Advocacy that happens inside an organisation you never see

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

When you sell to a business, the most important conversations about you happen without you. Somebody describes your work in a meeting, defends the cost to a manager, recommends you to a colleague in another department, or fails to mention you when a related need arises. None of that is visible from outside.

This internal advocacy decides renewals, expansions and whether you are considered for the next project. It depends on one or two people being willing and able to speak for you, and on their having something concrete to say when they do.

Supporting them is a different task from selling to them.

1. Advocacy that happens inside an organisation needs a person who benefits

The first requirement.

Somebody whose own position improves when your work goes well is the one who will speak for you. Identify who that is. Without such a person there is nobody to make the case. It is rarely the most senior person you deal with.

2. Give them something to show

The material requirement.

A short written summary of what was done and what changed can be forwarded internally without editing. Verbal accounts do not survive being passed on. This is the single most useful thing you can supply. One page, no branding, easy to attach.

3. Include the numbers they will be asked for

The practical support.

Cost, timescale, and whatever was measured. Those are the questions their manager will ask. Supplying the answers in advance makes the internal case easy to make. Give the figures plainly rather than favourably.

4. Make them look good, deliberately

The reciprocal interest.

An internal advocate is staking their judgement on you, and visible success repays that. Ensure the outcome reflects well on the person who chose you. This is the whole basis of the relationship. Credit them where credit is due.

5. Find out who else needs to be convinced

The mapping.

There is usually somebody who signs, somebody who uses and somebody who objects. Ask directly who else is involved. Then supply material aimed at each. The objector is worth understanding early.

6. Meet more than one person

The continuity protection.

An advocate who leaves takes the relationship with them unless somebody else knows you. Two contacts is markedly safer than one. This is the commonest way good accounts are lost. Ask to be introduced rather than waiting.

7. Ask what happens internally

The intelligence.

How decisions get made, when budgets are set, who reviews suppliers. Your advocate will usually tell you if asked. Nothing else improves your timing as much. Ask once a year rather than once.

8. Support them when there is a problem

The critical moment.

An internal advocate defending a failure needs facts and a plan quickly, or their position becomes untenable. Respond faster for them than for anybody else. This is when the relationship is decided.

9. Make expansion easy to propose

The growth mechanism.

A ready outline of the next piece of work, sized and priced, lets them raise it without preparation. Most internal proposals fail from effort rather than opposition. Do the work for them.

Be careful about going around your advocate to somebody more senior. It occasionally produces a quicker decision and it reliably damages the relationship with the person whose support you actually depend on for everything afterwards.

Conclusion

Equip the person inside the organisation who has to speak for you.

Identify who benefits when your work succeeds, give them a short forwardable summary with the figures their manager will ask for, make sure the outcome reflects well on them, find out who else is involved in the decision, build a relationship with more than one person, ask how decisions and budgets actually work, respond faster than usual when they are defending a problem, and hand them a ready-sized proposal for the next piece of work.