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training resources selling to the Board
Tips on Selling to the Board
Selling to the Board, or any other situation where you are selling ideas and looking for buy-in and commitment, is similar to external selling. The same principles apply and here are some tips:
Rapport – people buy from people and take time to build rapport with the Board members. Empathise with them and learn about their issues, concerns and needs.
Understand the need – selling is about finding out about the problems, needs and wants of the buyer and providing them with a solution that meets their need. In a corporate environment you are looking to understand the needs of the business, the departments and teams and also the needs of the individual Board members. What are their priorities; what is important to them?
Proposing a solution (pitching) – once you have built rapport and done your research you can present your solution. This may be by paper report, by presentation or by both. Your starting point is to summarise your understanding of the need and try to reflect the language that the business and the Board members use rather than HR and learning and development 'speak'.
Now you can outline your proposed solution and remember to talk in terms of benefits – here is a quick overview:
The Benefit Cycle
The benefit cycle is the process that we use to introduce our solution in a way that demonstrates to our 'buyer' that it will meet their need(s). To use the process we need to understand the difference between a feature and a benefit:
Feature = a characteristic or attribute of a product, service or solution.
Benefit = how a feature meets the specified need of the buyer.
We start the process by stating or summarising the need(s) (remember to use their language) and then introduce the feature or features of your services that meet the needs. You may need to use a link phrase here such as "let me show you how we would address that".
It is imperative that we then quickly move to linking the feature(s) to the benefits using a bridging phrase such as "which means that" or "which gives you".
Finally, we link back to the need, checking their reaction and that our 'buyer' can see how our solution will meet their need.
Commitment – remember at the end to check for feedback using open questions such as "What are your thoughts?" and "How does this sound" and ask for commitment to move forward.
© Written by Jacqueline Harris, Business Development Consultant, KSL Training.
KSL Training have immersed themselves into our business to produce practical, well structured training tools as part of our operational management training framework.
Dee Vassili
Director - Entertainment Company
