What To Do When Champion Will Not Include Other Key Decision Makers | Donald C. Kelly - 1982

During a deal, you might spend weeks speaking with one person only to realize the real decision makers were never involved. So how do you get your champion to bring the stakeholders into the conversation? I’m bringing back an old concept that can help prevent this situation from happening again.

When Your Champion Won’t Bring Others Into the Deal

1. During a deal, you might spend weeks speaking with one person only to realize the real decision makers were never involved. It can feel frustrating, especially when you know that IT, finance, or leadership will eventually need to approve the purchase.
2. So how do you get your champion to include the stakeholders who actually sign off on the deal?
3. One approach is to start thinking about the buying process earlier and making sure the right people are involved from the beginning.

Start With Multithreading

1. One of the best sales strategies is multithreading. This simply means building relationships with multiple people inside an account instead of relying on a single contact.
2. When selling a solution, there are often several people who influence the decision. There may be an end user who will work with the product daily, a manager who oversees the team, and an executive who approves the final purchase.
3. Mapping out these roles early can help prevent deals from stalling later. I like using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to identify these stakeholders and make it easier to start conversations with them.

Identify the Influencers

1. Not everyone involved in a deal holds a formal decision making title, and that’s something I want you to keep in mind.
2. I’ll give you a quick example. My wife once worked closely with the executive team at a company. Whenever the CEO was considering working with a vendor, he would often ask her opinion about the people he had interacted with. If a vendor was respectful and easy to work with, she would share that. But if someone treated her poorly because they didn’t think she had any influence, that feedback made its way back to leadership as well.
3. The lesson here is simple. Everyone inside an organization can influence a deal in some way.

Have an Honest Conversation With Your Champion

1. If your champion continues to avoid bringing others into the process, it may be time to address it directly.
2. Try sharing your concern. Let them know that in most successful projects there are several people involved, including technical teams and leadership. Then ask if there is a reason those stakeholders have not been included yet.
3. Often the answer is straightforward. The champion may be busy, unsure how to involve others, or simply gathering more information before expanding the conversation.

“Preemptively build those relationships so you don’t get stuck relying on one person to close the deal.” - Donald Kelly

Resources

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