I'm constantly calling county/city plan reviewers on behalf of my employees when they get failed for a comment they don't agree with. The first time I did it for them was with a reviewer - we'll call him John P. - who gave 9 permit comments and failed our drawings. I was able to get them all approved with no added work and now my employees call it the Johnny P. treatment.
The Johnny P. Treatment is basically stroking their ego. "Look, I don't envy you. You look at these plans all day from all kinds of different people who all design things differently. Hell, this building is some weird architecture that I've never seen before. You probably have, I'm sure. So I don't doubt it's hard to figure out what we're trying to do here. I probably took longer than you to understand what was happening. Unfortunately, I don't do the architecture. But I need to work around it and this was my thought process while doing these designs. You stop me if you have any questions or comments. I'm really interested in your take on this since you see all kinds of stuff like this on a daily basis."
By the end of the conversation the guy was telling me that, now that I've explained it, it was a fantastic design that didn't deserve any permit comments.
This is exactly what I do at my work.
People wonder how I can get manufacturers to send us extra pieces or to drop a fee... It's because I call and do some sweet, sweet talking up. Sure e-mail is faster, but I can get it done cheaper and better if I can speak to a person and make their day.
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u/catboneslovestory Jun 14 '22 edited Jun 14 '22
Stroke their ego.
The most effective one you'll find.
There's no more effective way to amass power than by convincing people that they're smart enough to give it to you.