One of the greatest feelings you’re likely to experience as a marketer is the moment you realise you’ve hit on a great content idea. But too often, the excitement is short lived. Of course you know it’s a great idea, but now you need to convince the rest of your business too.
Whether it’s winning over the sales team, the board, the finance department, partners or all of the above, B2B marketer’s internal decision making unit is as complex, if not more so, as the external clients they are marketing to. This can make getting buy-in for a new idea a bit of a nightmare!
If you’re very lucky, everyone in the business will be a Visionary – supportive of marketing and willing to embrace new ideas. But having worked in-house for some of the world’s most forward thinking B2B brands, I know this is rarely the case. The dreaded Blocker is far more common.
Coming up with big campaign ideas is hard enough (check out our guide to generating commercially effect ideas: No Idea?). Getting buy-in from 101 different decision makers, when it feels as though everyone is a Blocker, is harder still.
But here’s the good news, you don’t need to appeal to 101 people. It’s exhausting and ineffective. By only focusing on the people who can make or break your campaign, you’ll be working smarter and improving your chances of success.
To help you do this, we’ve condensed 10 years’ of experience, working with a complex array of stakeholders, into one Slideshare. It includes a framework to help categorise your internal stakeholders into those who can make a difference (and those that will only waste your time) as well as our top tips on how to convince them to get onboard with your big idea.
[SlideShare design and doodles by Xenia Kingsley]
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Head Office
Moore House
13 Black Lion Street
Brighton
United Kingdom
BN1 1ND
London Office
24/25 The Shard
32 London Bridge Street
London
United Kingdom
SE1 9SG
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