If you're an executive, one of the most important skill sets that you
need to develop in order to grow your career to senior levels of
leadership is to get buy in from the C-suite.
So in this video, what I wanna share with you are three key and very
proven strategies on how you can get that buy in, how you can sell to
the C-suite.
Cuz even though, even if your career path is not a sales by
profession, make no mistake about it, as an executive, you're selling
all the time.
When you are in your teams, meeting with your teams in your direct
reports, you need to sell them on what's the vision, you need to sell
them on who needs to be accountable for these projects.
You need to sell them on what they need to do to continue to up level
their performance.
And that's selling downwards, but make no mistake about it you're
selling upwards as well because in terms of getting budget for your
projects, in terms of being able to have opportunities to grow your
career path in terms of being accepted for promotion and, and also
salary promotions as well, you need to be able to sell the C-suite in
terms of your ideas, in terms of budget, in terms of projects, many
ways that you need to be selling to the C-suite.
And the three ways that I'm gonna be sharing with you in the video are
gonna help you no matter what that object or that offer it is that you
are selling, it could be yourself, a particular skillset or so on, but
these are principles that I'm sharing with you that you can apply no
matter what you are selling to the C-suite.
So by the way, if this topic is of interest to you, let me know by
giving me a thumbs up and remember to subscribe to my channel as well,
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Strategy number one is to understand their destination.
What is the destination?
Let's face it, when you're speaking to the C-suite, they are
visionaries, they're visionaries, in other words, they see the future.
And a lot of them are gonna see many, many years into the future.
A really, really great visionary that's been there for a long time,
c-suite this where this is not their first rodeo.
Maybe they've been a career C-suite for many years, maybe even
decades.
You're gonna notice that the more experience they have, the more
tenure they have, their time space horizons are very, very far out
into the future where some of them could be thinking out decades into
the future lifetimes and even generations out into the future.
So it's really important that when you are gonna be selling and
getting buy-in from the C-suite that you understand their destination.
And their destination may be a lot farther out than you can imagine,
or a lot farther out than you thought was possible to think about.
And this is really important because you're in order to be able to
sell to C-suite successfully and persuasively it's understanding what
is their mission, vision, and purpose.
Mission, vision, and purpose.
Cause all three of these things, the mission, the vision and purpose,
all three of these things is going to be the foundation.
It lays the foundation of the destination.
And I, I can't emphasize this more than enough.
The destination understand that understanding that is so key.
And the reason why is, is like this.
If you think about analogy, when you want to design a vacation, maybe
you were planning to take your family somewhere.
Somewhere.
What you do is you open it up your phone, you turn you click on Google
maps or Apple maps depending on your preference.
And what's the first thing you do.
You choose your destination, you choose your destination.
And then after that, because you already know where you're starting
from and you now, you know where you wanna go.
And so on the maps, now you can design, okay, what's the route I wanna
take to get there.
And you choose the route you wanna take to get there.
And the same thing is true when you are getting buy-in from the
C-suite, they already know their destination.
In fact, they've been focusing on dedicated towards that destination
for a long time, perhaps even their whole lifetime.
So if you can get on board and you can be clear on what that
destination is, this is exactly it, now it's like having a Google
maps, you know the destination, you know the starting point cuz you're
part of that organization.
And now this is about helping them to choose the best route to get
there, which is AKA your idea, your solution, your recommendation, and
so on.
That's what you wanna get buy in on anyways.
So once you have established this, uh, really deep understanding on
their destination, now it's time to get the conversation started.
To get the conversation started, build a narrative, a narrative around
it.
The narrative's gonna form the foundation of what you share, what you
say next.
Build and design that narrative.
And you might be seeing a lot on the internet, a lot about articles
that talk about you need to be able to be a good storyteller, right?
You must have heard this before, comment below if you've heard this
before, I wanna hear from you, yes I've heard storytelling as a skill
set before.
They say as an executive, you gotta be good at telling stories.
Well, my approach, my perspective is a little bit different than that.
It's not just about being good at telling a story.
It's being masterful at telling their story, not just a story.
It's telling their story.
You see, when you tell their story, that's where you build it into the
narrative.
When you tell their story, that's how you make it exactly relevant to
them.
And this is where you can demonstrate your understanding of where
they're at in their business journey, in their professional journey
and so on.
And at the same time, because you can tell their narrative, you've
designed the narrative.
You understand the destination.
You've built that foundation.
Now you're telling their story.
Not just any story.
The key is not to tell the story you wanna tell or the not to tell the
story you think you wanna tell or tell a story that you like to hear.
It's about telling their story.
And once you can do that, that is truly when you can begin to start to
demonstrate your understanding of where they're going, where they're
at right now, where they're going, the gap between the two, the
difference between the two and the progress that they've made so far,
and then you have their full attention.
Strategy number two is to articulate the value.
Now, just because you see the value of your idea or your proposal,
your recommendation, just because you see the value of it doesn't mean
that they do.
Now when it comes to getting buy-in from the C-suite, the
responsibility lies on you to be able to articulate the value so that
they see the value from their perspective, from their lens, that the
lens that they, they already carry, they can, they can see the value
from that lens because it's not about trying to change them.
It's not about having them to become a different person.
It's not about shifting their perspectives.
It's not about telling them that they need to see things from your
perspective.
It's not about that.
Your responsibility is to be able to articulate the value so well that
from the perspective and the lens that they already have, that they
can't help it, but to see the value of what you are offering.
So when it comes to achieving that outcome, there's four key areas to
articulate the value and you have to be able to be masterful at all
four of these areas.
Okay?
So here we go.
The first area is to be able to understand what are the things that
are most important to them that they're dedicated to every day, the
moment you can be able to articulate your idea in a way that aligns
with what is most important to them.
Then the, that is the moment where they're gonna see how you are
proposing your idea, your solutions, so on is gonna help them to
achieve those things that are highest priority for them.
Then that is when you can facilitate the buy-in.
So that's the first area.
The second area is to understand what are some areas in which they are
not unaware of or not yet aware of.
And in making them aware of these areas, that is when they can be able
to see the value of your idea and the thing that you are offering.
So that's the second area that you need to be masterful at
articulating.
The third area in which you gotta be masterful to articulating the
value is to understand what are the areas that they're being
influenced by their culture.
Now keep in mind when I mention culture, I'm not just referring to
their ethnicity or their ethnical background.
I'm referring to an observable group of behaviors because by a
definition, the essence of a person's culture is a group of behaviors
that you can observe that you can measure that you can actually see
and you can experience.
So the C-suite will have a culture associated with it.
And there's two types of culture, two lenses, in which to view the
culture, there's the individual lens and there's the group collective
lens, right?
Each C-suite that you're gonna be selling to need to get buy in from,
they're gonna be needing to make a collective decision as well.
So there's an individual cultures that influence their individual
behaviors and decisions, but then there's the group culture that
influence the group and therefore the individual's decisions to have a
unanimous decision to buy into what you're recommending.
So that's why it's really important to understand how and what, what
areas are they being influenced by their culture?
That is so important.
So that's area number three.
And the fourth area is what is their modus operandi when it comes to
trusting, because make no mistake about it in order for them to buy
into what you are offering or buy into your solution, your idea, they
gotta trust it and they gotta trust you.
So what is their modus operandi when it comes to offering their trust
in an authentic way, offering their trust in a sustainable way, what
is that modus operandi?
So if you can articulate all four of these values in that order, by
the way, make, let's make a note on this.
I have now shared with you four areas to articulate value.
It must be articulated in that particular order, the order in which I
shared with you today, you start from number one, you progress to
number two, three, and then four, you don't skip steps and you don't
go in reverse.
So the moment you can master that step ladder of articulation and meet
those four areas in that particular order, then you will have very
effectively and very masterfully articulated the value so that now
they can see the value of what your idea is from their perspective
from their lenses.
Now, if you're listening to this and you're taking notes on it, which
I encourage you to do, if you haven't done that already, just rewind
the video and take notes on these four steps.
Again, these are proven, right?
And then now if you're thinking about this and you're like, okay, I
get it.
It makes sense on a high level, it makes sense.
But how do I do it now?
What exactly does that sound like?
And if you're serious about developing this skillset for yourself, the
skillset set on how to articulate these four values and more
importantly, to be able to understand their destination, the first
point, and you really wanna develop this for yourself.
Then I invite you to work with me every single week I provide
mentorship and coaching on how do you really navigate these four
areas?
How do you become masterful at developing that clarity?
So if you're serious about having guidance to support you through the
process, then click on the link below this video in the description.
And that is an application for you to talk to myself or member of my
team to explore whether or not I'm I can help you with what you're
looking for.
And if things are gonna be the right fit between us.
And if that is the case, then I'm excited for what you're about to
experience.
Because developing the skillset of getting buy-in from C-suite is not
only gonna be productive for your career growth, but it's gonna give
you fulfillment and inspiration that you can make a meaningful
contribution using your knowledge and your expertise.
And this leads us to strategy number three, of getting buy-in and the
this final strategy is to evoke the right emotions, right?
Cause when we think about C-suite a C-suite of executives, right?
We think about them being very logical.
We think about them being very systematic in their decisions.
Very thorough, very cautious.
We think about these things, but most of the times we don't think of
them as people.
Here's what I mean by that.
Humans, people, we are driven by emotions.
We have a whole range of emotions, the full range of human emotions
that we can possibly experience.
And oftentimes we don't associate a lot of those emotions.
We don't associate them with C-suite.
We don't, we don't see them as somebody who's capable of being jealous
or envious.
We don't see C-suite as somebody who is capable of being frustrated,
frantic, freaking out, we don't associate them with these things.
And so there is a whole huge range of emotions that we don't associate
with C-suite the problem with that is that now when we see C-suite
from a certain perspective, based on what we know based on what our,
our worldview is, we're eliminating half of this person that they,
they really are, that they bring to the, the, the equation, but we're
not appealing to that other side.
So here's what I mean by that.
Yes, it is true.
C-suite they're logical in their decisions.
Yes, they are cautious.
But when it comes to making decisions, people need to check in with
their emotions.
Decisions may be based on logic and data and, and press and, and
prehistoric data as well.
Yes.
Decisions are based on that, but emotions have the final say they have
the final say.
So that's why if you truly wanna get buy in and you want that buy in
to be sustainable and truly long lasting, you want it to be real
buy-in not just in the moment.
It's important to be able to speak towards their, the right emotions
and keep in mind that when you are articulating your offer, your idea
and so on the thing you wanna get buy-in for, I'm just gonna call it
your idea when you're articulating that idea and the way that I shared
with you before, it's important to realize it's not the idea that
they're buying into, not the thing itself that you're trying to sell.
Not that.
It is the meaning behind it, that's important to them.
And that is how you evoke the right emotions.
So by the way, if you, this has been valuable for you, give me a
thumbs up and let me know inside of the comments.
And if you're somebody who is knowing that, I really do have a great
idea.
I believe in my idea, I wanna be able to speak to higher ups, but
there's one problem.
There's one challenge that's holding me back is that I'm so fearful.
I I'm scared of talking to those higher ups.
And if that's you, then I have a video coming up that talks to you
about how do you overcome the fear of speaking in front of higher ups?
That video is coming right up next.
I'll see you there.