I was speaking to one of our UK members last week who is responsible for data quality in a large public sector organisation. When we got talking about the most useful techniques she has drawn on to mature data quality in her organisation, I got one of the most common responses I hear from senior data quality practitioners: they have had to master the art of internal sales.

Many people mistakenly perceive successful selling as an innate character trait that some people are lucky to be born with. I think most of us, given the choice, would prefer to not be placed in a position where persuasive selling was required. The truth is, whether you’re selling home insurance or data quality, salesmanship is a skill that can be developed by anyone. When mastered, it can become one of the most essential techniques in your data quality leadership toolkit.

One of the principal sales techniques of the data quality leader is to focus on the fear aspect of data quality management, or rather, the lack of data quality management. Human beings are motivated more by fear than gain, which is why in recent decades we’ve become obsessed with buying anti-bacterial soaps, for example.

Typical fear-based selling of data quality may look something like these sales pitches:

• “If we don’t implement a data quality project, we’ll be in breach of regulatory controls.”
• “If you don’t buy a data quality tool on your next integration project, it will come in late and over-budget.”
• “If you don’t implement enterprisewide data quality management, then we can’t mature our data strategy.”

The problem with labouring on fear is that we can often force our senior sponsors to become paralysed when too much fear is applied. We introduce so much risk and doubt in their minds that they simply can’t move forward with any kind of decision, least of all the one we really want – which is some positive data quality action.

To break through this deadlock, there is one thing above all that you must achieve: the removal of doubt.

The reason why most data quality sales falter is that potential backers are consumed by doubts, such as:

• “Can this unproven team really turn this methodology mumbo-jumbo into a profitable return?”
• “Will backing this group expose my own lack of data leadership in the past?”
• “How will the rest of the organisation react to the ‘bad news’ of data quality measurement?”

Your job is to anticipate these doubts in advance and create compelling stories for each of them.

For example, if a sponsor expresses fear and doubt that your team is too young and inexperienced, point them to the results of a pilot that attained dramatic results. If they’re afraid you can’t get buy-in, make sure you have some written (or even recorded) testimonials demonstrating how different levels of the organisation were unsure but became bought-in.

Here are some additional tips and techniques to help you eliminate doubt in the eyes of those unbelieving sponsors you need to motivate into action:

• Want to succeed with data quality? Make it personal
• Addressing the rewards conflict of data quality
• Struggling with sponsorship apathy? Try adopting incremental habits
• Tackling data quality overwhelm head on

Are you struggling with motivating data quality unbelievers into action? Please share your experiences below and perhaps we can discuss some techniques that could work.