1.5 - About University

❻many presenters don’t allow people to voice their reservations. You can’t do anythingabout what you don’t know. It’s better to hear reservations and have a chance to dealwith them, than to have your recommendation scuttled outside the room, when youare not there to deal with the objections.Plan follow-through as necessary. Plan the next steps. Act quickly once you’ve begun theinfluencing process. It’s rare to have all the decision makers and stakeholders in oneroom. Contact the key decision makers who were not at your initial presentation. Askfor their support. Listen to their concerns. Deputize as many people as possible to helpyou get your recommendations supported and approved.H OW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL“One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who only have an interest.”—John Stuart MillOften in organizations, great improvement ideas abound. Suppose an engineer wants toimprove operations, for example. In presenting the idea, however, the engineer will often overwhelmmanagement with analysis and technical detail, then become frustrated by lack of managementsupport! The Selling Wheel can help shift the emphasis in such cases, pointing outthe need to spend less time reviewing data and analysis, and more time clarifying the businessneed, outlining the benefits of the recommendations, and demonstrating to management howthe risks they most fear can be minimized. This helps management focus on the benefits of theplan, tackle the risks, and connect the plan to the bottom line.Use the worksheet provided to plan a persuasive presentation. All six steps are important,but step 4 is critical (sell your best option). People buy benefits. Plan how to present the benefitsand deal with the reservations of each stakeholder group. [☛ 5.7 Stakeholder Groups]Benefits this groupRisks that willStakeholder group will respond to concern this groupSenior Management Return on investment, fit with strategy Difficulty getting support throughoutthe organizationR ELATED LEADERSHIP TOOLS5.1 Change Equation 5.7 Stakeholder Groups 9.6 Presentations5.5 Change Window 5.9 Resistance 9.8 Selling Large ProjectsF OR FURTHER ASSISTANCEHiebert, Murray, Powerful Professionals: Getting Your Expertise Used Inside Your Organization. Recursion Press, 1999.Rackham, Neil. The Spin Selling Fieldbook: Practical Tools, Methods, Exercises, and Resources. McGraw-Hill, 1996.SECTION 9 TOOLS FOR LEADING AND INFLUENCING OTHERS 285