Maybe it was over a bid for investment in a new initiative, an attempt to gain support for particular change or a battle over the scope of an outsourcing deal. When a project hits the buffers, a mediocre chief information officer (CIO) will blame another party.So, the chief executive (CEO) is seen as not understanding the value of IT and obstructive suppliers are just out for all they can grab. But negotiation takes two parties.

And if any CIO finds they are hitting more brick walls than they are knocking down, they must accept some of the blame and seek to understand why. Veteran CIO Des Lee, director of leadership development group Executive Change, says CIOs are moving away from being providers of technical services and are increasingly being asked to perform as change managers. “That requires analytical skills and technical skills, but also communication and political skills. And quite a lot of CIOs are rather deficient in the last two,” he says.

But skills in negotiation – and its inseparable bedfellow, influencing – can be learned and improved. Thankfully, many senior IT leaders are working on their expertise. A recent survey by CIO Connect found blue-chip and public sector CIOs consider skills in influencing and building commitment as their priority for personal development. They also believe such skills are critical for their direct reports.

Contrary to popular belief, however, influencing is not all about Jedi-style mind tricks. Mark Leonard, CIO of Colt Telecom, says IT departments often forget the basics. “First of all, you need to understand all your stakeholders and the influence they have,” he says. “Beyond that, you should discover whether they are advocates of, or more passive towards, technological change. You also need to understand what the business wants or needs – which are not always the same thing. Doing that advance preparation is 90 per cent of the battle.”

Forging relationships

You will not be able to understand people’s demands without talking – and James Sena, consultant at management development company Mast, says CIOs need to build positive relationships with people they want to influence.

“You need to gain their trust and respect so your ideas have credibility. To be influential you need to be connected to other people and have access to information,” he says.

“Do not underestimate the importance of networking within your firm. And when you don’t have a strong relationship or direct link to the decision-maker, indirect influencing - assembling coalitions and building support for ideas - can be valuable.”

Hugo Were, senior executive at Accenture and president of the Management Consultancies Association, says CIOs need to understand likely benefactors. “Work out who would benefit from what you’re proposing and develop them into sponsors before you get anywhere near asking someone to take an investment decision,” he says. “You want them to be thumping on the table on your behalf saying how much they need this.”

But how exactly do you do that, particularly if someone is cynical about IT? Leonard says CIOs need to build trust ¬ and that means not over-promising and being realistic about what IT can actually deliver. “Maybe find a few quick wins that will make a particular difference to the person you’re trying to influence and to their department’s key performance indicators (KPIs),” he says. “If someone is cynical you have to show them something measurable ¬ that is the best way to turn around their opinion.”

Effective bartering

Take Des Lee, who looks back to when he was a technology leader at Brooke Bonde Unilever: “When I first asked for more money in the IT budget, the chief executive said: ‘Do you realise how many Oxo cubes I have to sell to give you that?’ After that, whenever I asked for investment I showed him a picture of the pile of Oxo cubes he’d have to sell, then I showed him a picture of the bigger pile of Oxo cubes he would save if he took what I was offering.”

Lee says shock tactics can also be highly effective. Back when he was CIO of Lloyd’s of London, in the days before the London insurance market had adopted electronic trading, he knew computerisation was critical. “Things had not changed in more than 300 years. I was very worried overseas markets would embrace technology far quicker than us, so I called a conference of all the London broking and underwriting concerns – none of whom had the power to sign off on an electronic trading system, but all of whom had the power of veto,” he says.

“I said I would paint them a picture of what the market would look like in the future, assuming we had this much premium income, that number of disasters, this number of risks and so on. Then I put up a blank slide ¬ the point being if they failed to computerise, they would have no future. I got a lot of flack for that, but it worked ¬ none of them vetoed the investment.”

Constant pressure

The need to be tough in negotiations can be equally important today. Colt’s Leonard says there will always be tension between the tactical and strategic. “The business wants to invest tactically because it brings more immediate benefits, but the IT department knows underlying problems need to be fixed for the longer term,” he says. “So at times you need to be tough in negotiation in an appropriate way – not being dogmatic, just consistent. Sticking to your guns shows you believe in what you say.”

When negotiating with external partners, the need to understand the other party’s motives, drivers and intentions in advance is just as important as it is when you are trying to influence people within the business. As Leonard says, your external partner’s sales organisation will have spent a huge amount of effort understanding how your company works, but we often spend very little time understanding their organisations. “How many times when you’re starting a vendor negotiation do the IT team get the vendor’s company accounts for the past five years and make an effort to understand where they’re making their profit and what their hot buttons are?” he says.

Even if your intention is just to get something for the lowest price, some advance preparation can be invaluable. And when negotiating with external suppliers and partners, both parties -internal and external - must be clear in advance about what type of relationship they want. Accenture’s Were says CIOs need to understand whether they are buying something they can treat as a commodity, or whether they are looking for a true business partner.

“Those conversations are very different and there needs to be clarity on both sides about the type of relationship you will have,” he says. “Both work perfectly well, but if one party thinks they have a business partnership, and the other thinks they have a customer-supplier relationship, there will be problems.”

And if you are hoping for a true business partnership, Were says you will also need to ensure you develop a good relationship before you commit to one another. “You need to develop the relationship through a protracted dating phase where you try things out with one another before you start to cohabit properly,” he says. “You have to build relationships that can withstand very tough negotiations. With any partner there will be some big bumps on the road.”

Irrespective of whether you are talking about internal or external negotiations, effective communication is vital. Chris Roberts, co-founder of leadership coaching firm Harty Roberts and a former corporate CIO, says IT leaders need to remove all the jargon ¬ on both sides. “IT gets a bad press on that front, but divisions such as finance and marketing use just as much specialist jargon. You also need to listen carefully,” he says.

“That doesn’t mean accepting what the other person is saying ¬ you can be very challenging in your questioning as long as it is done in a constructive way. Your goal is to ask questions that raise the awareness of the person you are trying to influence, getting them to understand their own needs. That is a much more successful approach than issuing directives or giving instructions.”

Helen Boothby, negotiation trainer at the Centre for High Performance Development, says negotiating with internal stakeholders tends to involve a more collaborative, strategic approach. Parties then feel they have understood and made reasonable concessions. It is what we call a win/win approach. Companies which treat their external suppliers as valued partners and employ the same approach generally enjoy more benefits,” she says.

In conclusion, Lee says, there is a real skill to negotiation, as well as a structure. “People often try to negotiate point by point. To negotiate successfully you have to get the points on the table at the outset, and know when you are going to draw the line under each,” he says. “That means spending time with the person you’re negotiating with to set the agenda. And each side has to go away with something. It’s all about trading.”