Get to yes: convince with your ideas

Hello and a very warm welcome to Cultural Communication Confidence, with me Victoria Rennoldson, and welcome to Episode 91, and I’m back with a solo episode today, and it’s been a little while. I’ve had a number of fantastic guests on the show recently, and if you’ve missed out on that recently, do feel free to go back and listen. I had Lanie Denslow talking all about US culture. I had Steven Parker talking about leadership for introverted leaders, and I had most recently Jason Liem talking all about self- leadership and resilience. So I hope you enjoy those episodes. 

But I’m back – I’m back for a solo episode, and I’m really excited about this topic: ‘get to yes – convince with your ideas’. Now the reason that I’m talking about this topic today is that this came up as a question from a client recently. She had quite a radical change that she needed to sell into the business. It was a very different way of working with a project she was working on, and there were quite big implications in terms of the project structure and the team structure. And her question to me was: ‘how do I do this? How do I sell in my ideas and convince them, when I know there may be resistance to these ideas, and they are quite different ideas from what they’re expecting?’ My answer to her, which I’m going to share with you here today, is that you need to frame your ideas. You need to be speaking the same language as the people that you’re talking to – so those key decision makers, whether that is the senior leadership team, the C-Suite, the board – whoever it is that needs to get to say ‘yes’ to your idea. You need to frame your ideas in a way that makes sense to them. That they really see the logic and they also can really see the context for the change – why it is important to have this change. So think about, right now, a change that you would like to bring into your company, or organisation, and as we go through this framework, way to frame your ideas, you can take notes. So grab a pen and a piece of paper and think about how you can use this in your next selling, when you’re persuading people and getting them to ‘yes’. 

To start with, I want you to think about the company vision. So really think about that macro topline vision and strategy that the company has. And I want you to understand how the changes you’re proposing fit into this. This is a brilliant place to start, because this is how you start speaking the same language as the decision makers. They are very brought in to this idea of the vision and the strategy of the company. If you can help them understand how your project fits that, almost like a jigsaw coming together, then this will make a lot of sense to them. So demonstrate this, show them how this project is ultimately helping to deliver the organisation vision and strategy. From there, I want you to talk about ‘why it’s not working today’. Often, you are suggesting a change, a different way of working, or structure, to a project or a team because something has to change, you’re moving away from something today, so be super clear about this: what are you moving away from? What’s not working? And what does it cost the organisation? This could be costs such as money costs, so that could be risk to sales, it could be lost sales opportunities, or lost profit, if it’s to do with the ultimate costs of the business. But it also could go beyond that, beyond the commercials, it could also be that things are not working today, and that’s having grave impacts on people, on resources, on motivation, and even in trust factors. So really get into the detail: how is this not working today, and what’s the implication of that? 

From there, I want you then in the frame to talk about the purpose of the change: why is it needed? And why is it needed right now? I am a great believer that decisions get made when it’s clear that things do have to change, and the time is now. There is an urgency to that situation. So if the change that you are proposing is a ‘nice to do’ and could be done equally well in a year’s time, it’s harder to get people to ‘yes’, so see if you can find that motivation point, that driver, that means the decision has to be made now, that there is a an implication or an issue, if that decision isn’t taken in the current time frame. 

From there, I want you to think about the macro picture, so start off by thinking about the future lens: how does the change that you’re proposing fit into what is needed from the organisation in the future? How does it make the organisation future- proof, or if you like, fit for future? How does it push with and flow with the current trends that you’re seeing in the particular market or scope of the world that you’re in? So really help the decision makers understand how it fits in that macro external point of view, and will help ultimately the organisation move forward into the future. 

Then bring in the external picture to the present moment. Help them see how this is in the context of what else is going on in the market, or industry, or with what you would term as ‘competitors’, if you’re in a commercial environment. What else are people doing right now? What is that informing you about, in terms of learnings, and how they are doing things today, which might be better than how your current organisation or company are doing things? How is that building into the changes that you’re proposing on your project? If you can show that connection, that you’re learning from the best, that you’re learning from the external environment, again, this is a very persuasive factor. 

Next, I want you to bring it into thinking about the external point of view, and thinking about your customers or clients. Now, even if you work in an organisation which is not traditionally commercial, then even so, you will still have internal customers, or internal clients, people who ultimately receive the benefits of what you do. So really consider this: what is the implication of this change for them? How is it improving their lives, and how they experience your organisation? Clearly what you want to demonstrate there is, a win-win situation for your customers or clients, as well as for the organisation itself. And then finally, I want you to end with really thinking about what this change will ultimately deliver. Put some real tangible numbers against that. If you can, really think about the financial benefits, whether that is increased sales or potentially cost savings. Think about the benefit to your people and your resources. Think about how much you can make concrete for your decision makers that this is a no-brainer, that this is really quite a straightforward decision, and makes absolute sense for the decision makers to say ‘yes’. 

So there you go, a framework to help you put together your ideas and to persuasively present them to key people people in your organisation. This is ultimately all about speaking the language of the organisation. Understanding, no matter where you sit in your organisation, whether you are more junior right now, middle management, or even already at senior management level. The way you frame your ideas, the way that you convince people, is helping them understand the total context, and how this is beneficial through a number of different lenses. I hope you see the value of the type of frame that I’m sharing here today, to help you present those ideas, and get you closer to ‘yes’. 

So let me ask you: what big ideas have you got for your organisation? What would you love to see change, in ways of working, or in the way that you approach your structures in projects or people? How could you use this frame today, to help you get closer to that ‘yes’? I would love to know, and I really love hearing your stories of how you put these podcast bites, these training bites into action, so let me know, message me over on LinkedIn, direct message me, my personal profile is ‘Victoria Rennoldson’. And let me ask you: who else would benefit from hearing this today? Who else do you know, who could really do with this training here today? Feel free to share it, my vision for this podcast is to get it out as much as possible in the world, to really provide value to you, and to the people that you know, so why not share it with one person today, who would really benefit from this? 

Now, if you’re listening to this and you know that you need to go deeper on this topic, this is something that you struggle with, or that you know that you need to improve in, particularly if you’re starting to accelerate your career, then I have a free gift for you today. I am sharing my ‘7 strategies for communication skills for leaders’. This is a bite-size training, sending it to you once a day for 7 Days by email. You will learn about about how to improve, elevate and amplify your communication skills, so you can start speaking and sounding like a leader. Now that is something that you can access either via the link in the show notes, or alternatively you can message me on LinkedIn, with the word ‘leader’, and I will send you the link, you can sign up from there. But I hope that you will enjoy that gift, there’s so many extra resources in there, so many other interesting insights and tips and strategies for you, that again, you can practically put into practice straight away. So thank you so much for joining me here today, it’s been brilliant to be back for another solo episode after a little break, and I very much look forward to seeing you next time, on Cultural Communication Confidence.