How To Get Leadership Buy-In?

Got a great idea that will transform your organization? Congratulations, you’ve made a great start! Now it’s time to translate your vision so that others can share it too. In other words, it’s time to get leadership buy-in for your plan.

Selling your idea? Wait a minute…

At this point, you might start making a list of why the initiative is important and how it will help the business. In other words, you start thinking about how to sell the idea to your organization’s leadership.

But before you do that, take a step back. Think about a situation where you were the customer?-or victim?-?of a hard sell.

Too often, people come across as fast-talking and pushy. In the best case, they are so enthusiastic about the merits of their product that they get carried away. In the worst case, customers feel that the salesperson is trying to force them into making a decision without having time to think about it. Either way, the customer is left thinking: “Instead of talking, just listen to what I want. Answer my questions. Find out what I need, and then we can start talking about how you can help me.”

The?Steps To Getting Leadership Buy-In

Of course, you’re enthusiastic about your initiative; but getting leadership buy-in takes more than enthusiasm.?Here are 7?steps to help you plan for successfully sharing your idea and getting the leadership buy-in that’s so essential to success.

1.?Listen To What The Leaders In Your Company Want

In most cases, it isn’t difficult to figure out what leaders want. Look at your company’s website, press releases, internal memos, and company newsletters. Are leaders concerned with holding down costs? Creating world-changing products? Transforming corporate culture? Expanding into new markets? Often, organizations are pursuing more than one goal at a time.

If your Idea or Initiative directly addresses one or more of these organizational desires, that’s great. You’re ready to move on to step 2.

If your idea does not directly address a stated company goal, think about how the Idea can dovetail with one or more goals.

For example, if corporate is emphasizing cutting costs and your idea addresses how to improve customer service, do some research into how improved customer service might result in increased sales, fewer returns, expanded markets, or other results that positively affect the bottom line.

Use that tie-in to show how your idea will advance the business goals.

2.?Find A Champion

Once you fully understand how your idea fits in with the organization’s stated goals, find someone influential who can be your project’s champion. Ideally, this would be the organization’s point person for that goal. Focus on finding someone who

• Has influence and credibility in the organization, and
• Buys in to your initiative.

3. Ask Questions

Once you’ve identified your potential champion, meet with that person to discuss your initiative. Try to listen at least twice as much as you talk. Ask questions like:

• What obstacles do you see to implementing this idea?
• What changes would you suggest to make it more relevant/attractive/effective?
• What can I do to help you make a case for this idea?
• What advice can you give me for presenting this initiative to other leaders in the organization?

4.?Make Your Case

Now it’s time to make the list of all the ways your idea will help the business meet its goals. With the help of your champion, approach the leadership and present the case for your initiative. Ask questions throughout to make sure they understand?the proposal.

5. Listen to the Response

When making your case (and afterwards), listen to the response. Even if the answer is no, it might be a qualified no.

Are there ways you can change your approach or change your plan to make it acceptable to the leadership?

If possible, ask the questions from step 3 to see what you can do to tweak your plan so that leadership will support it.

6.?Negotiate

Based on the response to your proposal,?negotiate with the leadership.?If they agreed to your proposal, you can negotiate budget, timing, staff and everything you need to accomplish your idea.

If they did not agree, confer with your champion to determine what you can do to make your proposal more attractive.

7. Report

If you receive the go-ahead for your plan, terrific! Be sure to report to your champion (and to the leadership team, if appropriate) at intervals as you plan, implement and assess your idea.

Even if your plan was not approved, keep your champion informed about changes in the organization or in the wider environment that may mean it’s time to try again.

For example, if the organization announces a new initiative and your idea will now be a perfect fit, it’s time to start the process again?-?with a greater chance of success this time around since you’re already so well prepared.

The Two Worlds of Accountability

Leaders must consider and weigh 2 elements in their business decisions:

1. Quantitative (financial), and
2. Qualitative (non-financial).

Practitioners fail to respect the financial implications of their investment proposal. When the financial topic comes up, many people say “Yup, this is where it all falls apart!”. It’s not that your leaders don’t want to give money, but more about how you present a business case.

First, let’s address the financial aspect. Practitioners quickly interchange investment with expense, and this is where they get into trouble. If you start throwing the ‘investment’ term around then, it has to mean the same to your leaders. Their capital investment decision is about how your initiative (tangible items) and its operational support requirements contribute to long-term organizational growth.

The second element is to measure the non-financial aspect of the proposal's capital investment. Leaders expect you to leverage the investment (i.e., technology and equipment) to improve the organizations overall performance. Essentially, the value employees acquire through the proposal must demonstrate improving business performance that will indirectly lead to positive financial results. This is the purpose of an expense.

The Brush-Offs

Of all the brush offs you get while wanting to meet with the Leader to pitch your idea, the good old standby: “I’m too busy to talk now,” is right up there with, “I’m not interested,” and “Just email me something.” The reason this is such a popular response is that most people don’t know how to handle it, and so are easily put off and happy to “call back later.”

The key to handling this stall – as with all others – is to sidestep it first and earn the right to ask a few, quick qualifying questions to see if you’re really dealing with an supportive leader or not. And that’s what the following rebuttals allow you to do.

As with any brush off, objection or stall, though, this one is easy to handle if you just take the time to learn some proven responses to it, and then use them with confidence when you get it. To help you deal with this brush off more effectively, I urge you to pick any of the responses below that best suits your style, product and service. Feel free to change them slightly so they are most comfortable for you to use, and then practice them each and every time you get this objection. Here they are:

“I’m too busy to talk right now”

Response One:

“I completely understand, and I know what it’s like to be interrupted. Tell you what: Before I schedule a call back with you – let’s take just a moment now to make sure this is something that’s even worth it for me to call you back on.

Quick question: How open are you to considering a new project to handle your (product or service), if you found out, that you could realistically save your already limited time and money?”

Response Two:

“I’m with you, and let’s face it – we’re all too busy until we hear about something that can really benefit us. Let me tell you in a nutshell how this can help you, and then if you’d like to know more, we can schedule a time that’s better later – fair enough?”

If yes, then briefly give a description and use a qualifying tie-down question. Be prepared with your "elevator speech"

Response Three:

“Got it and I won’t keep you. Quick question: Are you the right person to speak with regarding (your proposed idea)?”

If yes

“Great, then before I schedule a time to get back with you, let me just ask you two quick things:

Number one, if you found that you could increase (list a benefit or two), and reduce your (again, list a benefit or two), how open would you be to meeting to on this?”

And two, if you decided this was worthy enough to seriously consider, who, besides yourself, would weigh in on making that decision?”

“Great, then let’s go ahead and schedule that. I’ve got two times tomorrow…”

Response Four:

“Wow, you do sound busy! No worries – I can either call you back in 20 minutes, or we can spend just two minutes now to see if this is a fit for you – if not, then I won’t have to bother you again. How does that sound?”

OR

“Yes, you do sound busy. O.K., would you like me to call you back in an hour or later this afternoon?”

OR

“O.K., no problem. Let me see….Well, I could call you back this afternoon or we could set up a brief 5 minute call tomorrow morning – which works best for you?”

Response Five:

“Hey, I know what it’s like to be busy – but the last thing I want to do is schedule a call back if you’re really not interested in this proposed idea. Let’s do this: I’ll ask you just a quick question or two and if there’s some interest on your end, then we’ll schedule some time later – fair enough?

If yes

“Great. _________, are you open to learning about a new way to handle your (your product/process) if you were convinced it would save you time/make your job easier/be better at…?”

OR

“Quickly, what would your timeline be for (changing/investing/trying) a (idea/change) for your (what your product or service does) if you found you could dramatically increase/save, etc.?”

Once again, remember that your job is to earn the right to ask a few qualifying questions to see if your leadership is even interested in hearing your proposed idea. And by using the scripts above, you’ll be able to do just that.

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