What Every Good Hostage Situation Needs

How to Instantly Make Your Ideas More Credible

hostage

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As you know, I write a monthly series here called Marketing and Movies. One movie that I enjoyed, that didn't make the cut for inclusion in the series, is the movie Proof of Life. The basic idea behind the movie is that an engineer is kidnapped in Central America and held for ransom. As part of the ransom process, the hostage negotiators ask for a ‘proof of life’ from the kidnappers. This would clarify to the family that the engineer is still alive, and the negotiations for his release are worth pursuing. Otherwise, the family would literally be throwing money away.

This same idea can apply to the business world. When a concept is floated that requires a monetary investment (and don’t they all?), then the executives holding the purse strings will want to be assured that the concept is worth pursuing.

This is why you need a proof of concept. A proof of concept illustrates and ideally proves that the concept does and has worked for other companies, or even your own, in the past.

What Does a Hostage Situation Have to Do With Business?

If you think about it, trying to get your boss to sign off on your new idea is a bit like a hostage situation. The boss is holding the approval for your idea hostage, and you are trying to gain its release. The boss doesn’t want to release approval, until the boss believes it will receive something in return. In other words, the boss won’t sign off on your idea, until the boss believes it will be a worthwhile investment.

This is where proof of concept comes in. If you can prove to your boss that your concept WILL work, then you remove the risk to your boss. If the boss sees little or no risk to investing in your concept, then they are far more likely to agree. Without that assurance, they are literally throwing money away. Recall the scene above, the first set of negotiators were about to give the kidnappers the money they wanted, without a proof of life. That’s literally throwing money away. Your boss doesn’t want to do that, your boss wants assurances from you that your idea will work. They want a proof of concept.

What Does a Proof of Concept Look Like?

A proof of concept is a credible source that says “This idea will work’. There are two main sources for your proof of concept: Internal sources, and external sources. Let’s look at external sources first:

Research: Find research and studies that show that companies are investing in your concept. You want to find research that shows that companies in your same industry are investing in the same concepts, if possible. If you can’t find research focused on your industry, other industries will work.

Consider the source, some like Gartner or Forrester will likely carry immediate weight with your skeptical boss. Pay close attention to the sources that your boss values, and try to pick information from those sources. For instance, if you are attempting to convince your boss to increase your company’s content marketing investment, find an article from a website they read regularly that suggests increasing content marketing spending in 2025.

Case studies: Case studies are a wonderful way to sell your boss on a concept or tactic. A good case study really helps illustrate how adopting a strategy, tactic or concept can work for a company. It can definitely help a risk adverse boss sign off on your idea to learn that similar companies have tried it, with positive results.

Case studies from companies in your same industry under similar conditions as your company will carry more weight.

Now let’s look at internal sources:

Past experience employing the concept: Nothing works better than reminding your skeptical boss “Oh hey, we did this same thing last year and it resulted in a 28% increase in sales within 4 months, remember?” If you have already executed on your idea with positive results, point those out to your boss. If not, see if you can find a similar strategy or tactic your company has used with success in the past.

Remember, if at all possible, you want to show your boss that there’s a track record of this idea working for either your company, or others like it.

Customer feedback that supports the concept: If all else fails, listen to your customers! Find feedback from your customers where they are asking for your company to adopt your idea, or where they are asking for changes that your idea could help facilitate. This could easily make the case to your boss that adopting your idea will help your company better serve its customers.

As a Last Resort…

What if you can’t find any research that supports your idea, or case studies, and your customers haven’t asked for it? Honestly, that could mean your idea is pretty bad. Or…it could mean that your idea is so cutting edge that other companies haven’t caught on yet to its potential.

Either way, your skeptical boss likely isn’t going to sign off on any type of investment involving an idea that has no internal or external support. So your last resort would be to ask your boss if you can do a very small ‘skunkworks’ type cutout for your idea. For instance, if you want to add a particular tactic to your marketing mix, you may need to do it in a very limited scope in order to justify rolling it out on a larger scale. You’ll likely have to settle for a very limited scope, that will cost little or no money, and take very little time away from your other duties. But if you trial run with your idea or concept is a success, then you have your proof of concept to convince your boss to invest more time and put more money behind your idea.

Follow these tips and you will be able to negotiate a successful release of the hostage (the funds for your concept), and everyone lives happily ever after! At least until the next quarter’s budget meeting.

Thanks for reading, and remember that next week is Marketing and Movies along with Marketing and Music for this month! See you then, have a great weekend!

Mack