How Shared Services People Get Buy-in

I hate to break it to you, but finance people in shared services need to be good at sales.

When I make this proclamation to shared services professionals, it is often met with a shudder. One would think, knowing my audience by now as I do, that I would be more sympathetic to their aversion to sales. They are, after all, mainly finance and procurement people, who are more at home talking about processes and talking in numbers. For most of these people, shifting into “sales mode” can present a crunchy manoeuvre into an alien gear. The s-word is always met with a downward glance.

So I wish I didn’t have to keep going back to the s-word, and emphasising the importance of selling. But I'm afraid it’s impossible not to. Almost without exception, if there is a problem in shared services, it has stemmed from the fact that buy-in wasn’t secured upfront.

So what can we do about it? One very effective perspective shift a finance person can make is to see sales for what it really is: a process.

This article maps out the process of selling the concept for people in shared services (it can be applied to selling the shared services concept, selling outsourcing as a concept, selling the concept of an ERP upgrade, selling the concept of the role of a Global Process Owner, or selling working capital management as a concept).

1. It starts with an idea: your idea might be nascent or more developed. At whatever the stage, it’s good to examine the core questions: “Why?” or “Why bother?”  If you can’t answer these core questions convincingly, it might be a struggle to push this idea out. Professionals in business can tend to focus more on the “what” when thinking about an idea. At this stage, put the “what” to one side, and focus on answering the “why.” Also, be truthful with yourself here – be clear that you are not answering the “why” question with a “what” response.

2.Once you have your high level response to your “why” question, capture it. This is the beginnings of your vision and your plan. And then start examining:

 The possible business case (financial benefits, organizational benefits)

• Who would be your main sponsor
• The stakeholders who will benefit and those that need to be engaged
• Who would stop this from happening
• What investment might be needed
• What the consequences to the business of not implementing your idea
• What the high level risks are

3.Once you have the beginnings of your plan, park it. Now, go to the market (your internal customers) and do your own market research exercise.

Find out from them:

• What the objectives of the company and the individual business units are, and how easily they are being met
•  The size of their problems (most of which will be solved by your idea)
• Their pains (it’s good to collect these anecdotes for future reference)
• The consequence of doing nothing – to the business and to them personally
• What they see a possible solution looking like (are they describing your solution?)

With those that you have a connection with, you might want to share insights into your plans, in confidence, but in general I would see this as an information gathering exercise.

It’s really important during this time to do three things:

a) Ask open questions (probably a lot of ‘what’ questions)

b) Listen (it will be tempting to jump in with the solution (your idea), but wait – this comes later. Just listen for now

c) Take note of the language they use (write it down – you will use it later)

Following this, you can go back to your idea, and develop it, based on the information that came from your market research exercise. It will start to look more alive.

Here is a check list for you to reference at this stage:

- Have you answered the “why” to your idea – are you satisfied with the response? Is it, from a high level, water-tight?
- Have you outlined the benefits that the business will enjoy?
- Have you identified your key sponsors?
- Have you determined who your key stakeholders are?
- Are these people the same as the key decision makers or influencers?
- Have you identified who will try to thwart this?
- Do you have clarity on the budget and resource you will need to get this working?
- Do you have a clear idea about the consequences of doing nothing?
- Are you confident this fits in with the pains of your internal customers?
- To what degree will it solve their pains?
- Have you developed a vision using your customers’ language that you believe will excite them?

 Once you have all the above, you are ready for a critical milestone:  selling the concept.

4. Selling the concept is crucial. Most good sales people will tell you, you cannot sell anything until you sell the concept. It is such a critical part of your process. So how do you do it? Set up a meeting with your key sponsor if you can. It’s preferable to have your key sponsor buy into the concept before others are introduced to it. Use the following structure for the meeting:

a) The company’s objectives (this year, next and beyond)

b) The challenge in meeting these objectives

c) The consequence of doing nothing

d) The concept (your idea – the solution)

e) The concept’s vision (focusing on answering the “why”)

f) The concept’s benefits (tied into helping the company meet its objectives quicker)

g) At this stage, before you go into too much detail, it is highly recommended you find out what your sponsor thinks of the concept. Do they like it?

This last question, “Do you like the concept?” is the same as your asking if they buy into the concept. It really is that simple.

Once they like the concept, it means they are onboard with this, as an idea. This means you have the beginnings of their backing. But they will inevitably want more detail, which is your cue to put together a concrete plan (not exhaustive) that answers your sponsor's questions regarding risk, compliance, “what if's,” budget detail, ROI, PR implications, alternatives, etc.

5.Once this concrete plan has been shared with the sponsor, and they have confirmed that you can take the idea to the other influencers or decision makers, you can set up the meeting (ideally with your sponsor in the room) to present the concept (remember, concept only at this stage with this group of people) to your stakeholders.

Again, your structure is:

a) The company’s objectives (this year, next and beyond)

b) The challenge in meeting these objectives

c) The consequence of doing nothing

d) The concept (your idea – the solution)

e) The concept’s vision (focusing on answering the “why”)

f) The concept’s benefits (tied into helping the company meet its objectives quicker)

And again, before you go into too much detail, it is crucial you find out what your stakeholders think of the concept, and if they like it. You need them to buy into the concept, too.

Be prepared to deal with objections. People’s default position can be cynical, so you might not get the “whoop-whoops” you were hoping for. There are a few tips for handling objections:

a) Be prepared, and anticipate what certain questions might be. They might be: “We looked at this 3 years ago but ruled it out,” “We heard of company X that did this and it failed,” “We have different priorities for this year,” etc. Have your responses ready.

b) A very elegant objection-handling technique is to answer an objection-question with a question. Being careful not to sound snarky, you might want to ask, “Well, why do you think it might work this time when it didn’t work last time?” or “Would you agree we are a different company now, and things have moved on?”

c) If you come across a genuine objection, like, “I just don’t think I can personally give resource to a project like this,” an elegant response is, “If I can address the resource issue, might you be on board with the concept?” Using the if-word in selling can prove very effective.

Once your decision makers/key influencers have bought into the concept, you can then pick through the detail. Remember, once you have had your stakeholders buy into the concept, it’s harder for them to disengage. And – critically – gaining senior buy-in up front will mean you will move to implementation and execution quicker and more elegantly.