How To Leverage Advocates To Turn Influence Into A Team Sport
Welcome to your 3rd installment of strengthening your influence.
Today’s topic is Advocates. I'm sharing 3 tactics, a call to action, and 2 powerful pro tips.
To catch up on the previous editions, part 1 on Expertise is here and part 2 on Audience is here.
Let’s get this party started by revisiting this image:
You will not effectively drive change, or influence direction, without Advocates.
And this is the precise step when the wheels can fall off the proverbial Influence bus.
Let’s look at 3 ways to ensure that doesn’t happen:
Gain Buy In Differently
Identify Supporters vs Advocates
Build Your Brand
1. Gain Buy In Differently
Here’s what typical buy-in requests can sound like:
“Hey Ellie…I’d love to get your buy-in on something. I’m wanting to implement a change to the way we’re processing advertising makegoods. What we could do is adjust the input flow so that we skip the step where we fill out the form in admin. What do you think?”
At this stage, Ellie is going to come back with a load of questions. Have you thought about X? Have you considered Y?
Then all of a sudden you’re on your heels, in defensive mode, defending your idea.
And here’s a more effective approach:
How it sounds is this:
“Hey Ellie…I’d love your help moving something forward. Here’s what it is… We’re losing time and money with our current process for handling advertising makegoods.
It’s currently incredibly cumbersome for our CSMs. My estimation is we’re losing 1 hour per week, per Customer Success Manager. Across the org, we’re talking about more than 25 hours per week that we could be utilizing for pursuing upsell opportunities and renewals, but we’re not, we’re stuck handling these admin steps.
I have a proposed solution to cut down on that time and increase our revenue opportunities. What I propose is we adjust the flow within admin that bypasses where we record x, y, and z.
I’m seeing that the trade off here would be less qualitative data, and I believe the time gained back to pursue revenue opportunities would be well worth it.
What are you seeing that could strengthen this solution and help our leadership get onboard?
[Listen to their ideas]
Fantastic, great additions.
Could I ask for your partnership as I bring this to rev ops to gain their buy-in?”
In this example, we’re:
Connecting Ellie to the problem by quantifying the impact.
Highlighting a solution while quickly identifying the tradeoffs we’ve considered.
Asking for additive input (not simply feedback) to strengthen the approach.
And because we’re seeking additive input and then incorporating their ideas, we’re gaining an active supporter, which brings us to…
2. Turn Supporters Into Advocates
The easiest way to demonstrate the importance of gaining an Advocate vs Supporter is by looking at their literal definitions.
According to Google…(emphasis is mine):
Supporter - a person who approves of and encourages someone or something.
Advocate - a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.
For highly effective influence, we need people who are active, not passive.
How to turn a supporter into an advocate? Two considerations:
Ask their willingness to champion the cause.
Actively champion their efforts.
3. Build Your Brand
Are you known for being easy to work with?
Are you known as being risk averse?
Do people seek your input?
Do people view you as a valuable partner?
What is your brand?
Part of driving organization influence is being viewed as someone who:
Sees the big picture
Makes good decisions
Explores creative solutions
And is someone people WANT to work with
Call To Action:
1) identify 2-3 words that encapsulate the way you want others to describe you.
2) identify 1-2 actions you can take to help people see this side of you.
3) begin filtering your communication through the lens of your desired brand. Ex. If I want to be described as a Proactive Partner, every email I send, every Slack, re-read it through the lens of, “Is this positioning me as a Proactive Partner?”
2 Additional Pro Tips
I can't wrap up a segment on Advocates without sharing my 2 favorite Pro Tips:
Call out mutually beneficial opportunities
Recognize the favor
Here’s what I mean…if you often need buy-in and advocacy from Rev Ops, what ways can you consciously make their life easier? What effort and support can you lend them? What can you offer in return?
These pro tips might sound like…
”I think I have a way to drive something forward that will be mutually beneficial, available to chat?”
and
“I'd love to ask for your help with X….. And however I can return the favor, I am ready and willing!”
Particularly when acknowledging that you're asking for something, be clear and genuine with an offer to help them in return. It works wonders.
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Here's to building your crew of folks who are ready and willing to Advocate for your wonderful ideas and vision!
Hit Reply and let me know what's on your mind!
