"Great idea, but we don't have the budget." Sick of hearing this? Learn my three foolproof tips for getting an executive yes, and get all the things-budget, resources, and yup, more headcount.

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H O W T O G E T
A N Y T H I N G Y O U W A N T
F R O M A N E X E C U T I V E
Jade Makana, Content Director and Adjunct Executive
Anthropologist

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Hopeless

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Overlooked

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Slightly Murdery.

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Today’s presentation will take you from those…to
this!

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Hi, I’m Jade Makana
• Content Director at Outreach.io
• Former Editor-in-Chic at Bridezilla.com
• Ad agencies working with brands like Conde Nast,
General Motors, Princess Alaska Lodges, and
Chateau Ste Michelle
• Work has been featured on CNN Money, InSyle
Magazine, Style Me Pretty and BuzzSugar
• About 12 years of experience getting executives to
do all the things

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Seriously, why are you here?
o Because you are sick of feeling frustrated and helpless because you can’t get the resources you need,
yet Justine the idiot designer just got two new people and budget to go to SXSW?
o Because you have billboard ideas on a blog post budget?
o Because you’re so overworked you pray for death and your manager just keeps telling you to “stop being
a victim” and “run lean” because they listened to some stupid Audible book?
•

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Agenda-How to get all the things!
• 3 Prong Foolproof Formula to Getting an Executive Yes
• The Two Types of Executives
• Bonus tips
• The Cautionary Tale of the Short Attention Span CTO
• Number 1 Mistake People Make

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3 Steps to an Executive Yes
1. *****Turn what you want into what
they want.
2. Focus on value, not cost.
3. Wherever possible, reallocate instead of
request more.

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The winning formula for all
successful persuasion
What you want What they want

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How to Know What They Want
• If you have access, ask them directly.
• Notice common threads and refrains “catchphrases”
when they talk. Influencers? Brands?
• Ask someone who works with them closely.
• When in doubt, fall back on company goals or core
values.

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How to Know What You Want: Number one Mistake

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Figure out what you want
1. Stop focusing on the problem and come up with a solution. Better yet, come
up with three possible solutions and put them in that order.
2. Be flexible! As long as the problem gets solved, it doesn’t have to come in
the exact right package you want. For example, in this, case you may want
an employee brand manager full-time, but could be open to a contractor,
interns, or help from another department whose team has bandwidth.

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BUSINESS CASE
EXAMPLE

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Business case: You want a new headcount
1. You want….a new headcount dedicated to employee branding.
2. Your exec wants…to 2x revenue by 2018.
Success formula: New employee branding
headcount will lead to more revenue.

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Building the Case
1. “We as a company need more revenue.”
2. “To earn more revenue, we need killer products. Our products right
now are not as good as our competitors and our sales are suffering.”
3. “To get killer products, we need to hire better product managers.”

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Business Case (cont)
1. “No good product managers want to work here right now. There are more
prestigious companies in town and people want to work at a place they’ve heard
of. “
2. “For this reason, we cant just rely on contract recruiters. It’s a band aid fix. We
need someone long-term dedicated to building up our brand.“
3. “By hiring an employee brand manager, we ensure the talent we need to create
the products we need to 2x revenue. “

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Focus on the value, not the cost.
1. “By refusing to pay an 80k salary to an employee brand manager, we are losing big
pitches: we lost a 2 million dollar account because the client Johnson International
knew our product did not have the features needed for international capabilities.
2. If the employee brand manager hire resulted in just one international product manager
hire, we could have gotten that contract, and the employer brand manager role would
have paid for itself.”

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Reallocate rather than request
more.
1. An employee brand manager costs an avg of 80k, and will help the global
employment brand.
2. A third-party headhunter or recruiting agency may charge this much for just
filling one Product Marketing Manager position.
3. If we hired this role in-house, we could stop paying the recruiting agencies
and get a global brand for a fraction of the cost.

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T H A N K Y O U
C O N T A C T M E A N Y T I M E A T
J A D E . M A K A N A @ G M A I L . C O M