Selling your idea to management

You have a brilliant idea. You know it is going to work. You talk to your management, and you are told that the idea means spending money. The only way this idea materializes is if you can prove it is worth investing. Next best step is to conduct a cost-benefit analysis which means placing all the potential costs and comparing them to the benefits your idea will bring. If the benefits outweigh the costs, you have an easier time going back to management with your proof.

But wait! Conducting a cost-benefit analysis is used to prove that going forward with your idea will benefit the company. Keep in mind, listing on paper jargon and numbers may not get you what you want and showing management a detailed spreadsheet may not be wise for three reasons. One, they may not be interested in the details (what I would call “the weeds”), two, they may end up scrutinizing the details and spending too much time in the weeds, or three, they may tell you to email them the information and they will look at it first chance, which translates to ghosting you. This is where creating a visual, like the waterfall method comes handy because it will tell a story.

The process is simple. Follow these five steps and you can create a one-pager to talk to management.

Step 1 Gathering the costs: when gathering your costs, make sure you are collecting all expenses needed to get your idea launched. This can include labor/headcount, materials, supplies, marketing materials, equipment, and so forth. As you collect the costs, write out their costs using the three-point estimation method, identifying the:

• Best Case scenario (BC): be optimistic about your cost.
• Worst Case scenario (WC): be pessimistic about your cost.
• Most Likely scenario (ML): be as realist as possible about your cost.

Have a column called “Expected value” that does the three-point estimation calculation = (BC+WC+ML)/3

Step 2 Brainstorming the benefits: This should already be at the forefront of your mind and part of the “why” you want this idea to come to fruition. But you may miss out on…