How to Get Executive Stakeholder Buy-in for Your Website A/B Testing Program: Selecting Executive Stakeholders

Before even jumping into research, you may be wondering who is the right stakeholder, or set of stakeholders, from whom to get buy-in. Because of the dynamic nature of organizations, myriad possible roles, and varying company size, it’s difficult to give one answer that applies to everyone.

However, here are some tips to help you find the right stakeholders:

1. Determine who has budget responsibility for specific functions (such as digital marketing, IT, and finance) and also for internal tools the company uses.
2. What are the metrics those people use to define success? How do others define their performance? In the end, although we are all measured by different metrics, some are more “data-driven” than others. For example, if one of the stakeholders you are approaching cares deeply for (or is measured by) your company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) metric, then be prepared to talk about how A/B testing, targeting, and personalization can actually improve that NPS score.
3. Determine the optimal number of stakeholders. Though you may have to brief multiple people for buy-in, you may want only one or two of those stakeholders on your “executive sponsor” team. I would suggest that two executive sponsors is the optimal number, with one executive more marketing-focused and the other more finance-focused. That approach creates good contrast and allows for perspective into distinct areas of the business that will support your A/B testing efforts.

Although this planning phase may take a significant amount of time to complete, it will streamline the remainder of the process for getting buy-in. In the next post, we’ll look at how to jump into research.

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