How do you use the power of persuasion for your business proposal?

With each passing day, we see a growing number of organisations and companies becoming more focused towards delivering business that provides their customers and target audience value for their product or service. This is exactly why it’s become essential for the top brass—the board of directors and senior executives, to plan their project, curate new ideas to take the company forward and evaluate the improvements and where they might stand to falter. Making a business case that proves to your client, customer or stakeholder that the project you’re pitching is a sound investment, is the way to go.

Enterprise Alumni CEO Emma Sinclair, Sweet Capital’s Pippa Lamb, and Little Moons’ founder Vivien Wong share their views on how to achieve this in different situations. 

Pippa Lamb: "Don’t be intimidated if people don’t look like you. Fewer than 13 per cent of venture-capital partners are women, but no one should let unconscious bias affect the scale of their ambition. I use it as a driver of my determination."

Vivien Wong: "You can’t wait to have the perfect product, because by then the opportunity will be gone. Be comfortable with uncertainty—no one knows everything." 

Emma Sinclair: "With experience comes greater competence. I still describe myself as a door-knocker, but now I knock louder on larger doors until they open."

PL: "If you’re going into a situation where you’ll feel nervous, ask yourself what will maximise your ability to feel confident. Your success is linked to how you feel in that room."

VW: "Know your audience and prioritise the emotional story you’ll tell–that will have an impact on how you reach consumers."

ES: "When fund-raising or asking for help, start with a few trusted relationships – they will get things moving. You can then mobilise more people to join you."

BUILDING THE RIGHT CONNECT

The hard work doesn't just end here as the next step is to network with confidence, according to creative director Gaylene Gould. Here are ways to do this:

1. Think about networking as a set of surprising encounters. With each, find out something new about the person you’re meeting and yourself.

2. Be curious about the human being in front of you–not what you think they have to offer you, but who they are and what their sense of the world is like. 

3. Don’t rush. Good conversations always contain an invitation, so slow down and give people time to reveal themselves to you.

4. Push your own boundaries. Sometimes it’s useful to say more about yourself than you meant to–that’s how transformation happens.

5. Be kind to yourself and take courage in the fact that you’re all in this together. Conversation is like a muscle, so you just have to keep building it. 

This piece originally appeared in the March 2023 print issue of Harper's Bazaar UK