Selling. Nick Constable
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of a buying decision. Often, more senior people who make the ultimate decision will rely heavily on people they trust to advise them.
Coach. The term Coach is used to describe someone who, for whatever reason, wants to help you win the business. They may particularly like your company or product, or dislike the alternatives; perhaps they believe that supporting you is the best way to influence the decision. They are a mine of information if you treat them right!
Blocker. The opposite of a Coach, these people will either be positively obstructive, or just never do or say anything useful to help you, perhaps because they are afraid of change, or have some other personal reason not to want you to succeed. They will waste your time, so try to spot them early on!
Technical decision maker. This describes someone with the responsibility of making the product decision first and foremost. Usually, they are middle managers, tasked with evaluating and deciding which technical solution is right for them
Business decision maker. Usually the owner of the business problem or ‘pain’, this person is likely to be a senior manager responsible for the business function(s) that will benefit from your product or service.
Financial decision maker. Usually the Finance Director, this person controls the final decision about whether the money can be spent.
Identify the buying roles of people in a target organization.
2.4 Identify the agents of change
Despite what many salespeople think, it is not always the person with the most senior job title, the biggest office or the largest department who holds true authority in a buying decision. In fact, it may be a mistake to rely solely on people’s job titles as a guide to who wields the authority to buy.
Introducing the Agent of Change. The most important type of all buying roles is someone I’m going to call an Agent of Change. These are often unique individuals within their organization who can make things happen because they not only have enough seniority (which we can identify from their job title), but also possess the personality, drive, insight and motivation to achieve that positive change or improvement in their business.
The natural leaders. Agents of Change have certain personality traits that give them this unique role. In particular, they are people who are prepared to take a calculated risk and have the personal influence to carry their agenda through. You could call them natural leaders, who do not get bogged down in too much detail, but look at the bigger, strategic picture, and are willing to make bold decisions which create change.
one minute wonder Draw a simple graph with X and Y axes. One axis represents the propensity to take risks and create change. The other represents the level of official authority. Now plot your buyers on this graph. Those in the top right hand corner will be most likely to be agents of change.
Why are they so important? Because you can’t sell to someone who won’t change, can’t buy and doesn’t have a vision of the potential value of improving their business. And we can help give them that vision, as it relates to our product or service!
Sometimes known as Foxes. Jim Holden of the Holden Corporation, an international sales training company, calls these strange creatures ‘Foxes’. They can sometimes be disruptive, demanding and quick to make judgements, but they have the advantage of being highly likely to actually do something positive.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people we deal with in business are followers – content to let others take the risky decisions. Selling is about convincing someone to do something different, and it can be hard going if we only ever deal with people who want an easy life, or require proof that every decision they make carries no risk.
Look for the rare individuals who combine authority with a willingness to change.
It’s one thing to have understood the customer’s organization and identified all their buying roles; it’s another actually to form a business relationship with the decision makers, or the Agents of Change.
Ideally, it should be our goal always to seek access to those with the authority to make buying decisions, even though we will also need to form relationships with people in other buyer roles who will influence them. Here are some things to consider in relation to gaining access to those in authority:
Aiming high. It’s far better to make initial contacts at the most senior level possible, and be referred down to others, than to try to reach authority later by relying on other less senior people to refer you upwards. This isn’t always possible, of course. But as a rule, always try to call the most senior person available first.
Delegation. Even if you only get the chance to have a short conversation with the decision maker, and they refer you downwards, they have effectively ‘delegated’ the job of dealing with you, and you have now acquired their authority to move forward!
one minute wonder The next time a prospect asks you to travel a long way to a meeting, make a point of asking for the decision maker to be available when you are there. Explain that you will be gathering information about their business problems, and you want to hear the decision maker’s perspective first-hand.
Escalation. If you’re only dealing with influencers, they will at some point need to ‘sell’ to their superiors. Suggest how you can help them – by asking their permission to make contact directly with the decision maker.
Keeping the decision maker informed. Even if you have never met the decision maker, if they ‘own the business problem’, you can, with justification, call or email them to keep them informed of what you are doing and how it will benefit them. Do this as early as possible in the process, and keep doing it at regular intervals.
Bargaining for access. There will be opportunities during a sales process to negotiate for an introduction to a decision maker. If your buyer asks you to do something for them, can you ask to meet a more senior person in exchange?
Dealing with blockers. If someone is actively blocking your progress towards authority, try going sideways instead. Build alternative relationships and these may open up new paths to the decision makers. Weigh up the risk of going over their heads to the top: annoying them may be less of a problem than losing the whole selling opportunity.
Make every effort to network your way upwards.
You need a range of techniques and skills to find new opportunities in your chosen markets. If you work for a large organization, it can be easy to rely on the Marketing department to generate leads or just to stay in your comfort zone and try to win all your business from existing customers. But I have found that it is best to become self-sufficient in the art of creating opportunities for yourself.
The first thing you need to do is decide exactly what sort of customer you are targeting. Here are the five key questions to ask yourself when defining who your target customers will be.
1 Where are they? Make it easy for your customers to find you, in the real world or online, and target customers that you can reach with minimum time and effort.
2