You have 60 seconds with your CEO. Here's what to say about maintenance and reliability.

Getting buy-in for maintenance is more than just getting support for new initiatives or a bigger budget. Those things help, but there are thousands of facilities with well-planned, well-funded preventive maintenance programs, and completion rates under 50% because maintenance always takes a backseat.

Success relies on shifting the culture of your organization so maintenance is a top priority. And there’s no one that can shift a culture like the CEO. Their influence is a powerful tool to ensure your team has the budget, resources, and time on machines to make a greater impact on the business.

Of course, CEOs are busy people. They are juggling dozens of thoughts, ideas, and problems every day. If you ever get a chance to talk with them, it’ll probably be a short window. This article is your guide for what to say in these scenarios to capture the attention of executives.

By the way, this goes for other senior leaders too, not just the CEO. If you’re face-to-face with a COO, CFO, VP, or other executive, the insights in this article will help.

What executives care about and how to connect it to maintenance and reliability

Talk about growth

Preventing breakdowns and reducing unplanned downtime is great, but talking about these wins to an executive probably won’t get them buzzing with excitement. That’s because these areas will always be considered a cost. If you tie them to maintenance, your work will be seen as a cost center. Instead, frame maintenance and reliability as a growth lever.

Keeping equipment running as much and as effectively as possible means more production, less waste, and fewer costs. This increases the amount of capital available to reinvest into the business today and accelerates the company’s growth.

This reframes maintenance and reliability from a cost center into a competitive advantage.

Emphasize predictability

Executives are the ultimate long-term thinkers. They don’t want a one-time win or a six-month bump in performance. They want returns they can count on quarter after quarter, year after year.

Maintenance and reliability are one of the most powerful drivers of that kind of predictability, but they’re rarely framed that way. Maintenance is usually treated as the team you call when something breaks instead of the function that fuels production, on-time orders, and efficient CapEx spending.

When you’re talking to the CEO, make that link explicit and use the language of predictability:

• Reliable equipment means more stable production
• Stable production means fewer missed shipments
• Reliable equipment means fewer surprise expenses and capital projects

That makes financial forecasting more accurate and reduces the risk of getting blindsided by external shocks, whether it’s tariffs, supply chain disruptions, or something else. A strong maintenance and reliability program doesn’t just keep machines running, it keeps the company’s plan intact.

Focus on optimizing existing investments

CEOs are always thinking about how to get more from the company’s existing investments, including its technology, people, data, and infrastructure.

For example most industrial companies have dozens of pieces of software in their tech stack along with hundreds of assets, all of which are producing data constantly. Most of this data is trapped in these systems and is never translated into action. Companies pay millions of dollars for technology and only get a fraction of its potential, while equipment issues are missed and productivity dips.

Maintenance can be the connecting force that turns this data into action and maximizes the potential of these investments. For example, a maintenance system with automated inventory management can supplement an ERP to ensure parts aren’t just costs, but a capital investment that boosts production. Automated workflows can turn sensor data into immediate preventive maintenance tasks that stop a catastrophic failure.

When presented this way, maintenance can be seen as activating the value of the entire tech stack.

Example talk track: What you can say to your CEO about maintenance and reliability

When you put together all the elements above, it might sound like this:

“Our maintenance program has the potential to be a significant growth lever for our business.

When equipment runs more often and efficiently, we get more production, less waste, and fewer costs. That extra capacity and avoided spend is capital we can reinvest into growth projects.

When our critical assets are reliable, so are our production and capital projects. That increases long-term predictability for the business and shields it from external shocks like supply chain issues.

We can also get more from our investments in our tech stack and physical assets by actioning all the data we generate to be more efficient.

A 60-day reliability sprint on our five most critical assets will help us kick off an improved maintenance and reliability program to bolster our working capital. I’d love to talk about how we can do that.”

In one minute, you’ve:

• Framed reliability as growth
• Connected maintenance to capital
• Given concrete examples of business value
• Opened the door to a deeper conversation

What to say next to the CEO about maintenance and reliability

If your pitch lands, be ready with specifics, like:

• Which three bottlenecks are costing the most capacity?
• What's the dollar value of your current unplanned downtime?
• How much capital is tied up in poorly-managed parts inventory?
• What would it cost to implement better systems versus the ROI?

Come with numbers, examples from your operation, and a plan you can explain in a couple of minutes.

Your opportunity: Elevate maintenance, secure more investment, and get buy-in at the highest levels

When you get 60 seconds with your CEO, you’re not just asking for budget—you’re making the case for how maintenance can grow the business and unlock more value from the company’s existing investments. That’s a bigger, more strategic story than “we need more money to stop breakdowns”

By framing maintenance as a growth lever, a driver of predictability, and the function that activates data and innovation, you position yourself as a partner in achieving the company’s biggest goals. That’s the shift that earns you a seat at the table when capital allocation and long-term planning are discussed.

Your opportunity is to use moments with senior leaders to connect the dots clearly: more reliable assets mean more capacity, more stability, and more value from every dollar invested yesterday and tomorrow. Then, back that story up with real numbers, examples, and plans.

Do that consistently, and you won’t just secure more investment in maintenance. You’ll secure genuine buy-in at the highest levels with a CEO who sees maintenance as essential.