Precedent Determines the Real Decision Maker
It is truly amazing how young children can intuitively know which parent has the power to consent to their requests and which teachers have the power and can be influenced. Frankly, they know which adults, in general, are willing to do what they want. So why can't salespeople properly identify the person at the prospective customer truly has the power to agree to a deal?
Let's back up for a second ... salespeople tend to gravitate to people that provide hope to the salesperson for a possible deal and consciously or subconsciously avoid people that are likely to reject the sales overture. Essentially, the salespeople are glad to speak with anyone who claims to have the power to buy and hope that the person is totally truthful and can actually sign the contract. Sometimes, the person's title provides adequate hope. Sometimes, the person will even explain the reason and timing for a deal, much to the delight of the salesperson.
So what could go wrong? The salesperson's belief in this person is often not based on historical fact. For example, does this person have the authority to sign, even if his/her title is CEO? Perhaps the deal is significant enough to require Board of Directors approval. Has this person ever signed for an equivalent amount of money? Often, even senior executives have a dollar limit to their buying authority.
All too often in the end, the person the salesperson regards as the decision maker is really merely a coach (or sponsor). While we always need a coach in our deals, the coach most likely is a different person than the decision maker. Despite the perceived risk of confronting our coach with regard to his/her buying authority, we need to understand on a detailed level both the buying process (which is different than the selling process) and the decision process.
In determining the real decision maker, we need to understand whose money it is and who is responsible for the budget associated with our project. If there is not a budget for our project, do not despair; if our business case is compelling and unique to our offering, the actual decision maker will reallocate money for our project.
This executive sponsor relationship needs to be more than a casual meeting; we need to be able to call this person at any time during the sales cycle (particularly during legal negotiations) and get guidance and support. There is a limit to what our coach can do, so we need this executive relationship to help pave the way for us.
Ultimately, most SaaS enterprise software sales cycles need to include a coach (day to day "go to" person), and executive sponsor (whose money is it?) and an IT enabler (while IT is often a blocker, we, at least need to mitigate that threat and find support from integration and speed to benefit standpoints — eliminating internal development as a competitor).
Like our kids, we need to rely on precedent to determine the real decision maker in our deals. What else has this person bought? Why does this project matter (professionally and personally) to him/her? What is driving the timing of the deal (compelling event; "Why now?" and "What happens if I don't?"). While kids know these answers intuitively, enterprise salespeople need to develop muscle memory for uncovering the real decision maker. Certainly, our deal is not happening in our desired timeframe without knowing this critical detail.
If your enterprise SaaS sales team struggles with developing relationships with the decision makers and relies too much on the coaches, email dave@moicpartners.com or leverage MOIC Pipeline Grader to institutionalize this process.
Virtual Dave is an AI-based virtual sales support tool trained on 40 years of enterprise software sales experience, available 24/7 to enhance sales process consistency.
