Before naming any solution, a manager gets the leadership team to agree that a specific problem exists and matters, so the later proposal answers a question the team has already asked.
An example
Complaint-handling software had twice died in capital review at a medical-device maker, dismissed as nice to have, and the company's quality director still believed it was needed. This time she left software out of it. At three monthly management reviews she presented only the complaint backlog: how many open files had passed the thirty-day mark, which product lines they came from, and what the regulator's last inspection had said about timeliness. Each time she asked whether the leadership team considered it acceptable. At the third meeting the chief executive said it was not and asked what would fix it. Two weeks later she came back with three options, one of them the software, each with its cost and the time it would take to clear the backlog. The software was approved as the answer to a question the executives had asked.
Why it works
Leaders resist solutions they did not ask for, especially when each one competes with every other request. Getting agreement first that a specific problem exists and matters changes where the proposal stands: it now answers a question the leadership has raised, which makes it look better, and the status quo looks worse because the leaders have said aloud that it is unacceptable. The problem has to be real, measurable, and tied to the deciders' own goals, and the sponsor has to be patient. It fails when the problem is framed to fit one solution so obviously that leaders feel led.
The thinking behind it
Jane E. Dutton Dutton and Ashford's Selling Issues to Top Management (1993) treats top management's time and attention as critical, limited resources, and issue selling as the way people below direct that attention to particular issues early in decision-making. Presenting the complaint backlog before any solution is issue selling in this sense: it wins the problem a place on the agenda, and the later proposal arrives as the answer to it.
Susan J. Ashford In Moves That Matter: Issue Selling and Organizational Change (2001), Dutton, Ashford, and colleagues describe the moves of successful issue sellers: packaging, such as tying the issue to goals the organization valued; involvement, bringing in peers and superiors; and process moves such as preparing before pitching and judging timing. The findings rest on retrospective accounts from managers in one hospital, so they are suggestive, but the tactic's steps follow them closely.
When it fits
Selling the problem first fits proposals that have been dismissed as nice to have, issues that matter more than leaders currently believe, and managers without the authority to fund their own solutions. You need data that show the problem, a recurring slot with the leadership team, and the willingness to put several solutions on the table later.
How to use it well
Separate the problem from your solution and lead with the problem alone. Package it in terms leaders already care about: risk, customers, money, the strategy they announced.
- Show the facts and their trend, and ask directly whether the team finds this acceptable.
- Involve others who feel the problem, so it is not yours alone.
- Use forums the leaders already attend, and raise it more than once.
- Once the team agrees it must be fixed, bring several real options, including yours, with their costs.
Let the leaders ask for the solution. A proposal that answers their question meets less resistance than one that arrives unasked.
What it costs and where it backfires
Selling the problem is slow and takes several meetings before any proposal is heard. Once leaders own the problem they may choose a different fix, and you will have to accept it. Raising the problem again and again can mark you as a complainer if the facts are weak. The problem has to be true and fairly sized. Inflating it, or holding back the facts that point to other fixes, turns issue selling into a sales job that leaders resent when they see it.
When it is used on you
Early on, ask a colleague who raises a problem month after month what they think should be done and what the options are. Judge the problem on its own data and the options on theirs. If you have a better fix, put it forward once the problem is agreed. The person who sold the problem has no claim to the answer.