Getting to your decision maker is sometimes the biggest obstacle in making a sale. This individual is crucial, as they may be the only ones who can make the final decision to buy. There are a few ways to determine who they are, and this advice will make it a bit easier to make a sale quickly and with less effort. The best way to speed up and close a sale is by qualifying the decision maker. Read more and use these tactics to qualify who the decision maker is from the start.
All salespeople have encountered those who pretend to be the decision maker. You spend hours, or days, presenting for them to tell you they “have to pass it on to their boss.” You feel defeated, frustrated, and ready to quit, but you reluctantly and powerlessly ask to speak to the boss, and at that point, they shoot a no, and that’s the end. You might get in contact eventually, but it could take months, and you’ve wasted enough time.
Here is where you work smarter, not harder. Use these tactics to qualify who the decision maker is from the start. Begin each conversation by asking if they make the purchasing decisions, and if they don’t, find out who does. This is a simple question they can answer and will save the prospect (and you) from wasting time and energy.
Ask who will be the main contact. Will they be signing the contract? If so, who will be the contact for implementation? You’ll be able to tell by their tone here if they are or are not qualified to make these decisions. They may say, “Jeff signs the contracts” Great — that’s valuable information and your cue to proceed. Respond by asking them to invite the decision maker (who we will call Jeff in this example) to join you for a meeting or call or ask where his office is if you’re there. If they aren’t willing to include Jeff, thank them, ask for Jeff’s contact information, and write it down.
Insist Jeff be included so the timeline and expectations are clear. Continue to express your gratitude for their time and be kind. This person may become your advocate and can help through the sales and implementation process. Never minimize their role — be sure to make them feel essential to the process but focus on finding and speaking to Jeff on the call or in the meeting.
If they aren’t willing to connect you or give you Jeff’s information, thank them and bid them a great day. Use social media, the company’s website, or any contacts who may know Jeff, or the decision maker. Make sure you get their first and last names because you’re going to investigate. LinkedIn is a good start, but these days it’s hard to connect to people you don’t have connections to. You’ll see a list of recommended people from the company on their profile. Visit their profiles and connect. Connect with the person you spoke with initially and anyone willing to connect. People with over 500 connections tend to connect with everyone, so use those first. After making a few connections, you can reach out to Jeff and tell him how much you admire his company and how excited you are to share details about your own innovative product or service with people in Jeff’s industry. To introduce yourself, request a short phone call or meeting.
Once you’re on a call or in a meeting with Jeff, it’s time to start over. Ask if they make purchasing decisions, sign contracts, and who the other stakeholders are. Keep track of everyone’s names and where they are positioned in the decision and implementation process. If Jeff makes decisions with the chief information officer (CIO) and then needs a sign-off from the chief financial officer (CFO), but all decisions over $50,000 must be approved by the chief executive officer (CEO), then you need to ask the questions that will make sure all of this can happen.
Ask Jeff how the process usually works. Is the CIO involved in fact-finding or included once we move into a presentation with a fact-finding brief? Is the CFO included during budgeting conversations, the presentation, or the end? How does the CEO like to be included?
These details will help you be respectful of their process, leading to a smoother sales process. Qualifying the decision maker now will lead to fewer redundant meetings. I’m sure Jeff is busy enough and doesn’t want to be bothered with more calls to clue in the CIO, or CFO on the details. It’s best to take on that heavy lifting for him so that the leadership team knows what they need to know and when.
I started in business-to-business sales, selling phone service and then office supplies. Time was of the essence, and I didn’t have much of it. I had to train someone while interviewing someone else to do the same while hunting down the decision maker in office parks around Orlando. I needed to close as many deals as I could within a few hours so that I could continue to grow my business. Asking questions was the only way to get to the decision maker. Sometimes people pretend to be the decision makers, we call them jokers, and they will waste your time for a laugh. Don’t let that happen to you. It can be intimidating to push through to other people, but this is your livelihood, and these jokers couldn’t care less if you succeeded or failed. Be courageous, polite, and assertive, but above all, get that decision maker qualified and keep pushing until you do.
Read How to Qualify Your Prospect, Overcoming Objections in the Introduction and Getting to the Decision Maker. Subscribe for more business, investing and sales posts, now go make it happen.
