A few weeks ago, I published an article about finding the courage to create content. I made a promise to my readers. They could ask me any question and I’d go and find a subject matter expert to interview for the answer. If you fancy reading the full post and asking your questions, check it out 👉 here.

One of the questions that I was asked a few times was: how do you get your senior stakeholders to buy-in to the potential that Fuse can bring to your organisation? 🤔

So off I went to find the answer. 

First, I interviewed Panasonic’s Bruce Swan. As a business leader, he said the key to getting buy-in is to first get alignment on the business problems you're trying to solve. The key takeaway from that conversation was 'fall in love with the problem not the solution'. 

Check out the full interview 👉 here. 

Part 2: The 3 Secrets to Successful Stakeholder Buy-in 🤫

So for part two, I wanted to dig a little deeper. I wanted to know what makes it so hard to influence senior stakeholders. I also wanted to know what good looks like. How do the best L&D professionals become influential and have a strong voice in the business?   

I caught up with Dave Westwood, Director of Learning at Fuse to answer these questions. In this episode👇, Dave talked about the three secrets to getting buy-in from senior stakeholders. 

So let's summarise this. To build influence, you have to build strong partnerships. To build strong partnerships, you need to: 

🎯 Understand the world your business leaders are operating in. What are the business objectives? What challenges are business leaders facing? What are their pain points? 

🤝 Get agreement with them on the business value you're looking to deliver. How will you help them achieve their objectives? In what ways can you help address some of the challenges? 

📈Clearly demonstrate the value and make sure you use data to tell a more compelling story. Use qualitative and quantitative data. 

PS: 🙋‍♀️ Before you go, I'd love to hear your feedback on this post and  answer any questions you have. So just leave a comment below👇🏽 or connect with me on LinkedIn.