Restricted access – how to get to the decision maker
Some of the most important factors in B2B sales is knowing how to get to the right person in the company. And how to skip the secretarial barrier and avoid falling into some of those traps.
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We all want to do business and make money. Depending on the company, the availability of the decision makers is handled in a variety of ways. Some companies make the contacts to all the important sales executives public on their website, while others are quite protective of the contact information of regular employees. So how can you reach the main decision makers, when there is a wall of administration and the secretariat to be tackled?
Salesmen know the issue of dealing with the assistants all too well; sometimes the resort to a trick of calling the wrong division on purpose in hope that the clueless employee will patch them straight to the boss they are looking for. Calling and asking to talk to the decision maker of the marketing department is a red flag for some employees who think: “My boss probably doesn’t have time for this.”. Participants of my workshops sometimes ask about tricks to deal with the secretarial force of the decision maker, to get ahead. But if you like to think of yourself as a professional, you don’t need to resort to trickery like saying – “I would like to speak to ..... Thank you” in a stern voice. All you need is the right strategy.
Double-check who you are looking for
The first step, the missing of which is quite problematic to say the least, is to determine the position of the person you think is the decision maker. Let me give you an example. I was courting an important workshop client and after a few calls, I managed to get the phone number and the email address of the relevant HR director that I was looking for. I contacted him directly but it turned out to be quite pointless. The executive was very busy; therefore our conversations were short and sweet. Though I was making some progress, the relationship lacked momentum to close the deal. It all changed when I found out that the actual decision maker is the HR specialist, an unofficial assistant of the executive. It turned out that, informally, she was in charge of managing the company’s training programs. By focusing on collaborating with the HR specialist, I got a great deal, and was referred directly to the executive to formally sign the contract.
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