As you think about how you will prepare the memo, ask yourself what kinds of objections or problems the CEO might have and how you can address these within the memo. Also, how can you most effectively emphasize the potential benefits of the plan? Use your imagination to describe how the plan might be implemented and promoted.
Note that in writing this message you will need to reorganize the information in the above description and present it as much as possible in your own words. Remember that you want to get the CEO's attention, build his interest in the situation, make the request clearly, address anticipated objections, emphasize benefits to the company, make it as easy as possible for him to say yes, and make it clear who needs to do what next.
Also note that you will not necessarily use all of the information included in the assignment scenario. Some of the information provided is designed to help you understand what is at stake but would not necessarily be appropriate to include in the message. Choose the information that will be most effective in persuading the CEO!
Finally, keep in mind that while your message should look, overall, like the Model Persuasive Message on page 5 of this document, in terms of following the template and the AIDA approach described in Chapter 8, you will need to adapt the persuasive strategies-the attention-getter, the identification of and response to potential objections, the emphasis on benefits, the proactive closing-to suit the particular needs of this message.