Employee Buy-in | Experience Required™

Employees will pass through a series of phases in their pathway
to understanding, committing to, and taking action on your brand. Each step in the
pathway is critical to ensuring that buy-in is achieved.

Employee Pathway to Buy-in

Denial. The denial stage results from a lack of understanding about
the business reality and branding as a viable strategy.

Employees think: “I don’t understand what we’re trying to accomplish.
This brand strategy is a flavor of the month. Stop wasting my time so that I can get
my work done today. Or tomorrow. Or whenever I get to it since I define what success
looks like because you have not.”

Resistance. This is caused by strong beliefs about obstacles that
will prohibit successful execution of the brand strategy.

Employees think: “Our company doesn’t have the right people or
operational processes in place to really do the brand strategy — we won’t be able
to keep the promises our leaders want to make.”

“Since we’re doomed to fail because of the people we have, this
branding initiative will only increase my workload. Ugh!”

Exploration. This signals a desire to learn more.

Employees think: “Okay, the company might be onto something meaningful
after all. What can I do to bring the brand to reality?”

Commitment. This is generated from the belief that change is desirable.
- Employees think: “Leadership seems pretty committed to this. They’re
  still talking about it. Wow! This might not be a flavor of the month after all. The
  leaders seem to be aligned around this cause.”

Leaders must be careful not to try to take employees from denial straight to commitment.
The steps of resistance and exploration are important in helping employees make the
brand personal and create meaning out of the brand-building process.

In helping employees down the pathway of buy-in, it’s important to acknowledge that
“Rah Rah” kickoff events, T-shirts, mouse pads, and posters won’t be nearly enough.
It will take more than a motivational speech or a training class to ensure that employees
understand the power your brand can have in stimulating cultural transformation and
business results.

Why do companies fail, time and again, to implement strategies,
programs, and initiatives? Whether it’s a brand strategy, process improvement program,
new technology, employee recognition program, or customer service initiative, great
ideas and initiatives fail resulting in disappointment and wasted budgets.

My answer is simple:

Companies fail in implementing strategies
because their employees don’t buy into them.

An employee in your company has bought into your strategy when the three parts of
the formula (below) — understanding, commitment, action — are in place. If any value
is at zero, then buy-in equals zero. Plain and simple. You do not have buy-in unless
all three components are achieved.

Employee
Buy in = understanding x commitment x taking action

When I began formulating the structure of my book, I paid a visit to Jack Trout, a
well-respect author and expert on the subject of brand positioning. Trout coined the
term “positioning” as we know it in the business world today. Trout remains a sought-after
speaker and consultant, having now written many books on the subject of marketing,
positioning, and branding.

Trout was very intrigued with the Achieve Brand Integrity book for one reason
– the concept of gaining buy-in.

I asked Trout to share with me his thoughts on implementation: “Jack, how many of
your clients actually implement the strategies you create for them?” Having worked
with so many clients, he wasn’t likely to give me a specific answer and of course,
he didn’t.

Trout said, “The majority of my clients are challenged to implement for one reason
– egos! If you can find a way to overcome the egotism inside a company, then you
really have something special.”

Well, in collaboration with some of the best companies in the world, my team and I
have created something very special.

We have proven if you stay committed to the principles of clearly set expectations
and employee participation, egos get put aside and powerful brand/cultural alignment
becomes a reality.

Buy-in doesn’t happen over night. You need to set realistic expectations for yourself
and your company. Obviously there are internal and external factors impacting the
speed of buy-in (e.g. industry, company size, state of business, etc.), but below
is a model for helping to position you to set realistic expectations for employee
buy-in.