Buy-in!Getting to Yes Life skills for every Product Manager Deepak Thakral Quixey

How do you get to Yes? •  Good ideas get shot down everyday

•  Typically, group of stakeholders needs to buy-in

•  People challenge and attack your proposal

•  Using a case study, we will identify common tactics used by folks

•  Demonstrate best practices to help you get buy-in

•  What this is not

–  A session on persuasion, charisma or negotiation

–  How to build a power-base and back-channel your way into approval

The Project •  Company – Ma Bell Telco

•  Baby Bell Telco, the digital advertising

subsidiary for SMBs

•  Project – Launch a new mobile websites

offering to SMBs that will bring in $10M of

recurring annual revenue at 40% margin

•  Your mission – Convince committee to

green light project for product development

The Characters Ego-Wego Eddie Smartie-Pants Sam Hide-a-Agenda Annie Diversion David Bend-with-the-wind Betty

Part I !The proposal •  Show up in front of the 10 person committee

•  1 page proposal

–  26M SMBs in US and <1% have mobile optimized

websites

–  3,000+ sales force sells website solutions to

SMBs

–  Upgrade customers to mobile website for $120/

year in subscription service

–  Vendor will build product, charge $40/year/user

–  Expected revenue of $10M/year

What unfolds? •  Ego-Wego Eddie appreciates your project,

thanks you for the hard work put in

•  BUT,

•  you have not filled out the work request form correctly, not answered 2 of his questions,

•  and therefore pushed out to their next bi-weekly meeting

•  Boom…delayed before you even got started

Part II!Prep for second chance •  Make sure to fill out the form correctly

•  Anticipate questions

–  Possible objections that will be raised

–  List out about a dozen questions

–  Responses to each of these questions

•  Your friend advises you that most of the questions will fall into the following four categories…..

Confusion Death by Delay

Fear Mongering Ridicule/Character Assassination

Common Tactics Used

Approach to the session •  Some ground rules -

–  Be prepared – Have your facts ready, anticipate questions –  Be Inclusive – Welcome the attackers in, don’t be defensive

and counter attack –  Be respectful – keep your responses short & simple,

common-sense

Part III!The Session •  You present and layout the facts….

–  The size of the market

–  Under-penetrated customer segment

–  Push towards mobile services

–  Strategic fit with the product portfolio

–  Revenue of $10M/year

–  Gross Margins of 40%

–  Can be built and deployed in less than 4 months

The Questions Start

•  Tactic - [Confusion]

Ego-­‐Wego  Eddie  starts  –    •  Why  are  we  not  focused  on  expanding  our  

desktop  website  business?  Last  year,  20%  of  our  customers  cancelled  out  of  that  product.  If  we  have  to  spend  money,  that’s  where  it  should  be?  

Why Change? We are doing just fine...

•  Tactic - [DEATH BY DELAY]

•  Bend-­‐a-­‐wind  Wendi:  We  have  done  great  so  far,  our  internet  product  suite  works  well,  our  sales  force  knows  how  to  sell  it,  it  brings  in  billions  of  dollars.  Mobile  is  s0ll  nascent.  Why  should  we  change  that?    

Bring on the fear mongering…

•  Tactic – [Confusion, Fear Mongering]

•  Smarty  Pants  Sam:  According  to  a  recent  survey,  85%  are  dissaMsfied  with  their  current  website  provider  and  likely  to  cancel  their  service.  Why  are  we  not  inves0ng  in  customer  service  rather  than  building  this  mobile  website  product?      

And the financial number-crunchers….

•  Tactic - [Fear Mongering, Death by delay]

•  Diversion  David  -­‐  Budget  problem.  Our  cash  flows  from  our  core  internet  business  are  declining,  we  have  a  huge  crisis  on  our  hands.  I  recommend  you  review  it  with  Finance  Commi?ee  

And then there are those who will ridicule you…

Hide-­‐a-­‐agenda  Annie:  I  am  worried  that  no  one  else  is  doing  this?  Why  not?  My  fear  is…..another  worthless  

investment  

TacMc  -­‐  [character  assassinaMon/ridicule]    

And the Legal Eagles…

Diversion  David:  Your  project  talks  about  giving  out  new  mobile  domains  to  these  customers.  Have  the  lawyers  reviewed  this  contract?    

I think you get the picture •  Remember, the committee used the

four tactics very effectively

–  Confusion

–  Death by delay

–  Fear mongering

–  Ridicule & character assassination

How you win these arguments

Continuously, monitor the broader audience, not just the few attackers.

First, win their attention Next, with their attention on you, win their minds

Having won their minds, now win their hearts

Win their hearts & minds

Please Don’t:

•  Wing it – be prepared and anticipate

•  Become defensive and counter-attack

•  Be dis-respectful

•  Have an attitude – smarter-than-thou!

•  Use too many facts, data sheets and lengthy arguments – people lose attention

18 most commonly used questions

1.  We have been successful, so why change?

2.  Money is the only real issue here….

3.  You exaggerate the problem

4.  You are implying that we have been failing

5.  What’s the hidden agenda here?

6.  What about this, what about that, and this…..

7.  Your proposal does not go far enough

8.  You have a chicken and egg problem

9.  You are abandoning our core values

18 most commonly used questions

10.  Its too simplistic to work

11.  No one else does this, why us?

12.  You can’t have it both ways

13.  To generate so many questions, this is flawed

14.  We tried it before, did not work

15.  Too difficult to understand

16.  Good idea but this is not the right time

17.  Its just too much work to do this

18.  It won’t work here…we are different

Recap •  Be prepared •  Anticipate questions along the four lines

–  Confusion, Death by delay, fear mongering, ridicule

•  Your responses should aim to win hearts & minds –  First, let the attackers in –  Keep your responses short & simple, common sense –  Be respectful, do not resort to counter-attacks –  Focus on entire audience, not just attackers –  Prepare for inevitable attacks

Wish  you  luck  and  success  in  your  next  proposal  –  may  the  force  be  with  you!  

Thank You

Deepak Thakral

Credits: Buy-in: Saving your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down – by John Kotter