4/11/2024-Don’t be a ghost inside your org.

It takes a village to operate a business, and all those people in the home base don’t solely work for you. Your teammates are family and deserve as much respect as your prospects and clients.

In this space yesterday, the focus was on soliciting the encouragement you need from your manager.

Today is about getting the internal support you need to continue opening and closing opportunities.

Whether solution ideas, proposal construction, or strategy assistance are what you need, you depend on a team of folks who are needed to produce.

You probably don’t have a problem raising your hand for internal service, but don’t misjudge how your emails will prompt action by your teammates.

Text "Susie" on your solutions team and request a chat…she’s the one who rarely responds to your emails (even though you write in the subject header: "URGENT, DEADLINE 2 HRS.")

Pin Susie down to a F2F meeting time when you both can strategize over the Acme proposal.

Just because you’re charming and pleasant to everyone in your company doesn’t mean your support team drops everything when your notes hit their box.

It’s easy to feel that the entire organization should support you every step of the way toward your revenue goal. After all, you’re on the front line, and the fire is hot! And, there are all these people back at home base doing… what exactly? What are they doing to help you close deals?

It takes a village to operate a business, and all those people in the home base don’t solely work for you. While it sometimes feels deflating because you’re sprinting and they appear to be jogging, you must still figure out how to slow down so you can appeal to each of them individually.

There’s an old maxim in the sales business: treat your internal team like clients, and you’ll get everything you need.

Developing your presence and voice inside your org has everything to do with how you approach and treat your teammates. They may not be your real clients by name, but they deserve as much respect as the clients who send in the money.

Getting attention in your org isn’t entirely based on the comms mode you use; it’s about developing a stronger presence.

And a big part of that is your voice.

In this outstanding Ted Talk, Roger Love, one of the world’s leading authorities on voice, says the words we say hardly matter. (Whoa!) The sound of our voices and how we make people feel are infinitely more important.

Roger has spent years coaching professionals and celebrities, and if you let him, his messages may coach you to a stronger internal presence.