounts trades in those currencies, so a proposal paid in them is worth more to him than one paid in modernization.
David L. Bradford Among the currencies Influence Without Authority lists are position-related ones such as recognition and visibility. Giving the owner the error numbers to present at his own sales meeting pays in that currency as well, which is part of why the proposal reads as advancing his agenda.
When it fits
Sound proposals pitched in the sponsor's own language are the usual candidates: technical upgrades, process changes, programs for a function's own sake. You need to know the decision-maker's priorities and pressures well, from their memos, targets, and complaints, and a proposal that genuinely serves them.
How to use it well
Learn what the decision-maker is measured on and worried about. Read their memos, their targets, the complaints that reach them, and ask people close to them.
- Pick the one or two goals your proposal truly advances.
- Rebuild the case around them, with numbers in their units: margin, accounts, hours, risk.
- Cut the parts of the pitch that matter only to you.
- Offer them something they can use, such as data for their next meeting.
If the proposal advances none of their goals, better to learn that before you ask.
What it costs and where it backfires
A stretched link will be seen, and the next pitch starts with less trust. Rewriting every proposal around the boss's agenda can also narrow what you work on to what the boss already wants. Claiming benefits the proposal cannot deliver misleads the person who decides, and they will hold the numbers against you later.
When it is used on you
Check the numbers that connect a proposal to your priorities when it arrives framed in exactly your terms. Ask what it would cost if those benefits did not appear, and what the sponsor wants from it for their own unit. A proposal can serve your goals and the sponsor's both; know which you are paying for.