Training on Strategic Internal Business Partner

To be noticed as a strategic business partner you must become deeply involved in matters of individual and organization performance. To contribute to performance, the way you work must fit with the strategy and design of the organization. Effective business partners operate at multiple levels of analysis: at the individual, work group, business unit, organization and cross-organizational levels. You must not be an individual performer; you must contribute to the development and performance wherever it is strategically important in your business area. You must also have a good understanding of industry trends and competitive issues.

This course is designed to provide business partners with the skills and knowledge that will enable you to successfully partner and consult for organizational performance and ensure that you add tangible value. Participants will gain insight into their personal leadership, communication and ability to ‘sell’ and ‘persuade’ the value you can provide to internal customers. You will learn the latest strategies that leading organizations use today for building high performing business partners. The goal of this seminar is to help participants understand the new role business partners should make for themselves and tackle its implementation.

Course Duration

5 Days

Who Should Attend

• Business partners responsible for leading, influencing, and negotiating with internal teams

• Professionals tasked with managing change or implementing strategic objectives

• Individuals who must get results through others without direct formal authority

• Consultants and advisors within organizations seeking to enhance their strategic impact

Organizational Impact

• Strengthens alignment between business partners and organizational strategy

• Enhances performance across teams, departments, and business units

• Promotes a culture of collaboration, influence, and effective internal consulting

• Drives measurable improvements in strategic objectives and business outcomes

Individual Impact

• Builds leadership, communication, and influencing skills

• Enhances ability to persuade and add tangible value to internal stakeholders

• Improves strategic thinking and understanding of organizational performance

• Equips participants to operate as trusted advisors and high-impact business partners

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Know how needs develop in the mind of department heads
• Know how internal customers make the decision to “buy”
• Know how to strategically align yourself to the “buyer’s” psychological buying phases
• Know how to handle risk objections
• Convince the internal customer that you understand their business
• Get the internal customer to admit and focus on problems you can address
• Diagnose business problems with a bias toward your capabilities
• How to gain access to and establish credibility with line executives

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