During MVP Conf 2015, Deepak Thakral discussed how to get approval and buy-in.

1. Buy-in!
Getting to Yes
Life skills for every Product Manager
Deepak Thakral
Quixey

2. 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

3. 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

4. The Characters
Ego-Wego Eddie
Smartie-Pants Sam
Hide-a-Agenda Annie
Diversion David
Bend-with-the-wind Betty

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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…..

8. Confusion
Death by Delay
Fear Mongering
Ridicule/Character
Assassination
Common Tactics Used

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. 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?

14. 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

15. 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]

16. And the Legal Eagles…
Diversion
David:
Your
project
talks
about
giving
out
new
mobile
domains
to
these
customers.
Have
the
lawyers
reviewed
this
contract?

17. I think you get the picture
• Remember, the committee used the
four tactics very effectively
– Confusion
– Death by delay
– Fear mongering
– Ridicule & character assassination

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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!

23. Thank You
Deepak Thakral
Credits: Buy-in: Saving your Good Idea from
Getting Shot Down – by John Kotter