Gaining executive buy-in for an IWMS can be challenging, but the right approach makes all the difference. This playbook helps RE&FM professionals align their projects with leadership goals, address objections, and build a compelling case for success. Learn how to engage stakeholders, shift from arguments to strategic questions, and turn sceptics into supporters.
Regardless of the project, getting executive buy-in is tough. RE&FM professionals clearly see the impact an IWMS will have on their company’s goals: more efficient operations, cost savings, smooth scaling, faster revenue income, happier talent, and fewer cyber vulnerabilities. The list of benefits is long. But few executives are familiar with the competitive edge the company could gain from such a system. And large-scale IT deployments, even in the age of SaaS and API integrations, tend to raise a fear of delay and cost overruns in the most open-minded of leaders.
So, how to build buy-in for your IWMS? This playbook, inspired from years of pitching projects to the C-suite, will help maximize your chances of success.
1. Know your stakeholders
Identify who plays a role in the decision and understand what drives them: their goals, challenges, constraints, frustrations, etc. A company is ultimately just a group of people, and each leader is a person first. Dig into what matters to them. For example, the Head of Retail might care a lot about store employees' well-being because she started her career as a clerk.
If possible, also map out who holds influence over the decision-makers. The CFO, for instance, might have more sway with the CEO on IT projects than the CIO, who only recently joined the company.
2. Align with their vision
Avoid the urge to convince. Arguments, no matter how compelling, often strengthen resistance. Instead, use strategic judo: align your project with the existing priorities of each stakeholder you need to win over. If your initiative doesn’t support their vision, it won’t gain traction.
This requires – sincerely and genuinely – figuring out whether and how your project can help them achieve their vision. If it can’t, you won’t gain their support. But if you can establish a connection between implementing an IWMS and what they’re trying to accomplish: you’ll have their ear.
3. Separate needs from strategies
As humans, we implement strategies to fulfil our needs. Conflict and misalignment between people always occur at the level of strategies, never at the level of needs. To be effective, you’ll need to uncover your stakeholders' underlying needs, which are often hidden behind their strategies.
Let’s take the example of Bob and Alice:
Alice is the Head of Real Estate & Facilities Management (RE&FM). Her team in Europe is overwhelmed with work and in desperate need of a maintenance system now. Teams in other regions still have a reasonable workload. Alice therefore champions the immediate implementation of a regional CMMS for quick impact and relief.
Bob is the Head of IT. His expressed strategy is to minimize the number of systems in use. He refuses Alice approach, and they end up in a frustrating deadlock.
But when needs are clearly identified, it becomes possible to find solutions that work for everyone involved. Bob’s actual need is to achieve cost control, simplicity of maintenance, and a seamless integration of the complete IT ecosystem. Limiting the number of systems is just one way to accomplish this goal. An IWMS built on an open platform, with maintenance automatically performed online by the provider, and a licence model that optimizes TCO would equally well meet Bob’s needs.
What Alice really wants is to be on top of all maintenance activities while getting her team members home in time for family dinner every night. A local system is just one path to achieving this result. However, a modular IWMS, with maintenance management capabilities that can first be deployed in the European region, better addresses her core need.
With this in mind, Bob & Alice might for example agree on a phased IWMS rollout that meets Alice’s urgent needs while aligning with Bob’s IT roadmap.
When you can’t see eye to eye with another stakeholder, uncover their (and your!) underlying needs. This will help everyone move beyond their strategies and collaborate on brainstorming a "win-win" solution that meets all needs.
4. Paint the situation
Collect data and craft compelling narratives about the situation you are aiming to transform. To drive change effectively, take a two-pronged approach:
A TOP-DOWN APPROACH: Communicate missed targets, wasted investments, and trends. Highlight the amplified impact when key events occur or strategies unfold, translating these into missed cost savings, wasted headcount, and lost revenue like the examples below:
We lose ~5 hours / week in each country to manual FM follow-up work. If we open 500 extra stores, this jumps to 9 hours. Globally, that’s equivalent to paying 4 full-time employees just to manage inefficiencies.
Store opening projects rely on scattered Excel sheets, making it challenging to report, follow up, and standardise operations. As a result, store openings take 14 weeks instead of the 9 weeks they would with a standardised process. That’s approximately €100K in lost revenue per new store, multiplied by 200 new stores – equaling €20 million in missed revenue this year.
Keeping RE&FM data automatically synchronized across 5 regional CMMS, along with our financial, BI, and HR systems, would require 15 integrations. By reducing the number of integrations to just 3, we could save between €300K and €600K.
Consolidate your findings in a short statement at company level:
Every year, fragmented information and regional systems in our facility management & real estate operations create inefficiencies that cost us ~€1 million in wasted headcounts and ~€20 million in lost revenue.
If we don’t address this issue, increasing our store count by 250% will amplify the burden to €4 million annually in wasted headcount and €100 million in lost revenue due to over 1,000 delayed store openings.
A BOTTOM-UP APPROACH: Collect testimonials from employees, clients, and partners about inefficiencies, frustrations, and waste. Demonstrate how these issues affect turnover, customer satisfaction, reputation, and more, as shown in the examples below:
"All I do is put out fires. I’m chasing down busted equipment, delays, and subcontractors who don’t have what they need – without a real way to track any of it."
"Work orders pile up, and I have no idea if they’ve been logged, approved, or just disappeared. HQ keeps demanding reports on KPIs we can’t track because the data is buried in texts, emails, and scattered spreadsheets. I dig through paperwork instead of getting work done."
"We’re expanding fast, but with the constant pressure to do more with less, I’m drowning in work. I can’t wait 2 years for HQ to come up with an over-engineered solution. I need a new system now, something simple and ready to go, before things spiral out of control.“
5. Paint a vision of tomorrow
With what you’ve learned of your stakeholders, paint a sensory-rich image of what life could be like with an IWMS in place – focusing on their goals (not yours!!). What may seem obvious to you might not even be on their radar. They may not have realized this was even a possibility.
So don’t just say:
An IWMS would make us 17% more efficient and has an ROI of +673% over 5 years.
Also say:
We are no longer pushing for growth – we are executing it. Opening 200 stores a year feels like business as usual, not an endless battle that drains our key people.
With all data in one place, we see the full picture. We can pinpoint root causes of delays, double down on what drives success, and make expansion more efficient and profitable. Teams across RE, FM, Finance, PMO, and Retail cooperate beautifully; decision-making is faster and sharper.
We have streamlined our tech stack, replacing multiple systems with one. That means fewer integrations, lower IT costs, and stronger cybersecurity. Most importantly, we’ve locked in the fundamentals: store openings follow a proven blueprint, and our store employess feel again that they work for the coolest brand around.
And the system even supports the next item on our agenda: improving sustainability.
6. Uncover objections
The true objective of the entire case you’ve built is not to convince your counterparts, it’s to uncover their objections. If you’ve made an inspiring case for an IWMS that’s in line with their goals, there are only two reasons they’re not yet onboard:
They either don’t believe what you’re saying (in which case you’ll need to bring reliable proof in the form of case studies and testimonials).
- An example is that they’re not familiar with the newest technologies and don’t believe that integrations can be as easily, cost-effectively & quickly executed as what you’ve expressed.
Or they believe it, but don’t trust that this result is possible for the company (in which case you’ll need to figure out why).Examples of “this won’t work for us” objections:
- They’ve implemented a large IT system in a previous role, and the sting of that project’s failure still burns deep
- They’re driving secret acquisition discussions with another company who already has an RE&FM system in place, one that could be expanded to your operations
- The new system would automate certain authorization procedures, and they’re afraid they will lose control over spending
Once you identify the real hurdle, addressing it becomes easier (or at least less difficult). You can gather evidence, build support, and engage in discussions that will help you overcome it.
Remember that often, all you need is for others not to actively oppose your project. You don't need their full support – just their neutrality. Getting critics to agree not to drive opposition is sufficient, especially when you have champions who can advocate for your project.
What could you achieve by shifting from statements to asking the right questions?
When we want to make a case, our instinct is to use statements and arguments. All that ever achieves is to rigidify everyone in their pre-existing opinions. People become defensive or focus on what they want to answer as soon as you finish talking.
Instead, ask questions! This shows your interest and helps uncover why the person thinks the way they do. It subtly acknowledges them and reveals the underlying factors behind their lack of support. Addressing a clear reason is easier than responding to a vague “no.”
But asking questions isn’t enough—you need to ask the right ones. Yes/no questions are often unhelpful, and questions that support the position you're against don’t move the conversation forward. "Why" questions can come off as confrontational. Instead, focus on asking questions that encourage exploration of the reality you want to create.
Examples:
✓ Do you think this system will help you reach your target? (yes/no)
✓ What are all the ways you think the proposed system won’t work? (finds more reasons to be against your proposal)
✓ Why don’t you agree with the conclusions of the business case? (confrontational)
✓ What would you need to see to feel confident in the new system?
✓ What are the biggest operational risks that you see, related to RE&FM; and why?
✓ Where do you feel you lack visibility needed to make better decisions or act faster?
✓ As we double in size, what would be the impact of not having a unified system for tracking maintenance, leases, and facilities?
Curiosity, confidence in your solution, and a genuine desire to support the C-suite’s goals are your most powerful tools for securing buy-in for your IWMS project. I’d love to hear how this playbook works for you in your organization. Let me know if you want to discuss how to apply this playbook to your specific case!
Feel free to contact us for personalised guidance and support - we are happy to help!