COURSE OVERVIEW
To be recognized as a strategic internal business partner, you must engage deeply with both individual and organizational performance. Your contributions should align with the organization’s strategy and design. Effective business partners operate across multiple levels—individual, team, business unit, organization, and cross-organizational. Success depends not on performing tasks alone, but on influencing outcomes, guiding performance, and supporting others to achieve organizational objectives.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completing this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand how department heads and internal customers develop needs
• Recognize the internal customer’s decision-making and “buying” process
• Align themselves strategically with the customer’s psychological buying phases
• Handle risk-related objections effectively
• Demonstrate understanding of the internal customer’s business
• Encourage internal customers to acknowledge and focus on problems you can address
• Diagnose business problems in a way that leverages your capabilities
• Establish credibility and gain access to line executives

TARGET AUDIENCE
This program is designed for business partners responsible for leading, negotiating, and building rapport with internal teams, managing change, and implementing strategic objectives. It is also highly beneficial for professionals who must influence and get work done through others without formal authority.

TRAINING METHODOLOGY
This practical, results-oriented program is based on adult learning principles. Facilitators provide structured input, followed by discussion, exercises, role play, and hands-on practice. The course includes ample time for Q&A and action planning to apply learning in the workplace. Pre- and post-course assessments are used to measure skill development and training effectiveness.

COURSE CONTENTS

Module 1 – Business Partnership Skills

• Focus: Understanding the role and responsibilities of a business partner
• Key Topics:
  • Challenges in consulting, selling, and persuasion
  • Identifying internal customer problems
  • Role and responsibilities of business partners
  • Managing personal behavior in a partnership role
  • Principles of effective consulting partnership
  • Understanding customer “buying” behavior and levels of need
  • Organizational interdependence
  • Working effectively with sponsors and decision-makers

Module 2 – Understanding Your Audience

• Focus: Learning the expectations and behaviors of internal customers
• Key Topics:
  • Dynamics of the buyer’s decision cycle
  • Addressing objections throughout the buying phases
  • Aligning consulting behavior with the buyer’s process
  • Anticipating customer behavior
  • Closing without pressure and creating a shared vision
  • Developing solutions for complex problems with intangible capabilities
  • Conducting thorough needs assessments
  • Leading the customer toward an agreed-upon vision

Module 3 – Leading, Motivating, and Securing Strategic Alignment

• Focus: Applying theory through practical exercises
• Key Topics:
  • Strategic alignment
  • Preparing and conducting initial meetings
  • Positioning statements and meeting objectives
  • Transitioning into vision creation
  • Encouraging customers to recognize and own problems
  • Problem diagnosis
  • Presenting capabilities and solutions
  • Closing meetings and planning next steps

Module 4 – Buyer Qualification

• Focus: Qualifying and managing internal customers effectively
• Key Topics:
  • Internal customer qualification
  • Managing the internal “sell” cycle
  • Proposal preparation and definition
  • Accessing the real decision-makers
  • Controlling the sell cycle with effective communications
  • Applying key consulting steps by phase
  • Competitive strategies
  • Using customer language to build tactical tools

Module 5 – From Theory to Implementation

• Focus: Translating course concepts into practical application
• Key Topics:
  • Negotiation skills for internal stakeholders
  • Overcoming emotional hurdles for both buyer and business partner
  • Planning and negotiating the sell cycle
  • Five components of cost justification using a structured model
  • Maximizing in-house resources and technical expertise
  • Collaborating with third-party consultants
  • Course summary, review, and action planning