ay, when you submit your invoice, who will have to sign off on it in order for you to get paid? That person is the decision-maker. Never lose sight of that target. That’s not to say that you want to just exclusively focus on influencing him or her. That would short sighted. Decisions are not made in a vacuum and any good decision-maker is going to want input from those who are likely to be impacted by the decision to buy your product or service.

How do we identify the decision-makers? One method that we will discuss in more detail later, is to purchase contact names from a list b

One of the challenges that many business developers face is getting to the key decision-maker. The issues are very common. “I don’t know who the decision-maker is.” “I get intimidated by dealing with a senior level person.” “I don’t have credibility with people at that level.” “All her calls are screened.” When we look at these challenges we find that they fall into three major categories.

First, you may be having difficulty identifying the decision-maker. Secondly, you may be blocked from getting to the person who can really make the decision. Third, many people feel anxious or uncomfortable when they’re actually in front of a senior level decision-maker. We’ll discuss strategies to help you in all three of these areas.

Let’s talk about the first area, identifying the decision-maker. Think about the people at your prospective client as falling into one of two groups. The first is the decision-maker. This may be a single individual, or if you sell a variety of products, there may be multiple decisions-makers. The decision-maker is the one who can, as the name would indicate, actually make the decision to buy your product or use your services.

The second, and much larger group, includes supervisors, users of the product and technical experts. We’ll refer to this second group by the acronym S(supervisors)-U(users)-TE (technical experts) or SUTEs. These are people who can influence the purchasing decision but don’t actually have the authority to make the decision. That doesn’t mean that they’re not important. However, their needs are different than those of the decision-maker, and we will need to cultivate our relationships with them differently. It’s important that we don’t get confused about who does what. Those who claim they are the decision-maker often do so in the hopes that we won’t circumvent the process by going over their heads. Others claim to be the decision-maker for ego reasons, or simply because they feel that they might be able to make the decision. Unless we’re sure about the level of influence each individual has in the company, it’s very hard to maximize our effectiveness.

The first step is to make sure that we fully understand what we mean by decision-maker. The bottom line is that the decision-maker is the individual who can make the decision without further approval. Think of it this way, when you submit your invoice, who will have to sign off on it in order for you to get paid? That person is the decision-maker. Never lose sight of that target. That’s not to say that you want to just exclusively focus on influencing him or her. That would short sighted. Decisions are not made in a vacuum and any good decision-maker is going to want input from those who are likely to be impacted by the decision to buy your product or service.

How do we identify the decision-makers? One method that we will discuss in more detail later, is to purchase contact names from a list br

uncomfortable when they’re actually in front of a senior level decision-maker. We’ll discuss strategies to help you in all three of these areas.

Let’s talk about the first area, identifying the decision-maker. Think about the people at your prospective client as falling into one of two groups. The first is the decision-maker. This may be a single individual, or if you sell a variety of products, there may be multiple decisions-makers. The decision-maker is the one who can, as the name would indicate, actually make the decision to buy your product or use your services.

The second, and much larger group, includes supervisors, users of the product and technical experts. We’ll refer to this second group by the acronym S(supervisors)-U(users)-TE (technical experts) or SUTEs. These are people who can influence the purchasing decision but don’t actually have the authority to make the decision. That doesn’t mean that they’re not important. However, their needs are different than those of the decision-maker, and we will need to cultivate our relationships with them differently. It’s important that we don’t get confused about who does what. Those who claim they are the decision-maker often do so in the hopes that we won’t circumvent the process by going over their heads. Others claim to be the decision-maker for ego reasons, or simply because they feel that they might be able to make the decision. Unless we’re sure about the level of influence each individual has in the company, it’s very hard to maximize our effectiveness.

The first step is to make sure that we fully understand what we mean by decision-maker. The bottom line is that the decision-maker is the individual who can make the decision without further approval. Think of it this way, when you submit your invoice, who will have to sign off on it in order for you to get paid? That person is the decision-maker. Never lose sight of that target. That’s not to say that you want to just exclusively focus on influencing him or her. That would short sighted. Decisions are not made in a vacuum and any good decision-maker is going to want input from those who are likely to be impacted by the decision to buy your product or service.

How do we identify the decision-makers? One method that we will discuss in more detail later, is to purchase contact names from a list b

econd, and much larger group, includes supervisors, users of the product and technical experts. We’ll refer to this second group by the acronym S(supervisors)-U(users)-TE (technical experts) or SUTEs. These are people who can influence the purchasing decision but don’t actually have the authority to make the decision. That doesn’t mean that they’re not important. However, their needs are different than those of the decision-maker, and we will need to cultivate our relationships with them differently. It’s important that we don’t get confused about who does what. Those who claim they are the decision-maker often do so in the hopes that we won’t circumvent the process by going over their heads. Others claim to be the decision-maker for ego reasons, or simply because they feel that they might be able to make the decision. Unless we’re sure about the level of influence each individual has in the company, it’s very hard to maximize our effectiveness.

The first step is to make sure that we fully understand what we mean by decision-maker. The bottom line is that the decision-maker is the individual who can make the decision without further approval. Think of it this way, when you submit your invoice, who will have to sign off on it in order for you to get paid? That person is the decision-maker. Never lose sight of that target. That’s not to say that you want to just exclusively focus on influencing him or her. That would short sighted. Decisions are not made in a vacuum and any good decision-maker is going to want input from those who are likely to be impacted by the decision to buy your product or service.

How do we identify the decision-makers? One method that we will discuss in more detail later, is to purchase contact names from a list b

the decision-maker often do so in the hopes that we won’t circumvent the process by going over their heads. Others claim to be the decision-maker for ego reasons, or simply because they feel that they might be able to make the decision. Unless we’re sure about the level of influence each individual has in the company, it’s very hard to maximize our effectiveness.

The first step is to make sure that we fully understand what we mean by decision-maker. The bottom line is that the decision-maker is the individual who can make the decision without further approval. Think of it this way, when you submit your invoice, who will have to sign off on it in order for you to get paid? That person is the decision-maker. Never lose sight of that target. That’s not to say that you want to just exclusively focus on influencing him or her. That would short sighted. Decisions are not made in a vacuum and any good decision-maker is going to want input from those who are likely to be impacted by the decision to buy your product or service.

How do we identify the decision-makers? One method that we will discuss in more detail later, is to purchase contact names from a list b

ay, when you submit your invoice, who will have to sign off on it in order for you to get paid? That person is the decision-maker. Never lose sight of that target. That’s not to say that you want to just exclusively focus on influencing him or her. That would short sighted. Decisions are not made in a vacuum and any good decision-maker is going to want input from those who are likely to be impacted by the decision to buy your product or service.

How do we identify the decision-makers? One method that we will discuss in more detail later, is to purchase contact names from a list broker. An alternative to this is to hire a recruiting researcher to develop an organization chart on a company that’s a top prospect. The executive search community has used this practice for many years and there’s no reasons why you can’t make it work for you.

If you’re targeting specific industries you might want to consider using any of the larger contact list brokers. They do a good job of keeping their information current and the price is very reasonable. Like most marketing firms we keep a list of these firms close at hand.

It’s also important to remember that the decision-maker is likely to change over time. Just because a person is the decision-maker today, doesn’t mean that they’ll play the same role the next time around. There are a number of factors that will influence this. For example, the more you’re asking them to spend-the higher the decision will be made in the organization. Similarly, as business conditions become more difficult, the higher the decision is likely to be made. Another factor is your personal history with the client. If the company knows you or your firm they may feel more comfortable delegating the purchasing decision down in the organization. If you’re an unknown entity, the opposite is often true.

One of our clients sells a training program to a large multi-national bank. When they started working with the bank, the decision to use their service was made at an extremely high level. As the company became more comfortable with the supplier the decision making process became less arduous and was delegated to more junior level people.

This presents its own unique challenges. How does one remain in contact with the senior level individuals when they’re no longer directly involved in the approval process? New reasons or excuses need to be created in order to stay in touch. Developing these high level relationships is so difficult and time consuming that one doesn’t want them to lapse due to lack of contact. However, if I just call to thank the high level executive for renewing the contract she’ll think that I’m wasting her time. Once you waste the time of someone at this level it’s very hard to regain your credibility. Thus, success with a client creates its own set of challenges. We’ll discuss creative strategies to deal with this situation shortly.

As we mentioned the