May 22, 2023
I know this is super-basic compared to Will’s more-complete answer, but when I read your post I could think of two things I’d ask the surgeon:
“I’d love to talk to X, Y and Z, but before I do …
“… if they ask you, what’s your opinion?”
“… and what do you think they’ll say?”
The first one helps you address any lingering doubts that they have so that you can confront them head-on before it becomes a deal-breaker. The second one reveals what they think the other’s objections might be, like budget, timing, etc. That way you can tailor your approach to the other stakeholders to pre-address whatever issues they might have. Something like, “Now a lot of departments tell me that budget is an issue, so here’s how we solved that for them…”
