How CIOs Can Best Sell Technology Value to Business Partners

It’s essential that these outcomes are described in nontechnical terms, avoiding references to specific technologies or vendors. Examples include:

• Creating online learning modules for use in schools and colleges

• Digitizing the account application process

• Enabling online payments and reservations for in-store collection

• Automating all payables and receivables processes

• Enabling immersive digital sales experience for customer

When CIOs work with stakeholders to fully describe the business problem or opportunity, they can more easily define the desired outcome. This outcome should represent the change or improvement in the business capability that technology will enable. But they still need to effectively articulate the technology value in terms of how it will help the business.

Three common errors CIOs make when presenting technology solutions to stakeholders are:

• Focusing on the underlying technology, giving detailed explanations about how the technology works, how the solutions will be implemented and so on.

• Assuming the audience understands the problem that needs to be addressed (or the opportunity that could be exploited).

• Assuming the audience cares about the problem or opportunity or knows why it is relevant to them.

Regardless of whether the conversation occurs in a one-on-one meeting with a CxO, a broader meeting of stakeholders or a board presentation, use the opportunity to emphasize the business impact of technology and gain support for the solution. To do this:

1. Make it relevant: Connect the problem or opportunity to enterprise priorities. For example, in a commercial enterprise, growth is likely to be a strategic objective. Begin the interaction by stating that you want to talk about how technology can enable the enterprise to meet its growth targets. In situations where the enterprise strategy may not be clear, CIOs can ensure relevance by connecting to revenue (or mission for the public sector), cost or risk.

2. Define the problem/opportunity: It is virtually impossible to sell a solution to someone who does not understand or even recognize the problem or opportunity being addressed. Often, when a CIO encounters resistance to or a lack of interest in a proposed solution, it is because the audience:

• Is not aware of the problem (hence, why any solution is required)
• Does not understand what is causing the problem (hence, how it can be solved)
• Does not understand the business impact of the problem (hence, whether the required investment is appropriate)

To avoid any of these situations, spend time ensuring a shared understanding of the problem or opportunity before explaining the solution.

3. Describe the outcomes: Having established the relevance to their audience and created a shared understanding of the problem or opportunity at hand, the CIO has earned the right to talk about the solution. However, this does not mean providing a detailed technical explanation but rather outlining the solution, then focusing on the business outcomes and impact the technology solution will deliver.