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Last year, over on the e-Sourcing Wiki, I brought you The Quest for Purchasing Fire, a twelve step guide to selling sourcing and procurement initiatives internally in your organization. Last month, the SSON published the top ten tips for ensuring buy-in from the top, which complements the wiki-paper nicely. Because you have to:

• Have a Compelling Business Case
  Anything less than a complete, finely detailed, business case with backed-up ROI calculations and you're just asking for rejection from an executive with too many time requests and a need to kill some as quickly as possible.
• Create a Sense of Urgency
  If you can't demonstrate why the organization can't wait to take advantage of your cost saving initiative, it will likely get put on the back burner
• Understand Your Organization's Internal Processes
  Go through the channels and make sure not to offend anyone who could cause trouble if not included.
• Be Open and Honest About Endeavors
  Be honest about past mistakes and any shortcomings you may have and how you plan to correct them with this initiative.
• Keep Company Staff in the Project
  Not only do many organizations still distrust consultants, but getting company staff involved early is key to obtaining buy in.
• Maintain a Tight Focus
  You're not trying to save the world ... so don't tackle everything at once.
• Be Bold Where it Counts
  Even though you're not trying to save the world, be sure to have a plan that aims high with respect to the problems you are tackling.
• Give Examples from Beyond the Organization
  Demonstrating how similar projects have helped your competitors will go a long way towards alleviating fears of the unknown.
• Demonstrate Your Risk Awareness
  Every project involves risk ... be sure to address all of the likely, and unlikely risks to let management know that you're aware of the risks and actively taking steps to mitigate them.
• Highlight the Compliance Benefits
  As the article says, pull up your SOX.