It's not that Chris Amos, CAFM, had a problem with Omaha orange. It's just that white made more sense. As commissioner of equipment services for the City of St. Louis, Mo., Amos recently led a fight to change the color of the city's light duty vehicles to the more standard color, basing his argument on the facts: more manufacturer options; easier crash repair; faster delivery; and a simpler transfer between drivers and departments when it came to "hand-me-downs." Sure, he could have used an emotional argument to push the idea, focusing on negative images and citizen dislikes. But Amos, a 1996 winner of the Larry Goill Award for Quality Fleet Management Ideas, put into practice one of the secrets of success when selling an idea: He knew his audience, and what language his boss would understand. "In this case, I presented a logical argument to a decision maker that appreciates facts enough to overturn long-standing practices predicated on assumptions," Amos said. "Had our chief of operations had a track record of responding to emotional arguments instead, I would have presented my arguments differently."
展开▼
