Winning Executive Sponsorship
You’ve done your research. You know that Office SharePoint Server 2007
will improve productivity and help employees make better decisions.
Now you just have to convince your boss.
Getting executives to sponsor your plan can take a significant amount of
effort, but that sponsorship often provides the fastest track to
deployment. And with a little planning and team building, it becomes
much easier to win executive approval.
Match their goals
Executives are judged – and are compensated – by how well they meet
certain performance targets. While SharePoint Server 2007 can improve
operations throughout the organization, target your pitch to
improvements that help them meet their goals.
For example, an executive may get an annual bonus only if the company’s
same-store sales increase at least five percent. Your pitch should focus
on how SharePoint Server 2007 can help with that goal.
You could show them how SharePoint Server 2007 can automatically pull
data from a variety of sources to show them key performance indicators.
You may also want to point out how it could show individual store
managers their progress toward the sales goal every time they log in.
And you may also want to talk about how it gives employees better access
to information, allowing them to make better business decisions.
So how do you identify those goals? If you work for a publicly-traded
company, read the annual report. The goals are listed in the executive
compensation section. You may also notice common themes in all-staff
e-mails and memos.
Build Consensus
Your pitch will also be more effective if you build consensus before you
approach the executive team. If everyone is already on the same page,
it’s easier for the executive to support you.
Start by identifying groups that you could help the most. Is human
resources buried under mountains of vacation request forms? Does
accounting struggle to find updated sales projections? Are there too
many manual workflows that cause delays in projects?
Use the benefits you identified in the ROI phase to brainstorm a list of
people you should meet with. Show them how SharePoint Server 2007 can
make their jobs easier.
You should also ask for their input. Ask them for their biggest
challenges and frustrations. Ask for their feedback for potential
solutions. They are far more likely to support you if they have
participated in the project themselves. Remember, they are stakeholders.
The Pitch
By this point, your pitch should practically prepare itself. You may
want to show demos of the features that would help the executive the
most. You should also show the broad support you have built among your
fellow managers.
Focus on helping the executive, rather than giving a generic laundry
list of features. When your executive sponsors understand how they will
win, you have an offer they can’t refuse.