Who’s pushing your internal buyers’ buttons? The role of sponsorship in the shared services and outsourcing sale

When it comes to selling outsourcing and shared services internally, don’t count on mom, apple pie and motherhood to make the sale. Truth is, every buyer views the sale through their own lens, and while the corporate good may influence the thinking, the mental try-on is basically a "what’s in it for me?" And the first place that’s looked to for ratification of the decision is the sponsor. It boluxes me that when we scale shared services and outsourcing in the organization, we continuously think that enterprise-wide benefits are sufficient to make the sale to the stakeholder. After all, what’s not to like about better, faster and cheaper? Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. There’s not a corporate employee alive who would sacrifice his livelihood for the likes of a shared services or outsourcing implementation – if he is the economic buyer and can possibly deflect the sale without impairing his career. Yet most stakeholder analyses focus on the positioning of the buyer, with short shrift given to who influences the buyer. Understanding who – if anyone – pushes the economic buyer’s buttons is pretty fundamental to making the sale. If the buyer has the advantage of being mentored or looked after by a corporate sponsor, he’ll model his behaviors and decisions according to what he sees that sponsor doing. If the sponsor is pro-shared services or outsourcing, it’s presumably good positioning to echo those sentiments. If the sponsor is negative, the buyer will tend to reject the concept. Sponsorship on these ends of the spectrum help the sourcing team to couch a sales approach that harnesses the influence of the sponsor. If the sponsor is positive, ensuring that he has all the right information is imperative; if the sponsor is negative, finding others who are more inclined toward shared services, perhaps a level up from the sponsor, is critical. But if the buyer has no sponsor, or if the sponsor is indifferent to the implementation of sourcing models, the buyer is left to his own devices, and has sufficient purview to make the decision on his own. These situations demand strategic sales thinking, since most buyers want ratification of their decisions by leaders who they not only trust, but also look up to. Without a sponsor in play, or one that is indifferent to adoption, influencing the buyer becomes a bit trickier, but not impossible. Peer pressure is a good way to get someone off the fence; asking peers that have adopted shared services delivery successfully to intervene, especially if their careers are on positive trajectories, can be very helpful. Or a call from endorsers in the executive suite often works, especially if the buyer is managing his career to get executive attention. In the latter instance, encouragement to support the corporate team goes a long way. So the next time you attempt a stakeholder analysis, remember that we all want approbation from those we look up to in our corporate family, just like approval from Mom. Spend a little more time learning about the buyer’s sponsor, and you’ll have better luck pushing his buttons.

Who’s pushing your internal buyers’ buttons? The role of sponsorship in the shared services and outsourcing sale

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