The Internal Sell: Above The Line Opportunities

Performance Enabler: Treat the internal sell as an important part of the overall sell.

It is not enough to have qualified, perhaps even shaped, a program where you have a reasonable if not better chance of award than your competitors.  Let’s not forget the all-important internal competition, designed to sort out what is best for the Mother Ship.  Most companies, through pre-established bid and proposal (B&P) funding pools, have a set amount of funds that can be expended on the totality of program pursuits.  When that pool is exceeded, funding comes straight from the bottom line – profit.  You do not want to dip into that sacred pool so B&P expenditures are carefully monitored and doled out to only the most deserving, those at the top of the pursuit list or “above the line” as I often refer to them.

Much like the music charts where you have the Top 10 songs, an organization has a finite set of opportunities it can pursue, or be in the Top 10 so to speak, or as many opportunities as you can squeeze in given B&P funding.  Those that continue below the line and do not gain traction are left far behind.  You want as many of your own songs, in this case opportunities, to be in the Top 10, or whatever the magic number is.

Programs generally do not start out in the Top 10.  To have opportunities not in the Top 10 is OK as long as they are on a glide path to get to the Top 10, just as happens in the music industry.  Getting to the Top 10, and staying there for the actual bid is about selling just as hard internally as externally.  Many of the same selling activities come into play.  As with the external sell, trust is paramount.  Internal champions are every bit as important as external champions.  The internal sell is regimented, often taking considerable time.  But the two “sells” deviate.  Key metrics are different.  The internal sell focuses on benefits to the corporation, metrics the client could care less about.