I’m occasionally asked how to get an executive board to buy into a change programme. Or how to convince a decision maker to buy into a new way of working that may challenge some comfortably accepted wisdoms. Or how to sell something technical to a non technical CEO, or founder, or owner. And the truth is, it’s never easy.
The simple fact of the matter is that managing upwards – having your opinion heard and your recommendations acted on by either your peers or your superiors – is more difficult than managing downwards. And the reason is self-evident; for people with a reporting relationship to you, they have to listen to you. For them, it’s non-negotiable to at least look like they’re paying attention to whatever mad scheme you’re currently cooking up. Sure, they may disagree, and may drag their feet in acting upon your instruction but at the end of the day, it’s their job to work in a hierarchy with you placed resolutely above them.
I would, of course, hope that your management style was consultative and open, not dictatorial and averse to feedback from anyone without the correct pay grade. But no matter how open and collaborative you are, and how much opinion you seek from your colleagues, it remains true that you can largely press ahead with whatever organisational change or procurement or long term commitment that is within your own gift. Managing downwards, in simple terms, is easier than managing upwards.
It’s not uncommon that when I’m asked the question on how to address a block at a more senior level, there’s a sense of frustration involved. “She’s not an idiot, but she just won’t go for that“, “He just doesn’t think that way” or “Her eyes just glaze over when I start talking”.
And there’s the rub. Generally CEOs, executives, directors, managers or investors aren’t idiots. If they really were, it’s highly unlikely that in a fair organisation they would outrank you. Maybe he doesn’t think that way – but if you want to have a conversation, it’s you that needs to change, not him. Maybe she will go for that – you just haven’t done a good enough job of explaining it in language that is appropriate and in few enough words.
To me, this is critical. There should be no mystique around senior executives, other than the key to the mythical bathroom. They are just smart people, like you, but with potentially different backgrounds and training, a different vocabulary and, crucially, very little time.
Convincing anyone of the benefit of a course of action is a sale. It’s the sale of a concept, of (hopefully) a benefit. A sale of something that you believe is going to have a measurable impact on your business for the better. But you need to be heard, and to be heard you need to make the space for the conversation and be damn quick in delivering your pitch.
The fastest way to have that conversation is not in your native tongue, but in that of your audience. Selling to an MBA trained exec requires you to understand ROI, ROCE, KPIs, CAGR and performance metrics. Selling to a finance director will require that you know the difference between capex and opex and what a sweated asset really is. Selling to a CTO will mean that you need to cover compliance, security, availability and disaster recovery. Selling to an executive board means you need to be prepared to do all of these things.
If you don’t prepare yourself for these opportunities and if you don’t learn to translate between these different worlds it’s your fault, not theirs. They’re busy and have other decisions to make. If you’re lucky and have earned their trust and respect, you’ll be granted more time to make your point.
But never forget, the onus is on you to do the work. Preparation is everything when it comes to making sales.