Spending Time with the Real Decision Makers
When we pursue a new opportunity, we sometimes fall into the trap of spending our precious time with the stakeholders that are the easiest to meet with, but almost always have the least power and ability to make a decision. And granted, these people can be great advocates and coaches for us and may even have a lot of influence in some accounts/opportunities. Generally speaking, however, they are doing their research and they clearly need you to do their job (evaluating options) but not necessarily because they want you to win. They may simply want information from you to help them prove that your solution is not the preferred solution.
So today’s “Sales Idea”: If you want to increase your chance of winning (and remember…the dreaded “do nothing” may be the biggest competitor you will face), you have to gain the support and the votes of some key executive champions.
In general, for your solution to get funded in today’s challenging economy, you MUST have one or more powerful, credible champions who are willing to personally vouch for your solution. They can’t just be interested…they have to be committed. When the financial or operational executive questions the expense, your champion(s) must be willing to sometimes literally stand in the line of fire. If not, “do nothing” will win after you have spent lots of time in an account, utilized a lot of other sales-related resources and thought that you had a lot of momentum.
Good selling!