Training on Strategic Internal Business Partner

Module 1: Business Patronship Skills

• Consulting, selling, and persuasion difficulties of participants

• Identifying where internal customers are having problems

• Background to the role and responsibilities of business partners

• Managing your behavior as a business partner

• Basic principles of being a consultant business partner

• How people/departments “buy” and their levels of need

• Organizational interdependence

• Work with sponsors and decision makers

• Case Study: Navigating internal consulting challenges in a complex organization

Module 2: Understanding Your Audience

• Shifting concerns throughout the ‘buy’ cycle

• Phases of the buying process

• Addressing buyer objections by phase

• Alignment of buying and consulting behavior

• Staying in alignment throughout the cycle

• Anticipating the buyer’s behavior

• Closing without closing and vision creation

• Developing solutions when the buyer has complex problems and you have intangible capabilities

• Conducting a thorough diagnosis of needs

• Leading the buyer to an agreed vision

• Case Study: Diagnosing internal client needs and aligning solutions with organizational priorities

Module 3: Leading, Motivating and Securing Strategic Alignment

• Strategic alignment

• Initial meeting introduction

• Meeting objective and your positioning statement

• Transition into vision creation

• Getting buyer to admit and own their problem or needs

• Problem diagnosis

• Vision creation and your capability statement

• Close the meeting and agree on further exploration

• Case Study: Leading an internal client meeting to secure alignment on a major initiative

Module 4: Buyer Qualification

• Buyer (internal customer) qualification

• Negotiating the ‘sell’ cycle

• Proposal definition

• Gaining access to the real decision maker

• Sell cycle control emails

• When to use key consulting steps

• Consulting activity by phase

• Competitive strategies

• Building tactical competitive tools using the language of your internal customer

• Case Study: Qualifying internal clients and navigating organizational decision-making hierarchies

Module 5: From Theory to Implementation

• Negotiation skills

• Buyer’s and the business partner’s emotional hurdle

• How to negotiate the ‘sell’ cycle in advance

• The five components of cost justification using a specific cost justification model

• How to maximize utilization of technical and other in-house resources

• How to work with third-party consultants

• Course summary and review

• Case Study: Implementing a business partnership strategy from diagnosis to execution

• Practical Exercise: Simulate an internal consulting engagement including negotiation and cost justification