buy-in: getting to the yes - deepak thakral
TRANSCRIPT
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