In a recent survey of 2,165 data professionals commissioned by KPMG and conducted by Forrester Consulting, 49% of respondents expressed a belief that their C-level executives don't fully support their organization’s data and analytics strategies. Without C-suite buy-in, it is basically impossible to get your initiative off the ground, as the C-suite is essential for getting the investment in resources and time necessary to make it work. However, it is not just important to get buy-in from the C-suite. For a data initiative to be successful, all employees must be on board and put data at the heart of their decision making. Analysis by McKinsey of more than 250 engagements over a five year period revealed that companies that put data at the center of the sales and marketing decisions improved their marketing ROI by 15%-20%, and similar results have been reported in every department. As Robert Lanning, People Analytics Lead at Tesoro Corporation, notes, ‘Without a data-driven culture, you are throwing money away and wasting your team’s time.’
However, getting buy-in for your data initiative is no easy task. Changing the culture of an entire company is incredibly difficult. In a survey by NewVantage Partners, just 40.2% of executives reported success in implementing a ‘data-driven’ culture. Cultural transformation does not just happen. You have to constantly drive home the expected change until it is completely ingrained in the fabric of the company, incorporating it into every aspect of business strategy based on business goals, company culture and business intelligence landscape within an organization. We’ve outlined 5 things you will need to remember when looking to get buy-in for your data initiative.
Duncan Bain, Senior Data Scientist at Scottish Power, says, ‘Being able to visualize complex processes in a way that simplifies understanding and facilitates action is key to C-level sponsors who often have limited time to devote to any individual project.’ Data visualization essentially gives your data into a narrative, which helps draws an impactful response from the user and reinforces it with numerical evidence. The way the human brain processes information means that presenting data as a story gives everyone in an organization a better understanding of it, and enabling a greater range of people to make sense of what it’s saying is often likely to lead to more insights and a greater understanding of its power.
Nicole Mills, VP of Strategic Planning at Suffolk Construction, notes ‘We focus heavily on the data visualization and user experience so that people who don’t have a background in advanced statistics and analysis can clearly understand the story that the data is telling. We have developed a 'brand guide' and 'UX Guide' for all of our analytics solutions, so regardless of the business question that we are trying to answer the end user will have the same easy, and intuitive experience to navigate through the solution and fully leverage the insights!’
Think of those you are trying to get buy-in for as consumers looking to buy your product. Any experienced salesman will tell you it’s important to understand who your audience is. You have to speak their language, avoiding technical terms and focusing on the things that they care about - solving business problems, not technical ones. Persuade them of its value, make it feel like it’s their idea to adopt analytics software and they will have more ownership of a data project.
