Have you noticed anything here? The internal sales cycle almost directly mirrors the steps you needed to take to get anything done in your organization in the first place. Look at any internal resistance as a need for more information about what needs to be done and why. Sometimes your internal leadership team may seem inflexible (just as a prospective client gets used to saying ‘no’) and requires special handling to move things forward. Your goal is to make this a ‘win/win situation, which it will be if you take the time and effort to listen, be professional and sincere and show real benefit to your internal customers.
Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl build a strong case for using research to sell leadership:
When learning practitioners are gearing up to propose leadership development programs to cost-conscious C-level executives, they typically throw out some combination of the following statements:
• ‘We have a current leadership void.’
• ‘There’s an impending exodus of baby boomers. We need to develop their replacements.’
• ‘Our competitors have an LD program.’
But at the end of the day, those charged with green lighting leadership development programs want to know how their investment will reduce costs or increase revenue. By these standards, the above rationales are far from compelling. There’s one simple way learning executives can bolster the business case for leadership development programs: by using research.
For example, many studies during the past decade have severely discredited the notion that leaders always have a direct impact on performance. A 2001 Harvard Business School study titled “When Does Leadership Matter?” found that in industries where opportunities are plentiful, CEOs often have a very small impact on firm performance. Conversely, in industries where there are limited opportunities, CEOs have a greater impact on firms’ overall performance.
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