From: Docusultant (Original Message) Sent: 12/4/2002 3:36 PM
Selling Your Document Strategy
By Kevin Craine
When it comes to designing a document strategy, perhaps the most difficult task is selling your strategy to executive decision-makers. Support for your strategy is absolutely essential, but obtaining the sponsorship you need is not easy. Selling your strategy will require the ability to persuasively speak in a language that will resonate with potential supporters of your plan.
Obtaining the endorsement of decision-makers is only part of the challenge, however. You must also elicit the cooperation of those who will be using the product to make your strategy work. Regardless of sponsorship from management, if people on the front line resist change and find ways to interfere, your strategy will not take sail.
Even the best plans will fail without the support and resources you need to make your strategy a reality. The number one cause of death for a document strategy is a lack of sponsorship and support. That's the bad news. The good news is that you have the data, information and perspective you need to make a convincing case. The key is to present your case so that it will both inspire and convince a potential client. When it comes to selling your strategy, the essential questions are:
What arguments will hit home with your prospective customers?
How can you build the buy-in of coworkers and colleagues?
How can you craft a compelling portrait of your document strategy vision?
Speak the Language To sell your strategy, you must "speak the language" of the potential customer. You must learn who your supporters are, what aspects of your strategy will be most compelling to them and how to best communicate your ideas and recommendations. Get inside their frame of reference and speak persuasively in a dialect that will resonate with their views. Be prepared to discuss the right things at the right times.
Knowing your client is an essential part of selling your strategy. If your client is a stickler for statistics, sell him with hard numbers. If your client is concerned with customer service, concentrate on how their customers will be most satisfied. If your sponsor has a technological focus, tell him how your strategy will take advantage of trends in technology.
Whatever the context, you must recognize and be fluent in the various "languages" that will communicate effectively with your clients and inspire their commitment. You may need to speak different languages at different times, even with the same clients. Speaking the wrong language or lingering too long in one, will quickly dispel enthusiasm for your strategy. The question is: What language will ring true with your prospective customers...and why?
Find the Emotion One approach is to "find the emotion" that will connect your strategy with the person you are trying to convince. Dr. Keith Davidson of Xplor International describes this notion in terms of a skillfully scripted political campaign. "A practiced politician will focus on the issues that strike an emotional chord with constituents. For instance, when giving a speech to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he'll stress the need for a strong national defense. The same speech delivered on a college campus will stress peacekeeping with an all-volunteer army. This type of 'spin' is not really a matter of deception, but rather a matter of addressing the essence of what people really care about."
Consider the Mazda Miata. Legend has it that the designer was having trouble convincing Mazda executives to move forward with development of the ragtop. Market studies, schematics and specifications failed to inspire the level of support he needed. One sunny day the designer took a top executive on a drive down a curvy road in a cherry red British MGB. With the top down and the wind in their hair, the designer simply said, "This is the experience we should build." The Miata, now regarded as a modern classic, is a legendary success for Mazda.
Beware of Jargon Industry jargon and technical terminology are effective ways to communicate when used in the correct context, but your prospects will probably be less interested in the bits and bytes of your proposal than the benefits and risks your strategy presents. Beware of the tendency to overuse jargon. Selling your strategy will depend on your ability to speak in terms of the positive impact to an organization, not your ability to explain how each technical component works. In most circumstances, not everyone will understand (or care to understand) technical terminology, so it is best to leave jargon for focused interactions with people who thrive on the lingo. Otherwise, you run the risk of both boring and confusing the people you are trying convince.
Another danger presented by jargon arises when you are not familiar with the terms. If you do not have the benefit of a high-tech background it can be hard to keep up with the vernacular of technology, especially when technology evolves at such a rapid pace. This can put you at a disadvantage. Certainly, in-depth knowledge is best left for the technical experts. Nevertheless, to sell your strategy, you must have a fairly fluent understanding of the technological language involved. If you do not, you must work to expand your vocabulary - take notes, keep your ears open and do not be afraid to ask questions at a manufacturer's demonstration. Even when the techno-babble seems endless, irrelevant and foreign, take advantage of the opportunity to learn the language.
Be Concise Your exposure to decision-makers is probably limited; it can be helpful to develop a brief mental summary of the most outstanding benefits of your strategy. Think of this as an "elevator pitch." Imagine you enter an elevator and bump into the CIO of the company you're hoping to sell to. You have exactly three minutes before the elevator reaches the 15th floor. This may be your best and only opportunity to pitch your ideas. If you can be convincing and compelling in this brief time - X will improve Y because of Z - those three minutes may be all you need to get the support you need.
Prepare yourself to take advantage of unplanned opportunities to enlist support. Your ability to summarize your strategy (or at least the major benefits) concisely will be helpful in meetings and other conversations as well. You may have only a few moments during a meeting to discuss your concepts. Your "elevator pitch" will be useful in the hallway, or at the local Starbuck's, as well as in the executive boardroom.
Build Company Buy-In You also must have the buy-in of those who will actually be using your strategy to be successful. Everyone involved with your document process, from entry-level clerks to high-level specialists, must support your strategy (or, at the very least, not sabotage your efforts). This is especially true for people who are the target of the changes you propose. Your ability to inspire their support depends on your ability to answer: What's in it for me? For these people, the "proof is in the pudding." You must prove that your strategy will make their job easier, less chaotic and more productive. You must demonstrate how improvements will directly benefit their department. You must show them that day-to-day operations will be made better and that everyone will benefit from your plan.
Testimonials One way to build buy-in is to elicit "testimonials" from people who have benefited from earlier improvements. Enlisting others to validate and verify your success is a powerful way to create momentum and support for your strategy. Testimonials can help you overcome resistance to change and convert skeptics to your cause. "Behavior is the hardest thing to change. You are not going to change somebody if they don't want to change," said Tom Martino, director of communications services at Warner-Lambert. "The way we do it is to find a champion to provide a testimonial. So rather than try to sell an overall concept or theory, we leverage the testimony and enthusiasm of those people whose job has been made better. If we can get them to say 'this is great, I don't know why we didn't do it years ago,' then we inspire grass root support for our strategy."
The testimony of satisfied customers will enhance your reputation and credibility. The more testimonials you collect, the more credibility you gain. Your aim is for cynics to want to get in on the benefits being realized by others. To raise awareness, you will need to do a certain amount of self-promotion. Be assertive and creative in your efforts to get the word out about your successes. "We advertise testimonials and successes in a variety of ways," says Martino. "Since we are the division of the company that knows how to communicate, it's not difficult to find ways to get the word out. We use a combination of printed materials, our electronic bulletin board and our Intranet."
Use testimonials to continually expand your circle of supporters and sponsors - at both higher and grass roots levels. Look for people who are willing to testify how their job or department has been improved and how a company is more profitably served by your strategic efforts.
Piggyback on Important Initiatives Another way to sell your strategy is to "piggyback" on other important initiatives underway in a company. To piggyback, link an aspect of your strategy with an initiative that has a high degree of importance to a company or a particular department. Show how you can help meet the objectives of that company. Look for new ways of doing things that will overcome the challenges and barriers that prevent implementation of the project by a company. Construct a document solution that makes a difference and contributes to a specific vision or objective. The more you are able to piggyback on the strategic agenda of other areas in your organization, the more likely it is that you will find willing supporters and sponsors. The questions are:
What aspects of your strategy feed into important corporate initiatives?
What new ideas for your strategy are needed to serve the initiatives that are planned?
What features serve the objectives of your customer?
Which of your recommendations line up with important items on their agenda?
You may find that some aspect of your document strategy suddenly becomes more valuable than you first thought. For instance, a particular solution or project may not have been your first choice to pursue, but if you find that it aligns closely with an important initiative, or fits within the agenda of another department, you are more likely to get a green light for your ideas. It is also possible that recommendations you made months or even years earlier will take on a new dimension of importance. The corporate landscape is replete with levelheaded recommendations that collect dust in an in-basket until they abruptly become part of someone else's agenda. Until a related and driving need comes to the surface, even the best ideas can go unnoticed.
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