{"id":23706,"date":"2022-12-15T13:16:15","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T13:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/15\/how-to-convince-your-management-of-your-brilliant-idea-part-two\/"},"modified":"2022-12-15T13:16:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T13:16:15","slug":"how-to-convince-your-management-of-your-brilliant-idea-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/15\/how-to-convince-your-management-of-your-brilliant-idea-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"How to convince your management of your brilliant idea (Part two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In this two-part series, Sue Mizera explores how to get buy-in for brilliance. Part two.<\/h3>\n

In part one<\/a> we covered Ethos (speaker\u2019s preparation, authority and character) and Logos (your argument, content and logic). In this part, we unpack Pathos. Let\u2019s explore.<\/p>\n

Pathos: Your sympathy with, impact on your audience\u00a0<\/h3>\n

This is your attempt to sway your audience emotionally\u2014engage emotions, passions and imaginations. Your logical argument will be that much more persuasive if it\u2019s wrapped up with a good dose of emotion and understanding of where they\u2019re coming from. Remember: Pathos is not only dramatic or sad, it is more nuanced to include humour, love, and emotional responses. The absolute key: to know your audience and what\u2019s in it for them.<\/p>\n

Put yourself in their shoes<\/h4>\n

Know-cold your audience, their interests, prejudices and expectations. Without this, you\u2019re already setting yourself up for failure. Even before you enter the room, consider what\u2019s going on in their minds. E.g.,\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a marketer, you may come with \u2018baggage.\u2019 Not everywhere, not in every company or on every management team, but marketing, especially B2B marketing, can come with legacy associations \u2013 assistants promoted to marketing roles, often women, with reputations for tactics (\u2018party planning\u2019 and \u201c\u2018ogo-cop\u2019) and as being cost-centres. Marketing as wholly strategic and business-based is more recent, and not universally understood.<\/p>\n

Sales may see a \u2018turf battle.\u2019 Marketing and sales are unique in their roles as they cover wholly similar territory \u2013 the customer. Think about it, what other corporate roles occupy so much the same territory or necessarily ride the same range, albeit in very different ways? Most corporate functions are happy stovepipes, giddily independent silos. A corporate branding project, wherein customers are central to the final results, are likely to set up inevitable challenges and conflicts. It is human nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Management famously fears change. Be clear, your branding initiative represents big change and potential disruption. In fact, most CMO-led, strategic and business-based marketing initiatives do. And should. As we have recently written about, change generates fear of the new and the unknown, so it can be very convenient for members of the management team to rationally point to the costs of an initiative as a \u2018stopper\u2019 rather than the real reasons \u2013 uncertainty of the new, even if they harbour true interest. This perhaps shines the hottest, brightest spotlight on the necessity of controlling the narrative and owning the seamless integration of its Ethos, Logos and Pathos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speak their language\u00a0<\/h4>\n

And the language of their board. You do hear this a lot, \u2018speak their language,\u2019 as if it\u2019s the only thing you have to do \u2013 it is important, but as you\u2019re seeing, it\u2019s hardly the only thing!\u00a0 It\u2019s not the \u2018silver bullet\u2019 many attribute to it.
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Without question, your results must use a common language of SOM, competitive differentiation, business growth, and customer loyalty, (p)reference. You should also consider what the scenario of not engaging in this corporate brand initiative looks like and what language you would use to describe this potentially stark, particularly scary landscape. Keep your examples vivid. Always cite your sources as common points of reference.<\/p>\n

It is not only what<\/em> you say, however; it is how<\/em> you say it. \u2018Speaking their language\u2019 requires, above all, appropriate tone and diction and is a prime example of where your corporate brand personality and core values come into play. If your company is an explorer who stands for innovation and courage, this requires different tone, diction and language from a company that is a Patriarch who values authority, or a magician who speaks of transformation. Should tonal alignment send you back to your original text, as you flesh out the arc of your argument and (re)frame the logos, so be it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Try to touch their intrinsic motivations \u2013 a real insight<\/h4>\n

In any bold, new strategic presentation to management, we can all be sympathetic, their \u2018necks are on the line\u2019\u00a0 \u2014 it\u2019s not just cost or turf that they\u2019re thinking about or a lack of understanding that they may be harbouring; it\u2019s equally the direction \u2013 big, new, bold and potentially scary \u2013 where you want to take them and the company. So, in addition to all that Aristotle has had to offer in instruction and support, we can also marshal important reference to self-determination theory, or SDT. This discipline, of which Ihave written briefly, holds that we all make the easiest, smoothest decisions when we choose to follow our intrinsic motivations, of which there are three:\u00a0<\/p>\n