I have been in a lot of meetings where business-types suggest all sorts of ideas. I used to get really frustrated and would take the easy way out, i.e. think to myself that these guys are clueless, why am I even in this business, and just go in a really shitty place mentally.

Then something changed. About the tens of sales books I read, a nugget from one of them struck me. The idea was to re-focus / re-frame any conversation to "what are the business objectives we are trying to achieve here?". Instead of having them propose solutions, have them dig deep into the problem and where they are trying to get as a final destination. An easy way to do this is look them in the eye, smile like John Wayne and say "I have seen this many times, it's not a problem, in fact, there are hundreds of ways we can slice this, let me ask you, what are the key business objectives here? How will we be measuring the success and failure of the project from a business point of view?" Then they really go into what their problem is, and where they are trying to go. The idea is to not propose any solutions on the spot (guess what, they don't like to hear your smarty-pants / clever solutions anyway), they would like 1) for you to play therapist in the meeting and hear every last problem, 2) come back to them at a later day and tell them that every one of their problems will be solved and the cost will be low, 3) be prepared to explain how it would work (keep high level and leave the clever bits out, but don't forget to address the impact on other resources like marketing / legal / etc.) and 4) present to them a timeline of execution mixed with approvals needed at each stage.

I have fucked up 100 times, and gotten it right about 3, thats how I know. Hope it helps some wise guy (like I was) out there.