Communicating risk in a project pitch

It’s the least liked part of any project pitch: the risks of the project. What if these risks will lead the decision makers to shy away from approving the project?

What’s easily overlooked is that the problem is not that there is a risk. The problem is when there’s no appropriate plan to deal with the risk.

Any decent decision maker understands that business decisions come with a risk. We make decisions not because there is no risk but because we are confident to be able to deal with the risk.

Show me that you understand the risk, be transparent about what can happen at worst and make me see that you know how to deal with it.

That’s a much more convincing pitch than trying to hide the risk and hoping that nobody will recognize it.

When done right, the risk part is actually the best part where you can prove that you know what you’re doing.