What’s your best piece of advice for getting stakeholder buy-in?

Gong has so much to offer. All it needs is to be explored and the possibilities are endless.

With the AI factor, a completely new dimension can be given to Sales Processes.

Getting Stakeholder buy-in within an organization can look and feel different depending on the groups you are looking to roll out to, what level within the organization they sit in, and what their priorities are. The talk track, problems you are solving, and data/metrics you will be presenting will vary based on who you are talking to but some key strategies remain no matter who the stakeholder is:

Understand the WHY: build a relationship by using empathy and curiosity to learn about what challenges you are looking to solve for and WHY the tool might be a good fit.

Adjust your USE CASE: depending on what level the Stakeholder is within the organization, tailor your pitch to their specific use of the tool. I.e. how Exec leadership vs. Frontline Managers vs. end users leverage the platform - meet them where they are at.

Incorporate Success METRICS: what does success look like? Use metrics to define and measure success.  What the stakeholders are looking to measure?  If you have a pilot or can point to success stories, use data and subjective feedback to support your change management. 

I found the best way is to give an example of how Gong provides insights into the sales cycle and gives proof points for where rep behavior should be replicated and what opportunities exist for process improvement.

Stakeholders need to see an example of how Gong allows you to quickly pivot when rolling out a new initiative. You can quickly demonstrate the ROI of scaling processes or the cost of maintaining the status quo.

In order to achieve stakeholder buy-in, the first step is to truly understand and empathize with the stakeholder. Why do they even want the tool? What are they trying to accomplish? How much time do they have to interact with the tool, and who are the frontline employees who are utilizing the tool daily? When you understand the context, you are able to weave your service into the tapestry of the client’s own narrative of broader ambitions and long-term goals instead of throwing nebulous promises out or showing statistical spaghetti off. It is imperative to be able to anticipate client needs by truly understanding not only what but WHY they want, where the technology lies in their stack, and how integration into day-to-day operations would benefit their life. This all sounds cliche, and this can all be fit into a nice script/schema and pattern of behavior, turning it into more of a game than a conversation.

In my opinion, reality has dictated that it is of the utmost importance to appeal to decision-makers on a human level instead of setting a pretense that ‘I am going to sell you on why my tool is the best, and I will try to pull a tinned answer out of my bag if you disagree’. People want to work with people who make them feel seen, heard, and understood. People want to have that chuckle of levity over a mutually frustrating technical  hiccup. People want to be smiled at and spoken to with respect. In my opinion, being overly fake/enthusiastic/evangelizing for a product is highly unattractive and can be sniffed out. The strongest relationships are organic, and based on mutual respect on a professional and personal level.

Do more of the following (I saw “more” because it’s never enough): 

• show FLMs how Gong helps managers and reps towards efficiency and clarity
• demo how Gong can help with major current pain points (example: if the company is growing fast, showcase how Gong can reduce the onboarding time)
• set up 1:1s with FLMs to listen and address any concerns to ensure they feel involved and comfortable with the roll out
• partner with sales enablement or other key functions to ensure a similar message is delivered.

We just did our company wide rollout and this was all very helpful. We have a lot of older reps and new software adoption has been a challenge for us. Thank you for the tips! 

For me it was first getting front-line managers buy in and investment.  Then really aligning business objectives to the ‘why’ of Gong.  Demonstrating the system we used previously with the pain points and how Gong overcomes those pain points.  Also, showing how Gong is helping us to drive our Sales profit metrics and how it will help us to meet out net profit goals.

Metrics!!! Numbers talk. Creating Smart Trackers and kpis around those are one of the biggest reasons we moved forward with Gong. Second, the spotlight and the notes it takes from calls help managers quickly coach vs having to listen to a ton of calls.

Best advice that I can give for getting stakeholder buy-in is to outline what needs to happen, identify the resources and budget, and provide the data that backs it up. Try to answer everyone’s questions before come up. 

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Stakeholders who are motivated by the potential for success that comes with the launch of a new tool are more likely to provide constructive feedback, more regularly to ensure it’s integrated as seamlessly and used as effectively as possible.
Sufficient project resources are of utmost importance in ensuring the success of a new launch. Motivated stakeholders can provide awesome support in budget meetings when resources, financial and otherwise, are considered.
They will spend more time probing the tool to its full potential & providing important insights to the decision-makers you've not considered. 
This supports perpetual improvement, and ensures the project meets and hopefully exceeds any and all expectations.
 

As with all deployments, yours will be unique to your situation.    Getting leaders to sell the tool for the benefit of the team, using both carrots and sticks is going to be huge in driving adoption.