The Art of Gaining Buy-In

I have spent the better part of the last 25 years working to gain “buy in”. Sometimes with prospective clients and sometimes with internal stakeholders including C-level executives, Heads of Sales, Marketing, IT, Operations all the way down to individual

sellers. For the purposes of this blog allow me to quickly define what I mean when I say “gaining buy-in”. Gaining buy-in is defined as a critical step in change management and centers around the need to get alignment and support from all direct and indirect stakeholders impacted by a decision.

Over the years I've learned that gaining buy-in is one of the most critical components of driving change and adoption

---

There is a specific process I've developed through years of experience that has allowed me to successfully and strategically gain buy-in (which I will share in a blog another day). That said, having a framework isn’t enough.

You must recognize that ultimately what you are doing is influencing people, teams and organizations. That is where the artfulness comes in. Acknowledging the history and

past experiences of stakeholders, learning the personalities and power dynamics of a team/organization and balancing a democratic but direct approach are all key elements of artfully gaining buy-in.

There are many reasons why driving change can lead to failure or a stall in productivity and growth. Often you can trace those reasons back to a lack of buy-in.

Admittedly, I have made my fair share of mistakes in this area and have witnessed some failures as

well. Here are three common pitfalls I have seen when I autopsy a failed attempt at

gaining buy-in:

Not including “gaining buy-in” as a formal step in your change management

process

Identifying the wrong or incomplete group of stakeholders to include in the process

Starting the process of gaining buy-in too late in the change management cycle

---

Regardless of the size of the team or organization you are working with, gaining buy-in cannot be overlooked as a critical part of driving change and adoption.

Whether you are making a major change like rolling out a new piece of technology, creating a new compensation plan or launching a new product or something simpler like iterating a

process artfully gaining buy-in will have a direct impact of the success or failure of that

initiative. I encourage you to thoughtfully plan your approach to gaining buy-in and

watch out for those pitfalls.

---

Looking for custom insights?

Many of our clients start with a free RevOps assessment to pinpoint their scalability challenges.

Start Your Assessment →

Book a Discovery Call →