The Internal Influencer: How to Advance Your Goals Within a Big Company

Read Time: 4 minutes.

The Uphill Battle Every Leader Faces

You know your area could drive massive value for the organization.

You have the data, the vision, and the plan.

But you're stuck in endless meetings, explaining the same concepts to different people, watching competitors move faster while you're still building internal consensus.

The challenge: How do you get organizational support for something that isn't the organization's primary focus?

The answer isn’t shouting louder or going rogue.

The answer: Strategic connection.

The Funnel Framework

Every organization is a funnel. It all flows in support of the mission.

Your job is to connect your success to their success.

Example: Basketball at a highly-academic institution isn't the mission. It's a top-of-funnel lever that drives awareness, which drives up applications, which drives up selectivity, which drives up rankings.

It’s a key step in a virtuous cycle that supports the mission. Success on the court can elevate the classroom.

Your Question: How does your area's success directly contribute to the organization's primary objectives?

Your Positioning: "We're not asking you to choose between [primary focus] and [my area]. We're showing you how [my area] accelerates [primary focus] goals."

Embrace The Algorithm

Stop thinking about your area as separate from organizational success. Start thinking about it as a high-leverage component in the organization's algorithm.

The Framework:

1. Identify the primary metric the organization cares about most

2. Map your contribution to that metric

3. Quantify the leverage your area provides

4. Position yourself as essential to the algorithm

Example: "This isn't separate from our core mission. Here’s how we act as a multiplier that makes everything else more effective."

Education vs. Convincing

Most internal advocates try to convince people their area is important instead of educating them on how it works.

Education builds understanding. Convincing creates resistance.

Education Approach:

• "Here's how our industry works..."

• "Here's what our competitors are doing..."

• "Here's how this connects to your priorities..."

Convincing Approach (Avoid):

• "You should care about this because..."

• "This is really important..."

• "We need more support..."

If you lay our the dots thoughtfully, they’ll connect them.

Now it’s their story, not yours.

Leverage One-to-Many Moments

Stop having the same conversation repeatedly with different people.

The Solution: Host one comprehensive education session.

Format:

• 20 minutes: How your area works, industry context, competitive landscape

• 10 minutes: Q&A

• Record everything

• Send recording to future questioners

Follow-up: "Were you at the session? If not, here's the recording. Let's connect once you’ve had a chance to watch it."

Bonus: Record everything. Calls become scripts. Meeting become small clips. Everyone with a business objective is a media company.

The Opportunity Frame

When requesting resources, choose your positioning carefully:

Bottleneck Frame: "We can't succeed without this"
Opportunity Frame: "This unlocks disproportionate value"

The opportunity frame connects to growth rather issuing an all-or-nothing ultimatum.

Instead of: "We need more budget to avoid falling behind"
Try: "This investment puts us ahead of 80% of competitors and creates sustainable advantage"

The Borrowed People Strategy

You don't always need more full-time resources. Sometimes you need access to the right expertise at the right time.

The Approach:

1. Identify needed expertise (marketing, analytics, operations)

2. Find people in other departments with that expertise and occasional capacity

3. Offer value in return (cross-functional experience, skill development)

4. Make it easy for their manager (clear scope, limited time, mutual benefit)

Just One Step

Pick one key stakeholder who doesn't understand your area's value.

Instead of trying to convince them it's important, educate them on how it works and connects to their priorities. Record it.

Because internal influence isn't about being the loudest voice in the room.

It's about connect what you care about to what they care about.

Do that, and they’ll do the selling for you.

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Thank you for reading. Appreciate you!

Dave