Who Holds the Key to Your Sales Success?
Thursday, March 25, 2010 12:08Finding the decision maker and getting them to respond can be one of the hardest things a sales rep faces during the sales cycle. Sales intelligence data can give you insights on who the decision maker might be, what questions to ask, and how to respond to his or her questions. However, you can’t expect to find the decision-maker easily. You must employ tactful strategies and ask questions to qualify that person as the budget holder or if he or she is just a user or influencer that wants your solution, but can’t sign on the doted line.

The decision maker is usually a VP- or C-level employee that likely won’t be using your solution, but the people reporting to him or her will manage and work with the solution. Sales reps first need to get three types of authorities on-board: the user, the influencer and the decision maker. The decision maker holds the key to the budget and has the power to say yes or no.
These executives are typically the hardest to identify and contact. If someone refers you to someone else, the person you were referred to is usually the decision maker. If the person you contact responds saying the solution is a great fit, they’re probably not the decision maker, but rather the influencer or user who needs or wants your solution. Also, if you get pointed to the same person multiple times, than they are usually the decision maker. Contacting all three is a must, but putting more energy towards finding the decision maker and aligning their business needs with your solution is most critical.
Decision makers want specific evidence of previous success so they can clearly understand how your solution is going to solve their business problem. They need to see a measurable ROI and want reference data in order to identify how the solution can affect their bottom line. If you can or have determined that the decision maker has a budget, you’re one step closer to qualifying a prospect. But, for the prospect to meet the necessary BANT criteria, you need to have answered two out of the three remaining criteria. Using sales intelligence data can decrease your research time in trying to find the prospect’s business problems, what people’s titles and functions are, and whether or not your solution is budgeted.
Top 20 CRUSH Use Cases
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- Mark Kilens
mark.kilens @ salesquest.com
978.749.9999 ext. 118

