Felicia Said:

Help writing persuasive memo?

We Answered:

The simple rule is 'tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them'. Here is a better formula:

1) Grab their attention - don't hit the subject dead-on, hit it at a tangent so they don't realize where you are going. e.g. (a poor example) Do you know how many people die because they get lost on the way to the hospital?

2) Why did you bring that up? Here you tie your tangential introduction into your real topic: 'Well, because I think that, while not as important as life and death, providing good customer service is a critical responsibility'.

3) Give them some examples that relate to the business - and relate to the bottom line. Give no less than 4 examples, and no more than 7. 'For instance, customer xyz blah blah blah' - 'For instance, there is a lot of road construction and sometimes our traditional routes don't work' - 'For instance, when I fly to City' ...This is the meat of your argument.

4) So what? Here you summarize 2 and 3. Tell them briefly why it is important it is to provide good customer service and how a GPS can help you do that.

5) Call to action. You end your memo with a short but clear request for your boss to do a specific action. You want her to approve the attached PS, or to provide written approval to purchasing, or something like that.

Hope this helps.