5-Step Guide to Getting Budget for Your Next Personalization Solution

Those running a successful eCommerce or personalization strategy manage an array of projects and initiatives that need to work in perfect harmony. The goal? To improve the performance of digital channels. The impact? Get that promotion, help your team progress their careers, or prove business impact. Whatever drives you, the overall objective is clear – generate more revenue.

So how can you secure a budget for a personalization solution that will help you achieve your goals, please stakeholders, and show demonstrable ROI? Here’s how you can build your case for a personalization solution.

1. Surface problems and challenges

Any good leader wants to stay in touch with the challenges facing their team. When evaluating solutions to help their team, they also want to know that the investment will pay off.

That’s why it’s important to make a clear business case for any new solution. Start by creating a list of pain points or issues that a personalization solution will directly address and how the solution will result in time or cost-saving efficiencies.

Whether you’re upgrading to an enterprise-level platform from a more basic tool or buying a platform for the first time, the first step in convincing your boss is to present a solution to the problem at hand.

For example: “I wish we had an easy way to create highly personalized experiences for our customers.” Be clear and describe how improved personalization would have improved results on a recent initiative or campaign, and bring some solutions to the table.

2. Highlight the benefits of the investment

Whether you’re contemplating a career change, investing in a new hobby, or switching your personalization software, writing up the pros and cons is an excellent way to evaluate the potential value of the investment.

A pros and cons list gives you an overview of what you might be losing vs. what you gain and how these drawbacks and benefits balance out.

If you aren’t currently using a tool but want to introduce one, you can keep your focus on the benefits. Get specific about how certain features can improve your team’s workflow and how they help your company’s bottom line.

For example, you could describe how a tool that provides enterprise-level recommendations will help us:

• Quickly respond to opportunities (like boosting high-margin items)
• Build better internal relationships with the merchandising team (by keeping a slot in the recommendations container for new product lines)
• Deliver more targeted recommendations that encourage purchases

Or, having a more open, lightweight solution will help us:

• Deliver more personalized, revenue-driving experiences without impacting page performance
• See quick ROI from our investment
• More easily integrate and optimize the rest of our tech stack

3. Predict the concerns

Before you bring a solution to your manager’s desk, do your research. What are your manager and your team measured against? How can you predict and address their concerns? Will the solution address those concerns and help your team meet those goals? A well-researched and considered solution will go a long way to building rapport and trust with a busy manager.

Once it’s time to present the solution to your manager, go prepared with a listening ear. You’ll learn a lot about their concerns from the questions they ask. Any new technology investment is a big decision, so don’t expect an immediate response.

If you don’t get an immediate ‘yes,’ use your time post-meeting to prepare for the follow-up meeting by pinpointing their concerns and how the solution will address them, whether it’s implementation timelines, time or resource concerns, or skepticism about the ROI of the investment.

4. Get buy-in from the team

Ease of use is your ally when getting your team and your manager on your side. If you can demonstrate how the new solution you’re proposing is easy-to-use, intuitive, and will deliver a faster time-to-value (ROI), you can gain buy-in more easily — and make it easier for your team to do their jobs well.

Don’t be fooled by a great marketing strategy. Some solutions will invest heavily in marketing but lack where it matters (Product and Customer Success). Don’t simply take the word of the Sales rep; ask to speak to customer references. Bring the leaders and influencers from your team along to the reference calls to get them involved and allow them to interact with their peers at other businesses.

5. Create an implementation plan

Many managers think switching or implementing new software is time-consuming, risky, and requires too much technical expertise. The thought of files and documents getting lost or processes coming to a halt is enough to dissuade a cautious manager who believes more in maintaining processes than finding new ways to work.

• Give them peace of mind in the investment by creating a comprehensive onboarding and implementation plan.
• Determine beforehand how files will securely transfer and how workflows will remain intact.
• It shouldn’t be that hard to get your boss to say “yes” if you convincingly present your case. It all comes down to how well you’re able to answer the “why?”

Don’t forget that thousands of apps, tools, and solutions out there claim to be quintessential to business organizations. Your boss probably receives daily emails from salespeople promoting their product and is familiar with the tactics used to sell a product that overpromises and under-delivers.

If you do your research, you’ll be able to explain exactly how the tool can make a difference for your team while adding value to the whole company. Once your team is entirely on board, and you have a detailed implementation plan ready, your boss will be as convinced as everybody else is.

At Monetate, our team of experts guides you through the onboarding process. The unique way our architecture and platform are designed allows you to start delivering revenue-generating experiences after just the first easy implementation step to smooth out the process and help to generate fast ROI.

Have questions? Contact our Personalization Experts for more information about Monetate Personalization.