Your technical expertise is killing your proposals.
Because being technically excellent isn’t enough if you want to lead the transformation of your company.
Talking about processes, tactical metrics or technical jargon in front of an Executive Committee is not a display of expertise; it’s shooting yourself in the foot, and the reason your proposals never get off the ground.
In this video I’ll give you the key to getting the decision-makers in your company to back the project you’re working on, thanks to the power of Data Storytelling.
The critical mistake many Leaders with a technical background make is “expert pride”. You believe your project’s complexity justifies its existence, but for senior management, complexity means risk, and risk creates friction and leads to rejection.
When you force a decision-maker to make the mental effort of translating your jargon into numbers, you’re handing over your responsibility and losing control of the narrative. Three things can go through their mind:
Option 1:
An attempt at mental arithmetic. And while they’re doing it, they stop listening to you.
Option 2:
They drift off mentally to something else (if they don’t want to cause conflict).
Option 3:
They interrupt you to ask about what matters to them. And if you don’t answer clearly and directly, you’ll lose their interest and they’ll move on.
Your ability to inspire change in the organization isn’t about explaining how a tool works, but about demonstrating its impact on the business’s key indicators.
In other words, what benefit it helps achieve (such as earning the certification that positions us as the most sustainable company in the sector, and the knock-on opportunities that come with it),
or what problem it solves (such as stopping the steady loss of customers to the competition).
An idea that isn’t quantified in business indicators is, for the corporate system, an irrelevant idea. Pure distraction.
As I teach in my methodology for selling strategic projects, decisions in companies rest on one basic principle: reducing uncertainty.
The committee isn’t won over by how well your system works, but by the confidence that its investment will generate real impact.
Without data that affects the bottom line or supports a strategic priority, your proposal is just a technical opinion competing against priorities that are simply more pressing.
To stop being seen as a cost and start being respected as a strategic partner, apply this three-step method:
Step 1: Focus more on impact and less on features
A decision-maker is less interested in the “what” than in the “what for”.
Replace the language of processes with the language of results: Money, Market or Risk.
Don’t talk about “upgrading the infrastructure”; talk about “strengthening the system to prevent a service outage that would cost us €50,000 for every hour of downtime”. That’s risk mitigation, and that’s what the Committee buys.
Step 2: Always quantify.
The absolute key lies in the data.
If you don’t have it, find it: research, call other departments, move heaven and earth to get it.
Still can’t find it? Create it from a small pilot test.
Can’t run a pilot? Make an estimate based on reasonable criteria and solid assumptions.
Understand that if you can’t put a number on it, you don’t have a proposal, you have a wish.
Translate even the intangible: “How much does it cost the organization not to make this decision today?”. That opportunity cost is the language Finance understands perfectly.
Step 3: Make a clear, direct and firm proposal.
Your pitch must be a direct bridge between the investment requested and the value generated, and that requires you to talk not only about the problem, nor even about the solution, but about the specific action you suggest to achieve the result.
Say something like “I propose we invest X to capture Y”.
By simplifying this equation, you remove mental friction and allow the Committee to act quickly, raising your status as a strategist in their eyes.
Your value as a Leader lies not only in the depth of your technical knowledge, but in your ability to put that expertise at the service of the bottom line with clear proposals that support the business.
Master the language of money and you’ll start influencing the decisions that matter.
