{"id":467,"date":"2024-01-01T18:27:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T18:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/expert\/?p=467"},"modified":"2024-02-02T14:17:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T14:17:52","slug":"how-to-sell-a-data-strategy-to-business-executives-part-1-partnering-with-the-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/thought-leaders\/how-to-sell-a-data-strategy-to-business-executives-part-1-partnering-with-the-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Sell a Data Strategy to Business Executives Part 1: Partnering with the Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

To sell data analytics to executives, you need to partner with them. The first step is to listen and learn the business. The second is to speak like a businessperson, not a technical one. The third is to deliver a quick win to gain credibility.<\/p>\n

The primary task of a data analytics leader is to lead\u2014that is, set a course and get people to follow. That\u2019s easier said than done, especially when you\u2019re leading top executives to embrace a new data strategy. Executives have little patience for lengthy explanations and ill-founded requests for money.<\/p>\n

To persuade busy executives to allocate sufficient dollars to fund an enterprise data and analytics strategy, data leaders need more than a business plan with numbers. They need to foster a partnership with key business executives to gain leverage when it comes time to ask for money.<\/p>\n

Step One:\u00a0Listen<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first step in partnering with executives is to listen and learn. When Tim Leonard was appointed chief technology officer at U.S. Xpress, he made a point to take key executives to lunch. \u201cWhen I join a new company, I spend a lot of time listening to people and learning how the business works. If I open my mouth too soon and expose my business ignorance, I lose credibility. So, I try to master the business quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to get to know executives as people\u2014what motivates them personally and professionally. Get to know their families, hobbies, and interests, and also their professional history, challenges, and successes. If possible, learn the metrics or goals for which they are accountable and their allies and adversaries in the business. Create a profile or \u201ccheat sheet\u201d of key leaders. Sales is all about knowing your customer.<\/p>\n

Step Two: Speak Intelligently<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019ve learned how the business works and established relationships with executives, then it\u2019s time to converse with them in their language. Tim Leonard learned the hard way the importance of talking like a business executive rather than a technical one:<\/p>\n

\u201cI discovered the more I discussed architectures, schemas, and tools, the less businesspeople seemed interested in what I had to say. But if I talked about business concerns, like increasing wafer counts per square foot of factory floor at a semiconductor plant, then executives paid attention.\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s all about sales,\u201d Leonard concluded. \u201cYou know you\u2019ve made it when a businessperson says, \u2018You know a lot about the business for an IT guy!\u201d<\/p>\n

Shut up<\/em>. But once you start speaking, it\u2019s important to know when to stop. \u201cI also discovered that in key situations\u2014like when you need executive support for a project\u2014it\u2019s best to shut up and let the businesspeople do the talking,\u201d Leonard says. \u201cAlthough businesspeople appreciate a business savvy IT person, they would rather hear a businessperson explain the need for an analytics solution. So, when appropriate, I ask businesspeople to deliver the presentations about data proposals, and I sit in the back and talk only if called upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step Three: Act Quickly<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The most powerful way to \u201csell\u201d executives is to take bold action. Most data and analytics leaders understand the importance of a quick win to gain credibility, momentum, and trust. Once you demonstrate that you can deliver value quickly, executives will seek you for help. You will likely be overwhelmed with requests. Once you have credibility with executives, the \u201ccurse of success\u201d replaces sales as the key challenge.<\/p>\n

Not long after he arrived at U.S. Xpress, Leonard discovered that the CEO had long wanted to track the \u201cidle time\u201d of the company\u2019s long-haul trucks to better manage fuel expenses. So, Leonard took his team on a six-week \u201cdeath march\u201d to build a simple dashboard to display truck idle time. In order to work that fast, the team decided to break its architecture and build an independent data mart (i.e., data silo) rather than extend the company\u2019s data warehouse. The team also scoped the project narrowly, capturing only a handful of relevant data elements out of hundreds emitted by onboard truck sensors and systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur quick win gave us instant credibility,\u201d says Leonard. \u201cThat dashboard got me in the door and enabled me to pitch other things.\u201d Later, his team rebuilt the dashboard on the enterprise infrastructure and expanded its scope to meet additional needs. The win also created new demand for his team\u2019s services: \u201cBusiness heads lined up to talk with us. We quickly ended up with too many project proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step Four: Wait<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Leonard was fortunate to work for an \u201cenlightened\u201d CEO at U.S. Xpress who was willing to invest money in information technology (IT) in the middle of the 2008\u201309 recession. But not all data analytics leaders are so lucky. For many, getting funding\u2014even for small, \u201cquick win\u201d projects\u2014can be like pulling teeth. In those situations, the best strategy is to do all the work necessary to act when the time is right.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Kevin Sonsky did. He was appointed director of BI at Citrix Systems in 2005 by the company\u2019s CFO to standardize the way the company reported on key sales and financial metrics. For the next 11 years, Sonsky did his best to work with department heads across the company to gain consensus on terms, definitions, and reporting output.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the company hired a new datacentric CEO in 2016\u201411 years after Sonsky started the BI team\u2014that the company got serious about data and report governance. Fortunately, because Sonsky had already established cross-functional governance committees and processes, the company had a ready-made structure to ramp up governance activities. \u201cFor years, we weren\u2019t sure we were making an impact,\u201d says Sonsky. \u201cBut we had laid the groundwork and had the foundation to accelerate once new leadership arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To sell data analytics to executives, you need to partner with them. The first step is to listen and learn the business. The second is to speak like a businessperson, not a technical one. The third is to deliver a quick win to gain credibility. The primary task of a data analytics leader is to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Sell a Data Strategy to Business Executives Part 1: Partnering with the Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eckerson Group President Wayne Eckerson offers tips on how to sell a data strategy to executives via partnering with the business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Sell a Data Strategy to Business Executives Part 1: Partnering with the Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eckerson 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