How To Find the REAL Decision-Maker
Corporations have complex power structures. It's not always clear who makes the decisions, and how they get made. In many firms, even middle management isn't sure exactly how decision are made, which presents a huge challenge for a sales professional.
If you're developing a complex deal that involves something new (a new type of automation process for instance), it can be difficult to identify the exact senior executive who should be heavily involved evaluating, deciding or approving the decision.
Most sales professionals wrongly believe that the decision-maker is the person who has final sign-off. But that's actually naive. The real decision-maker is going to be the the person who will care enough to put your project into motion and who has enough influence to make sure that the purchase actually goes through.
This REAL decision-maker will have direct involvement, influence and vested interest in a venture's successful outcome, plus sufficient rank and power to affect the results. To find this holy grail of B2B selling, simply research the firm (on the Web and through interviews) to discover the person with the following six characteristics:
- A job title that is relevant to the area that your offering addresses.
- A position on the org chart that is relevant to the area your offering addresses.
- A history of being a successful leader within the organization, implementing similar projects.
- A reputation among other executives in the firm as a genuine contributor to the firm.
- A reputation for being closely bound to others in the organization "by mutual advantage."
- Sufficient influence to control company events and activities and to alter the firm's status quo.
The above is based upon a conversation with Dr. Steve Bistritz and Nicholas A.C. Read, authors of the HUGE bestseller Selling to the C-Suite.
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