Happy Friday, everyone!
Recently I’ve come across two pieces that highlight how important it is for sales reps to make sure that they are actually talking to the decision-maker (or decision-makers plural, as the case may be). One is a blog post from our friend and sales consultant Phil Bernstein, You’re Not Talking to the Decision-Maker, and the other is an article by Radio Ink contributor Wayne Ens, (SALES) Death of the Decisionmaker. So here is this week’s poll question, in two parts:
1) How often do you have to present to more than one decision-maker?
2) Have you ever discovered late in the sales process that you were not talking to the actual decision-maker, and if so, what did you do?
Looking forward to reading your replies!
Only a few times have I had someone pose as the decision maker, only to tell me after three calls on them that I need to speak to their supervisor. The worst I get is when the client I have been talking to all week finally says "I will need to go over this with my wife..." THAT is NEVER a good sign. Whenever they say they need to talk it over with the wife, it's always a "No".
I've had that happen just last month. Our company also has a digital division and my client does not have a website or any online presence. After he agreed to our proposal, he wanted to share with his business partner, wife of 30 years what he was doing.
Need to meet with both of them. Waiting for the meeting, but frankly not sitting around and waiting. Too many others to take care of
Presenting to more than one decision maker is easy if you know from the beginning who is involved and have them participate in the process.
That's why I almost always ask upfront, who has the power to say yes and who has the power to say no when we begin the process.
Usually I get the bad news at the end of the meeting.
"Well, that's all very good. I will show this to my boss."
Often as not the boss never takes a meeting and uses the first person as a screener. When the boss says NO, he has his assistant tell you "Quite Frankly, ...
I hate "Quite Frankly's
