Once you have decided which companies to approach, pick out a target and a point of entry. Depending on how the company is organized, entry could be via senior management, legal, research and development, marketing, an outside consultant, or anywhere in between. Every company is different. Hit the wrong target, and it could result in wasted time, review and comment by the wrong people, rejection, or worse.

Common to all situations is that you have to approach a company as if planning a first-time military operation.

To sell an idea is to engage in warfare (me again with my military metaphors). It is a battle of wits and nerves to convince a stranger to open a door and invite you inside. It is a battle to get the stranger to listen, invite colleagues to listen, and then ask you back for a reprise. It is a battle to get anyone—friend or stranger—to take on the challenge of a new and untested invention; make a financial commitment; work like the devil to overcome growing pains inherent in any development cycle; and then manufacture, test, market, and sell your item.

Corporate jobs are at stake. Careers are on the line. The harder the challenge, the more commitment is required. The natural tendency of people is to take the easy way out, which may mean to deep-six your product before it can be called a failure. No one likes to fail, but that’s especially true for executives if their company has no tolerance for failure and they will not be rewarded for success. Unless the executive has something to gain, such as a bonus, raise, or other benefit, why rock the boat? Those experienced in corporate culture know that 1 gotcha cancels out 100 attaboys.

There are three basic approaches to warfare: direct attack, compromise, and retreat. Anything less than direct attack isn’t worth the energy. No one has ever won a battle who was willing to compromise before a shot was fired.

Try to deal with people who have responsibility and decision-making power over product acquisition. You won’t know who this is within any particular company until you do your intelligence gathering. Finding people who are authorized to say “no” is easy. You need to reach people who have the power to say “yes.”

“Never be afraid to talk to the right people, regardless of how big and unreachable they may appear,” says independent inventor Ken Thorne, creator of the Zephyr cooking system. These people may not be the company’s president or CEO, and usually are not. Great leaders allow their people to do their jobs. This is why they were hired. If the idea survives the internal review process, sooner or later it will reach the front office.

Now, once you have built relationships, if you feel a decision has been made that’s wrong, you may consider taking it to a higher authority. I have frequently done this. Sometimes I am successful; more often I am not able to turn a negative decision around. But I am appealing to friends and do it in a very professional manner. I begin every pitch with something like, “In matters controversial, my position’s well defined; I always see both points of view, the one that’s wrong and mine.”

Experience does dictate, however, that you should not put too much faith in people who just ferry product submissions back and forth between points in a building. These folks, while perhaps very nice people—some may even have vice presidential stripes—are tossed into the fray by their bosses as cannon fodder. They are typically so far removed from the main theater of operation that they need a road map to find the president’s office. And even if they can find it, they do not have his or her ear.

Be polite, respectful, and friendly to the supporting cast. But you need to know upon whom to spend your personal capital and energies. Screen actors learn not to waste their energy on wide shots, but to conserve their most emotional performances for close-ups, especially extreme close-ups. It’s no different when you are presenting product.