Pushing back on an unrealistic promise from your own company
The proposal for a four-screen cinema fit-out goes to the client on Friday. On Tuesday the business development manager forwards the draft with a note: "Ten weeks, start to opening. I've already told them." You spend the afternoon putting durations to the work, and they add up to fourteen.
Tell the person who can change the promise, early and in private, that the date or price will not hold; show why in numbers, and bring a plan you can stand behind. Ask whether the promise came from a sales meeting, a previous job or a calculated schedule. "It's too tight" sounds like reluctance; a one-page calculation turns the disagreement into a check anyone can repeat.
- Check your numbers first: for a date, quantities, crew rates, quoted lead times and inspection waits, as in durations from quantities; for a price, quantities and current quotes. Find the one or two items that decide it.
- Ask what the promise was based on before you contradict it: another job's figure, a smaller scope, or something you don't know.
- Build three options: the date the work supports, what the promised date would take in cost and risk, and a middle way such as a phased handover.
- See whoever can change the promise, privately and before anything reaches the client: the conclusion first, then one page. Correct any number they prove wrong.
- Confirm the decision in writing that day, with who tells the client what. If overruled, record the risk and carry out the safe, authorized plan; escalate unsafe instructions through your safety process.
With your manager
Common mistakes
- Padding every duration, so the one real problem gets lost.
- Pushing back in a group email, where people defend positions.
- Waiting until the contract is signed, when it becomes telling the owner the job will finish late.
Action list
This week, if a promise won't hold
- Write down the two items that set the date
- Ask which job the promised figure came from
- Put three options on one page
- Book twenty minutes with whoever can change the promise
- Open with: "This date won't hold; here is what will"
Check your understanding
The business development manager says the last three cinemas all opened in ten weeks. How do you answer without a turf war?
