When you are dealing with a certain individual on a long-term sale, who tells you he is the decision maker and everything must go through him, but you know he's not, what is the correct way to get to the actual decision maker without undermining your point of contact?
In sales, one hears the term "decision maker" bandied about quite a bit. At first blush, it sounds straightforward enough: A decision maker is the man or woman empowered to make a final buying decision. One either is, or is not, a decision maker; and salespeople must figure out who is and who isn't - often a challenging task.
Decision maker defined
Before I respond directly to this inquiry, for the sake of clarity in answering, I want to highlight an assumption included in the question.
The term "decision maker" refers to the 'Economic Buying Influence'. The Economic Buying Influence is the one decision maker in the specific sales situation who has the power to give final approval or OK to the deal that you are trying to sell.
If you stop to think about it for a minute, every single one of the various contacts you have in a prospect or account is indeed both a buying influence and decision maker. The 'Gatekeeper Technical Buying Influences' are making decisions about how well your proposal meets specifications. The 'User Buying Influences' are making decisions about how well it will work on the job.
But only one of them has the decision-making power to give final approval. Because of this inaccuracy, we urge you to talk about the different roles that your cast of buying characters is playing in the 'buy' and in the 'sale'. It is essential to the clarity and understanding that comes from using these terms as a sort of secondary language among the sales force.
Another assumption that is implied in the question, is that it is always mandatory for the sales representative to get face-to-face with the Economic Buyer to make a sale. Sloppy selling often involves not knowing who the Economic Buying Influence is for final approval. As to who covers that base, the person who should verify this is the person with the most credibility with this particular Economic Buyer. That person might be a member of the buying organisation, the selling organisation or someone outside both organisations.
What not to do
OK, now that we have a common and clearer understanding of the buy/sell situation, I'll answer the question. First, this is what not to do:
Never, under any circumstances, should you go around, under, through or over the head of a Buying Influence who is telling you, "I am the decision maker, and everything must go through me".
What this contact is really telling you is: "I will lose big time if I let you get through me, under me or around me!".
This is a basic issue. The person blocking you perceives a lose, not a win, if you go directly to senior people. He sees it as his job to protect his managers from barbarians such as you. And remember: the name of your sales game is always win-win. The reason we enjoin you never to say, "Aw, the heck with it!" and go around the blocker is that we know that you will live to regret it.
Even if you are successful and get this particular sale, the person you went around will never forget what you and (by extension) your company did to him. It may be five months or five years, it may be when they are in a different company, but they will remember what you did and will eventually exact their revenge.
So what do you do?
Allow the person to block you? Roll over and play dead? No, most certainly not; that would be playing lose-win (I lose in order for them to win) which is not satisfactory either.
First of all, you have to come up with a Valid Business Reason, which makes sense to the Blocker, for wanting to take you to see the Economic Buyer. Best situation is if your Valid Business Reason makes it in the Blocker's self-interest to take you there. The translation of the refusal to let you get to the Economic Buyer is a negative one. The Blocker simply does not trust you and your intentions. A lot of new salespeople (including those who are new to the specific customer) experience this refusal. Remember, people buy when they perceive their problem will be solved by your solution, not made worse.
Here is a menu of time-proven techniques that have worked for us at Miller Heiman and for many of our clients:
- Ask the Blocker directly what the basic issue is that prohibits her from taking you to the Economic Buyer. (You are trying to get a handle on why the person feels it would be a lose.)
- Executing the above, however, means that you need to develop a Valid Business Reason for wanting to see the Economic Buyer. "Valid" here means valid from both the Blocker and the Economic Buyer's point-of-view - not from yours.
Valid business reasons may include:
- "I do not ever want to place you (i.e. the Blocker) in the position of doing my selling for me."
- "I am not suggesting I go alone. How about you and I together give them an Executive Briefing about what we are proposing? 15-20 minutes."
- "I will be glad to introduce you to my Vice President and have him go with you to meet the Economic Buyer."
- "The Economic Buyer is spending a lot of money on this project. We feel it is important that they know us face-to-face. Also it is in your own self-interest to do this. Coach us as to when it would be best."
- Emphasise Red Flags of concern and verify Strengths. Be transparent about why you want to see the Economic Buying influence.
- Tell your Blocker that your management will not let you (the Sales Rep) book the business without us (or a member of your management team) meeting the Economic Buying Influence.
- Offer to give the Economic Buyer an Executive Briefing about some new knowledge or research that would be of interest to him. Ask the blocker to set it up.
- Offer an Executive Briefing with a senior person in your organisation.
There is no one-size-fits-all silver bullet
Stay win-win. Probe to find the basic issue that is driving the Blocker. It is always some sort of trust issue.
Therefore, reassure the Blocker that you understand, and that you will not go around him. But it is important to the relationship that at some point you meet the Economic Buyer. Companies do not build relationships, people do.