Preparation is key
Even though you work with the leadership team regularly, you need to prepare and have the attitude that you do not get a second chance at presenting your reasons for needing this investment. When you start pulling together your pitch, think about the logical questions that non-data leadership staff will have:
- Why is this project essential for the business?
- What is in this for me and my department?
- How long will it take for return on investment?
- If this project fails, what can be extracted from it?
There will be – and should be – tough questions from the top level of the business and you need to be aware of potential shortcomings of your projects. It is the role of the CDO to understand concerns that could be raised and address them accordingly.
Make sure you rehearse and get feedback from your team if you are giving a presentation. Ask if there are some key oversights and whether they believe the language being used can be understood by people that do not handle data daily.
Collaborate with your team to make sure there is nothing you have missed when creating a presentation or initial documents. Use this as an opportunity for more junior members to raise their hands and get involved with high-level discussions. Then, take this a step further and, if possible, work with members from IT and finance to check the feasibility of any new technical installations and whether your numbers add up. Again, money is a key part to convincing decision makers that investing in your vision is the right decision.
Furthermore, see if there are ways you can bring visual aspects to the project you are looking to fund. Perhaps a similar project has been done at another organisation and you can visually demonstrate the benefits for your own business. Seeing is believing, meaning being able to provide a visual project alongside a compelling story is key to a successful pitch and may also reduce the number of tough conversations that could arise.
When arranging the time to present, data shows that the most successful time to do it is one to two hours after the day has started or two hours after lunch. Additionally, Tuesdays and Thursdays appear to be the most successful days to pitch. You could even use this information in your presentation to show how utilising data improves the odds for success.
The final part of preparation is practice. Keep practicing your pitch. Recite it to yourself and your team. By working out any rough patches and discovering the rhythm of the presentation you give yourself a far greater chance of providing an engaging pitch that does not leave the audience with questions.
Embrace the unknown
CDOs must be prepared to receive questions that they are not expecting when requesting investment. This is part and parcel of being involved in top-level business conversations, but it can be an opportunity to show authenticity, collaboration and trust. When presented with a question that you do not know the answer to, simply respond with “I don’t know, but I will get back to you.” This answer – as long as you actually follow up on it – will help build credibility, show you as willing to engage and go out of your way to provide information and improve your communication with different areas of the business. You can then use the follow up conversation to reiterate key aspects of your investment pitch and the benefits to a department run by that decision maker.
Half the challenge of proving the value of data is that it is often not a tangible product. Use this to your advantage when pitching for investment by highlighting the unknown factors within the business because there are data black holes. Explore the idea that there could be great financial and time savings in these unexplored areas because they have been overlooked by the existing business operations. Is there an example of a piece of data one department has requested but it simply does not exist now, but could exist with this new project?
Enthusiasm
Show enthusiasm and confidence for your project – just like on school picture day: big smiles! Enthusiasm can be infectious, and you want to get as many people on side as quickly as possible. When you are rehearsing (even if it is just in your mind), cultivate a natural positive energy for what you are about to talk about, and this will transfer to the audience.
For those CDOs wanting to head into a more decision-making role themselves, consider investing your own time in seminars and training specifically geared towards preparing and presenting big pitches. The more you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more educated you are about something, the more comfortable you feel with it.
Ultimately, there is no exact science for how to win investment for data projects, but there are tried and tested methods that can greatly increase your odds. Not every pitch will be a success, and this is a fact that must be accepted by a CDO, but one defeat does not mean data progress has to stop. No one likes to lose or not get their way, but the show must go on – use your enthusiasm to keep the momentum going, regroup and analyse if there was a reason why the pitch did not land successfully and examine if there is a way to convert the project into a smaller proof-of-concept project.
CDOs frequently come up against obstacles when vying for investment and support to expand, which is often discussed at DataIQ monthly roundtables. Read about the upcoming roundtable topics and, if you are a DataIQ member, register to take part in the leading data peer conversation.
