General approach
Pitching to your direct manager can be challenging. You’ll need to get your boss on board and also appeal to the decision-makers they report to, like VPs or C-level executives, who ultimately approve resources or give the final sign-off.
Part of your success comes from understanding what matters to your manager. It might be hitting team KPIs that help them get promoted or bringing in new innovations they’ve always wanted to try—especially if your idea makes it possible.
The other part is knowing what the executives care about when your manager presents your idea. C-level leaders often focus on things like user satisfaction, revenue growth, the company’s vision, and long-term strategy. They’ll likely want to see how your idea will drive revenue and support key strategic goals.
How to adjust your approach if the execution of your idea will require your team's resources?
Approach difficulty
Explain how your idea helps the team achieve its goals while using resources more effectively. If it also benefits the company’s overall strategy or department objectives, highlight this as an added advantage. This can motivate your manager to support your idea since it aligns with broader goals.
How to adjust your approach if the execution of your idea will require another team resource?
Approach difficulty
Show how your idea will help both your team and the company’s or department’s larger goals. Focus on how it benefits the level of the organization where your team and the resource-providing team share decision-makers. Make it easy for your manager to promote your idea by showing how it supports company strategy and meets their personal targets or KPIs. This makes it more appealing for them to back your idea.
How to adjust your approach if the execution of your idea will require financial resources?
Approach difficulty
Highlight how your idea helps meet both team targets and broader financial objectives of the company or department. Identify where the financial decision-makers are and show the value at that level. Since your manager will need to present the idea further, provide details on how it improves financial goals (like cutting costs or boosting revenue). Also, show how it helps meet your manager’s own KPIs, giving them more reason to support the idea.
Step-by-step guide
Understand your target audience’s values
Depending on your ambitions the execution of your idea might require a few or a lot of resources.Pitching an idea, that requires few resources is quite simple - focus on how it will profit your direct manager individually. As Ben Franklin said, "If you would persuade appeal to interest and not to reason".
It is much harder to pitch the idea, which will require significant resources and in this case, you will need to appeal to two target audiences at once:
First, your direct manager's individual interest. You will need to think about extra incentives as passing your idea to the ultimate decision-makers, like VPs or C-level executives will cost your direct manager an extra effort.
Second, strategic, financial, or even personal interests of the ultimate decision-makers (Board, VPs, or C-level executives).
Understand what message you want to deliver
The most important part of a successful presentation is the message you want to deliver. First, define how you want to change the behavior or beliefs of the audience you will present to, and then come up with one key message that will nudge your audience to make that change!
I.e. We will save many people's lives with durable robots that can perform dangerous tasks in a life-threatening environment.
Keep in mind, that if your idea will require significant resources, your message should create interest for both, your direct manager and the ultimate decision-makers a direct manager will talk to for resource allocation.
Collect evidence
When your direct manager will pitch your idea forward he will need to be sure that the problem is real, it is worth attention, and pitching your solution will not damage his reputation in any way. That's why you will need to validate the problem and collect all the evidence to prove its existence & importance of solving it.
Problem occurrence: Talk to colleagues or clients. Do they see this as a problem? How often do they encounter it?Problem severity: Is it a “vitamin problem” or a “cure for cancer”? The first type of problem is not worth solving, but solving the second type of problem will make a huge deal.
Impact: What might happen if the problem isn't addressed? Could it turn into a bigger problem over time?
Problem roots: Use the “5 Whys” framework to understand the root cause. Solving the root prevents future issues.
Explain your solution
Your solution might be obvious to you but not to others. One of the most important things is communicating your idea in a universal and easy-to-understand language.
I.e. “To solve problem X, we’ll implement strategy Y, which addresses the issue by doing Z.”
Help your audience to understand WHY your solution is worth the attention by providing a pro-solution argument.
Include sponsor-targeted arguments: Focus on how your solution will affect your team's or department's targets, or the company's financial or strategic goals.Include detractor arguments: There is a 99% chance, you will face resistance from some of your audience. That's why part of your arguments should address detractors' concerns.
Define success indicators
The goal of your presentation is to secure resources and approval to execute your idea, that will solve the problem. Explain how you & everyone else will understand that the goal is achieved.I.e. Customer churn will decrease from 60% to 50%. Revenue will grow 300%, and operational efficiency measured by teams ROI will grow x3.
Visualize the future
Pitching, your main job is to sell a vision of a better future.
I.e. "Imagine a world where our company is the dominating leader. Our customers say the quality of our product is by far the best and that we are much faster in delivering new features than any competitor. Our revenue growth is 3x from the previous year."
You can also use the opposite technique - the theory of loss aversion, the mental mechanism that causes us to experience more pain from losing something than pleasure from winning something. Build a picture of the future where your problem becomes much worse and leads to a terrible outcome.
I.e. "If we do not solve problem X, in 5 years we will end up with a new customer churning at almost 80%. Only imagine, 8 out of 10 potential customers will decide not to use our product after seeing the offer. That in turn will lead to shrinking revenues, according to my calculation by 3x.
Outline key resources needed
Understand & outline key resources that you will need to ask for to execute your solution and solve the problem.Those typically fall into 3 categories:
You team resource
Another team resources
Financial resource
Be specific.
I.e. To execute on solution I will need 2 additional engineers that could be borrowed from another team for 2 months.
See here how to adjust your approach based on resource type here.
Call to action
It is time to make the ask or initiate an action.Outline your CTA in the following format:
What: I.e. Approve hiring two engineersWho: I.e. Decision needed from the CTO
When: I.e. This quarter
Send a pitch summary to your direct manager
Put together a short version of your pitch and send it to your direct manager in advance. This will allow your idea to live some time in your direct manager's head and as a result there will be higher chances of positive outcomes.This is very helpful, but surprisingly a lot of people don't do that.
Keep in mind!
Many employees often hesitate to speak up about problems like poor performance, inefficient processes, or disagreements with company decisions. This is often due to fear of being labeled a “troublemaker,” hurting relationships or thinking their input won’t matter. A big part of this is the lack of psychological safety, where employees don’t feel safe sharing ideas without fear of judgment or negative consequences.
To speak up more confidently, try sharing concerns with a trusted colleague first. Frame feedback as a way to improve the business, not as criticism, and choose the right moment to talk.
When pitching your idea to your direct manager, the Decoy Effect can help make your preferred solution stand out. The idea is to present three options: the solution you want them to pick, a less attractive choice, and a “decoy” option. The decoy is there to make your main idea look like the best one by comparison, increasing the chance it will be chosen.
To use this, start with a strong main idea you want your manager to approve. Then create a second option (the decoy) that is similar but falls short in some key areas like cost or effort. Finally, add a third option that’s much less appealing. This way, your main idea looks like the best choice, as it has the most value for the least trade-offs.
This approach makes it easier for your direct manager & ultimate decision-makers to see the benefits of your preferred solution and increases its chances of getting approved.
