“I am not in sales,” she said.

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“I am not in sales,” she said.

“I am not in sales.” That was the gist of a recent response I received when working with a customer of ours. I was doing a follow up to a leadership workshop and some one-on-one coaching. In our conversation, she was truly convinced that, in her role as a Partner Enablement manager, it was NOT necessary for her to understand value articulation. How many of us work with people who, in their roles, honestly feel they are not selling and don’t need to follow a flow when “selling’ their ideas internally and externally? When, in reality, everyone sells.
We all have to sell our ideas.

How many times has this person had to go for budget approval? How about having to convince internal teams to a specific program? In a crowded budget and limited time, how does she get noticed and have her initiatives funded? She needs to sell them!

How can we make it simple for individuals to sell internally? How can we help our prospects who have to sell on our behalf do the same? It all comes down to the easy and familiar outline.

  1. Business Issue (what is the objective?)
  2. Problems (what are the challenges?)
  3. Solution (what do we need to do and how?)
  4. Value (what will be the impact and how does it justify the spend?)
  5. Power (who else needs to be involved?)
  6. Plan (what steps did we go through to get here and what will happen next?)

Yes, you have seen these before, but now let’s make these items internal-facing for a moment to help convey the next big idea. We’ll rename them to demonstrate a softer internal focus, but they are saying the same thing.

  1. Business Objective/Key initiative/Strategic objective
  2. Challenges/Hurdles/Current state
  3. Desired outcome/Solution/Future state
  4. Impact/ROI/Business case/Financial justification
  5. Key players/Team members/Key resources
  6. Timeline/Project plan/Implementation

When we are selling internally, even for potential funding for an investment in a project, we can use the same Framework to link this to “the boss,” the Power Person’s (P&L Owner), or building consensus with an internal team.

Wait, isn’t that what sellers do with their prospects? Huh, looks like we all sell. Leverage the outline to assist in the campaigns.

Best success!

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Scott Anschuetz

As Founder and CEO of Visualize, Scott spearheads the company’s overall strategic direction, planning and execution. Scott has over 25 years of experience in sales and sales leadership, building profitable companies.