This week at the 2026 LMA Mid-Atlantic Conference, I was able to attend a great presentation by Tara Mobley (CEO of Stein Sperling) on what was most useful to her when being pitched an idea. It boils down to 3 main things, all with an overarching theme of speaking the language of the person you are selling to:

       Y: whY now?

Connect it to a firm priority. Just because everyone else is doing does not make it necessary right now; try and come in with a reason that you are benefiting from having it done now. This could be because a vendor is doing a discount or because the current system you use is not secure. 

       E: Evidence of Value

Create KPI's to track the initiative. Come in with some substance of how you are going to know if the new idea is going to work or not and have trackable metrics that you can use to verify. A big part of this is looking at the process as a whole. An example Tara mentioned was if an AI brief tool saves you 30 minutes of writing but then down the line you spend 45 minutes fixing it, you end up paying to add 15 minutes to a process.

       S: Small, safe bet 

Determining scope, ownership, and measurement is all easier with a pilot. Anything requiring a 100% partner buy-in from the start is instantly much harder to get a yes. The same goes for something requiring a big implementation. At the time of the pitch, everything is an assumption and the manager knows that, so provide a way to prove the value and the assumptions before taking on a big project. 

When you come to a manager with an idea, the first thing they consider is: “what happens after I say yes?” 

     Who is going to own it?

     What is the implementation process?

     How will we know it worked?

     Do you have champions identified to help with adoption?

Not having the answer to questions like these means the idea is now a conversation for next month, quarter, or year instead of next week. Conversely, having the answers not only increases your chances of a yes, but also starts to move you from the administrative role to strategic advisor.