Selling Safety Part II: Building the Business Case

Salespersonship is an often overlooked skill for occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals, but its importance is equal to hazard recognition and risk assessment for effective implementation of controls. In part one of “Selling Safety”, we discussed how OSH professionals can begin to have more effective salespersonship by improving skills for influential conversations, identifying safety’s value, and aligning that value to the motivations of organizational stakeholders. In part two, we will review the highlights from part one, then move to how to practically build a business case. Building a business case is essential to have more effective conversations with organizational leadership, and it requires identifying and qualifying opportunities for improvement, determining potential solutions, evaluating return on investment, and constructing a sound proposal for implementation.