Selling your product vision or plans to convince stakeholders and investors—whether for approval or funding—can be a tough challenge.
What’s more, your work is far from done after securing the initial approval or investment. You’ll constantly be asked to demonstrate your product’s value to maintain their trust and support. Investors and stakeholders typically want to see clear progress, a strong business value, customer growth, and a clear return on investment (ROI).
Thus, the art of persuading and managing stakeholders is crucial for your business or startup. Part of the work that I do with my clients is to shape and strengthen their product strategies, which is not just for creating user-centric products but also to gain stakeholder approval. Based on my consulting experience, here are a few tried and tested methods for winning over your stakeholders or investors.
1. Be an active listener to capture stakeholders’ priorities and concerns
The process of persuading someone to support your product is a two-way street. You shouldn’t just focus on what your product can do and your long-term plans, but you must thoroughly consider what your stakeholders or investors really want and worry about.
Some place strong emphasis on customer acquisition and market impact, while others want decent short-term ROI or a more active role in the product’s development. This is where active listening helps. You’ll need to pay attention to the things they are saying and the things they’re not and follow up with questions to delve further. By understanding their specific worries, you can tailor your responses to make them feel heard and supported.
2. Involve stakeholders early in the product process
One good idea is to include relevant stakeholders, or even potential investors, early in the product journey. This gives them a sense of ownership and investment in the product’s success. I recommend for you to establish a feedback loop with your stakeholders so you can address any niggling doubts early. You’ll also get to understand how they think and what they want, so it’s much easier to convince them when it’s time for a formal approval or sign-off.
Including your stakeholders from the beginning of the process may also help with potential setbacks. When you face a roadblock, it’s much easier to explain to them because they are part of the discussion and are more likely to understand your situation. You’ll save time, avoid late changes, and minimise opposition when problems occur.
3. Clearly define the business value and competitive advantage
You should focus on presenting a clearly defined value proposition and competitive advantage of your product. Use credible research, hard data, and other evidence to quantify the benefits and project the ROI for them.
You can utilise real-world cases in industries that are similar to yours to paint a clearer picture or show benchmarks against industry standards and competitors. Emphasise what sets your product apart from competitors and how it delivers unique value to users.
4. Align your product vision and plans with long-term strategies
It’s not enough to outline a solid product strategy; you’ll need to also link it to your stakeholders’ long-term strategic goals. Whether it’s the company’s broad direction or an investor’s long-term exit strategy, you need to know what it is and show how your product’s plans are aligned to it. Additionally, you’ll want to put some thought into futureproofing your product. Highlight how your plan can adapt to upcoming trends, such as AI integration and blockchain technology.
5. Speak in their language and at their level of expertise
You should tailor the things you speak about depending on each stakeholder’s backgrounds and expertise. For example, avoid using overly technical jargon with non-technical stakeholders, but do use it for those with deep tech expertise. One surefire way to please everyone is to use visual storytelling. Think of dashboards, graphs, demonstrations, and gamification that can instantly be understood by everyone in the room.
6. Show a tangible and credible example of your product
One of the best ways to persuade someone is to show proof instead of telling them. If you don’t have an existing product, or your product has limited data to back it up, you can use high-fidelity prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs) instead. Showcasing an MVP that has been tested with a panel of users is even better.
You can share early feedback from beta users, focus groups, or any market tests that you’ve done to highlight the product’s viability and desirability. Clearly define the problem your product is solving and the current pain points users face with other products in the market.
7. Offer a pilot project or phased implementation to manage risks
Instead of diving headfirst into building a full-fledged product or integrating into your existing system, you can assuage any major concerns that your stakeholders have by doing a pilot run or phased deployment.
Doing it in stages will also help convince the stakeholders or investors that are sitting on the fence. Some of them want to see early results and progress before they go all in. This is also less risky for you, especially if you’re introducing a new product or expanding your market significantly.
8. Outline a product risk and mitigation strategy
Rather than try to skirt around potential risks and downsides, you should present a clear mitigation plan around them. First, you’ll need to outline any risks involved, such as budget overruns, technological failures, or drastic market shifts. Then, you’ll need to be smart about how to leverage other parties or existing resources to address these risks.
Try partnering with a bigger business, reuse existing product and marketing components, or outsource low-value work so you can deal with highly strategic initiatives. Additionally, explain to your stakeholders how the product will be supported post-launch, including plans for updates, customer support, and growth. Emphasise the risks and costs of rejecting the product, such as falling behind in the market or losing customers to competitors.
9. Highlight team competence and experience
You’ll need to show your stakeholders that you have the right team members who are also competent, trustworthy, and credible. Don’t forget to highlight your team’s experience, including external partners if you have them. Give them an overview of team structure and explain how the work is distributed and each team’s part in the product, from design to marketing and after-sales support.
10. Build a coalition of support
If you have a few people who are close to or can influence your stakeholders or investors, then leverage them. You’ll require a coalition of support if you’re finding it hard to get the green light. Allies who are on board with your product can help sway those on the fence.
Furthermore, when many people are confident in your product vision, this will provide assurance to hesitant stakeholders that they’re not taking a risk alone. Try to approach informal influencers—those who, while not in formal leadership roles, are respected by their peers.
11. Be prepared for some pushback
After everything is said and done, you must be prepared to handle rejection and pushback. This is normal, especially with a riskier product or products that require a substantial amount of investment. Come prepared with cold, hard data, insights, and an open mind. Think of how the product plan can adapt based on changing market or business conditions. This can help alleviate some of the worries in stakeholders’ minds.
