When I worked in Fortune 500 companies
and I had a cross-functional project
I really wanted to launch,
I was very conscious
of the order of approvals.
1) I would first approach
my manager.
I’d pitch him the project,
tell him I’d take total responsibility
for it
(yes, I put my job on the line
for each project).
All I would request from him
was permission
to pitch it to our V-P.
He normally agreed
because hey, if it was a bad idea,
our V-P would turn me down.
2) I would then pitch the project
to my V-P,
mentioning that I’d already spoken
to my manager.
Again, I offered to take full responsibility
for this project.
All I would ask of my V-P
was the opp
to pitch it to the V-Ps
affected by the cross-functional project.
3) Then I would pitch the project
to the other V-Ps individually,
pitching to the V-P less affected first,
mentioning that I’d already spoken
to my V-P.
I’d offer to take full responsibility.
Why would I pitch individually
rather than pitch to everyone
at once?
Wouldn’t a group pitch have been more effective?
Maybe but it would have resulted in a no.
As Seth Godin shares
“If you work in an organization,
the underlying rule is simple:
People are not afraid of failure,
they’re afraid of blame.”
With individual pitches,
the V-Ps could blame each other.
With group pitches,
they’d have to take some of the responsibility.
The order of your pitches
can be as important as
the pitch itself.
Think strategically.