Secure Stakeholder Support for Digital Innovation

Beginner Tips for Digital Project Support

 My advice is to start building a coalition of support within your organization. So, identify and engage champions, individuals who understand the value of a digital initiative and can go and advocate for it from their department internally. And then start beginning with small wins. Once you get into the project itself, what are some small, measurable wins that we can focus on to demonstrate success of this digital initiative? And then continue to build that momentum.

Driving Digital Initiative Success

We've seen this topic come up quite often in the last few months. One of the key ways that we assist our clients and our prospects, is by equipping them with data-driven insights and really compelling narratives that highlight the tangible benefits of the digital initiatives.

A lot of that work comes through our digital marketing partners. But in addition to that, by providing those concrete metrics and creating case studies and providing that information for empowering our customers to demonstrate the potential ROI of a long-term value in these projects.

Key Metrics that Win Stakeholder Support

Leveraging metrics such as, increased revenue or improved customer satisfaction scores, and enhanced operational efficiency can be really highly persuasive topics to bring to your internal debate table over how we should be prioritizing digital initiatives.

For example, showcasing how a digital initiative can reduce the time to market for new products or significantly lower operational costs can make a really strong case.

Additionally, real world examples and testimonials from similar businesses. Being able to see yourself in that story, in that narrative can provide that validation, that credibility that you're looking for in terms of making that next step.

Tailoring Communication for Stakeholders

I think the studies now say there's 7 to 10 different people involved in that buying process and each person carrying a different title and responsibility.

We've found holding individual workshops specific to those stakeholders and having Q&A sessions really allows us to have a more interactive conversation and be more efficient with their time, cognizant of their time as well. So, allows us to address their specific questions. Because you may have a marketer that has a dozen different marketing questions that relate to the project. And that's great, but it may not be something that the finance individual needs to hear.

In that same boat, you could have a finance individual sitting on a conversation and they're going to have more specific questions around the payment gateways and the type of terms in the contract, you name it. Things that are more pertinent to them versus that marketer. And you could go down the list of the various titles and roles and why you can have a lot of value in having individual working sessions or workshops with those different stakeholders leads to better communication and clear roadmap of how to move forward.

The Role of Communication in Buy-In

Communication is crucial. It's vital to present being digital in a clear, concise, and compelling way. This means tailoring a message to different stakeholders, whether they are technical or they're part of leadership or they're on the finance team.

In addition to that, each group cares about a different aspect of the project. For instance, an executive is going to focus on the strategic alignment and the ROI, while someone who works primarily on the technical side is going to be more interested in systems performance and integration. Clear communication in these scenarios help those individual stakeholders drive home the value in prioritizing these initiatives now versus losing out on another initiative.

Every company, including our own, there are so many different moving pieces and valuable initiatives taking place, and digital can be just one of those. But if you are struggling as an organization to win the debate internally, that you should be prioritizing certain aspects of your digital initiatives now versus another project that's happening, leveraging this type of information and having that clear communication is going to go a long way in making your case, so that digital initiatives become more of a priority for your organization.

Winning Stakeholder Support with Testimonials

We are Gartner clients, the big research firm. And they continue to release updated stats around what type of marketing assets are of most value to decision makers at organizations who leverage digital initiatives. You consistently see testimonials and case studies at the top of the list. And I think beyond just the research, I think we all know as we look at how people shop these days, often they're leveraging customer reviews and that's the same concept, right?

They offer proof that the proposed solutions have been successful in real world applications. So, when stakeholders see the other reputable companies that have achieved measurable success, it builds trust and reduces perceived risks.

We often provide detailed case studies that outline the challenges and solutions, so it's really clear and compelling to those prospects that this is a fit for them.