3 Steps to get Buy-In for your Ideas

Recently I coached a team of professionals who often have to pitch new projects and ideas to other departments – and their management board.

It was pretty fascinating to find that these experienced, smart people were finding it so difficult to get their message through. They told me;

‘Sometimes it feels like we’re banging our heads against a brick wall – they just don’t seem to get it!’

I’ve been there! I worked at Canon’s European HQ, a huge organisation in Amsterdam. As a Product Manager, and through to Country Director, getting others on board was a continual challenge.

I wasn’t so bad at it, but also – honestly – not brilliant.

Here are the three things I wish someone had told me back in… 1992! (when I started my corporate career…)

Step #1. Start with the problem you’re solving – not what you’re doing

Everyone is busy. Everyone is focused on their own goals and projects. And they just want to know how you can help them reach those goals!

What we think they want to know is; What are we working on? What process are we following, step by step?

And this results in us believing: “We need to prove we’re doing a good job by sharing all the details.”

In reality, most people just want to know the highlights, and what the VALUE is that you are delivering.

How can you do this? Start with the problem that you are working to solve.

What is going wrong today? Lost time, more cost, complicated processes… People frustrated, customers unhappy, bad reputation!

On top of this, can you quantify the problem?

• Time lost: how much?
• Energy wasted: what percentage?
• Unnecessary materials used: how many tonnes?

If your audience understand what you’re solving – and the size of the problem – they understand better the VALUE of what you propose to do.

They’ll be more likely to buy in, and give the time or resources you need.

Step #2. Keep it simple

So let’s talk about the 9-bullet agenda slide…

Professionals often tell me; ‘I put all the details in to build credibility, in case they think I don’t know what I’m doing.’

It can feel that way. Probably most of us have had the experience of being picked up on a detail in a meeting. As a defence mechanism, we think; ‘Right! I’ll put everything in so that doesn’t happen again!’

That means if we are faced with complexity, as human beings we tune out. Keeping focused on outcomes and value, not process, helps you tune to what the audience is actually interested in.

The Power of Three is a great tool for this. If you open the presentation with an agenda slide showing three simple points, you invite the audience in by telling them: ‘We’ve simplified this for you.’

Those three points could simply be;

• The problem we’re addressing
• The process to solve it
• What we need/next steps

This sets the scene, and makes clear that you will go through a logical, easy to follow path in the presentation.

Your audience also know the close is a proposal, after clarity on the process, and that means there is a constructive conclusion. Minds are open for buy-in!

Step #3. Keep it short

Did I mention people are busy…?

In my workshops, I run a short introduction exercise of pitching for 30 seconds to one other person.

Once a participant said out loud after hearing a 30 second pitch; ‘Wow, it’s difficult to listen for so long!’

This reflects the truth of audience attention. It’s limited!

You help keep attention, by setting time-based expectations.

For example, if you begin by saying, ‘I’m going to make a short 10 minute presentation, and then I would love to answer all your questions’, it’s clear the demand on their attention is going to be limited.

One-way broadcasting is hard to follow. However, setting the scene with a short presentation, and getting into Q&A, makes everything more interactive.

What most people want to hear is; What problem are you solving? How do you plan to solve it? What do you need to make it happen?

Then they want to ask the questions that are on their mind. This is the moment they may pick up on a specific detail: but that doesn’t mean we should try to put every detail in the presentation!

Here’s a way to think of a simple meeting structure, that compels interactivity – applied to 30-minute meeting.

• 10 minutes (max) presentation
• 15 minutes Q&A
• 5 minutes – next action steps

The approaches I’ve mapped out in this post – Problem, Simple, Short! – will help you massively increase your chances of buy-in. Let me know how it goes for you!

Good luck with getting Buy-In for your ideas – and see you next week!

Good luck with getting Buy-In for your ideas – see you next week!