Episode #119. Gaining buy-in is the soft skill, leadership and personal understanding topic of today’s podcast.  Gaining buy-in is a critical skill for marketers, particularly as marketing moves from a support function to one leading the long-term commercial agenda – gaining buy-in and alignment on our strategy and vision is imperative to gain support, investment and resource from the Board to bring these plans to life.  Joining Abby to discuss how marketers approach gaining buy-in is Rachael Wheatley, MD of Watertight Business Thinking. As a strategist, planner, trainer, mentor and coach with 35 years in the marketing profession, Rachael is passionate about marketing-centred business transformation.  In this episode, Rachael shares her definition of buy-in (both for the marketing function and for individuals), the 2 key challenges marketers need to overcome and finding allies. Plus Rachael’s career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Rachael Wheatley | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Stickybeak  It’s time to put the consumer back at the heart of every decision, and thanks to Stickybeak, consumer feedback is at your fingertips. The self-service, affordable, consumer testing platform delivers actionable insights in hours, not weeks! So to find out what your consumers think before you go to market    Visit Stickybeak.co/wholemarketer and use code WHOLEMARKETER for $100 USD off your first test, so you can see how Stickybeak are changing the way marketers work.     The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com