On Tuesday I described why most requests fail. Today, the structure that works.
This is the framework I've taught for years. Used as written, it pushes approval rates somewhere between 75 and 90 per cent for any reasonable request. Used carelessly, it still doubles your hit rate compared to no structure at all.
Seven steps. You can run it on a single page or in a five-minute conversation. The order matters more than the format.
Step one: The frame
Open with the strategic context, not the request. One sentence that names the business outcome the request connects to.
"We're trying to bring time-to-onboard down from 22 days to under 10 by end of Q3."
This sentence does two things. It anchors the conversation in a shared objective rather than in your individual want. And it primes the listener to evaluate everything that follows in service of that objective, not as a discretionary expense.
If you can't write this sentence, you don't have a request worth making. You have an itch you want scratched.
Step two: The gap
State, in one or two sentences, what's currently in the way of that outcome.
"With the current tooling, the customer success team is doing manual handoffs that take three days per account. That's the single biggest contributor to the timeline."
The gap statement is where most people overdo it. They give five reasons. They explain history. They name people who failed previously. None of that helps. The senior person needs one crisp diagnosis. Multiple diagnoses dilute the request.
Step three: The ask
State the specific request. One sentence. Use a number, a name, or a date.
"I'd like £62,000 in operational budget to onboard the automation tool, with implementation starting in October."
Not "some budget" and not "consideration of automation options". Specific. Senior people approve specific. They defer vague.
Step four: The expected outcome
Now you state what happens if the request is granted, in measurable terms.
"This will cut manual handoff time from three days to under four hours per account, taking 18 days out of the end-to-end timeline. It also frees roughly 11 hours per week of senior CS time that's currently consumed in admin."
The trap here is to inflate the outcome. Don't. Senior people have calibrated detectors for inflated numbers. They'd rather hear a believable middling outcome than an oversold world-changing one. The believable number gets approved. The transformed-everything number gets a polite "let me think about it".
Step five: The cost of not doing it
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it's the one that does the most work.
"If we don't do this, we'll hit the Q3 target on overtime, which is what we did last quarter and what produced the two senior CS departures in August. The current trajectory is unsustainable through Q4."
Senior people evaluate decisions in terms of risk symmetry. They want to know what they're risking by saying no, not just what they gain by saying yes. Most requests only present one side of that ledger. Yours should present both.
Step six: The first objection, pre-empted
Now you anticipate the most likely objection and answer it before they raise it.
"I'm aware procurement timelines are tight in Q3. I've checked with Sarah, and we can pre-position the contract on the existing framework agreement, which takes about ten days off the procurement cycle."
This step is psychologically powerful. It signals that you've already done the thinking they were about to do. It also takes their objection off the table before they get attached to it. Once a senior person voices an objection out loud, they have to defend it. Once they have to defend it, your request is harder to approve.
The art is to pick the right objection. Not the dumbest one. The most legitimate one. The one a thoughtful person would raise. If you pre-empt that one, the rest tend to fall away.
Step seven: The minimal next step
Don't ask for the full yes. Ask for the next step that moves the decision forward.
"What would help me most is fifteen minutes with you and Sarah next week to walk through the contract structure and the implementation plan. If we can align on those two pieces, I can have a final proposal back to you within ten working days."
Senior people are far more likely to grant a small next step than a full approval. Once the small step happens, momentum builds. By the time you're asking for the actual yes, you've already had three conversations that have de-risked the decision for them.
Where this gets used
This works for budget. It works for headcount. It works for promotions. It works for project ownership. It works for getting yourself onto a strategic team. It works for asking your manager to advocate for you with their boss.
It even works for things outside the office. The structure is just human decision psychology dressed up for corporate use.
The two-sentence test for whether you've got it right: read the first sentence (your frame). Read the seventh step (your minimal next step). If those two sentences alone make the senior person's life easier rather than harder, you've structured it correctly.
"Never make people choose between you and their comfort. Make their comfort require choosing you." A line I think about most weeks. The structure above is one practical version of how to do it.
Try this on the next significant request you make. Write it on a single page. Time yourself reading it aloud. If it takes longer than ninety seconds to walk through, you've got too much in it.
