other and even competed against each other. One day, a BT director told Alison he always enjoyed speaking to her, because she knew more about how their company worked than he did!
“ If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room”
Dame Anita Roddick, Founder, The Body Shop
and people’s names. This is a great way of discovering what you don’t yet know, and encouraging you to go and find out!
Identify spheres of Influence. The organization chart will only tell you the official version of the customer’s hierarchy. The next step is to take an interest in the unofficial ways in which people within organizations group together in loose ‘spheres of influence’. Whose opinions command respect? Who do the senior people listen to? You can map out these connections as you learn more about the people involved.
Pick up clues about the culture. Of course, every organization is different; not only in the way they are structured, but also in the working culture they have developed. It’s important to pick up clues about the way things get done, and observe the accepted norms of behaviour. For example, how much authority is delegated to managers? Is it a sales-led or an engineering-led organization? Is everything done by committee?
Find out how decisions are made at your target customer’s organization.
2.3 Know the roles that buyers play
Once you have a clear idea of how your customer’s organization is structured, you’ll hopefully have the names and job titles of a number of people you want to deal with. The customer may also introduce new contacts to you, as you move through the Selling Cycle. All these people will have a greater or lesser importance to you depending on the role they play.
Let’s look at some of these buying roles.
User. This describes anyone who is simply the intended user of your product or service. Think of them as the ultimate ‘end customer’ within the organization. Don’t overlook them – they have very valuable information
one minute wonder List all your contacts and allocate one or more buyer roles to each of them. This will help you to assess how you approach them, how useful they will be, and therefore, how much time and effort you expend working with them.
to give you about how your product or service might benefit their organization.
Influencer. Anyone whose opinion is respected, and who has particular knowledge or interest in your product, can be an influencer of a buying decision. Often, more senior people who make the ultimate decision will rely heavily on people they trust to advise them.
Coach. The term Coach is used to describe someone who, for whatever reason, wants to help you win the business. They may particularly like your company or product, or dislike the alternatives; perhaps they believe that supporting you is the best way to influence the decision. They are a mine of information if you treat them right!
Blocker. The opposite of a Coach, these people will either be positively obstructive, or just never do or say anything useful to help you, perhaps because they are afraid of change, or have some other personal reason not to want you to succeed. They will waste your time, so try to spot them early on!
Technical decision maker. This describes someone with the responsibility of making the product decision first and foremost. Usually, they are middle managers, tasked with evaluating and deciding which technical solution is right for them
Business decision maker. Usually the owner of the business problem or ‘pain’, this person is likely to be a senior manager responsible for the business function(s) that will benefit from your product or service.
Financial decision maker. Usually the Finance Director, this person controls the final decision about whether the money can be spent.
Identify the buying roles of people in a target organization.
2.4 Identify the agents of change
Despite what many salespeople think, it is not always the person with the most senior job title, the biggest office or the largest department who holds true authority in a buying decision. In fact, it may be a mistake to rely solely on people’s job titles as a guide to who wields the authority to buy.
Introducing the Agent of Change. The most important type of all buying roles is someone I’m going to call an Agent of Change. These are often unique individuals within their organization who can make things happen because they not only have enough seniority (which we can identify from their job title), but also possess the personality, drive, insight and motivation to achieve that positive change or improvement in their business.
The natural leaders. Agents of Change have certain personality traits that give them this unique role. In particular, they are people who are prepared to take a calculated risk and have the personal influence to carry their agenda through. You could call them natural leaders, who do not get bogged down in too much detail, but look at the bigger, strategic picture, and are willing to make bold decisions which create change.
one minute wonder Draw a simple graph with X and Y axes. One axis represents the propensity to take risks and create change. The other represents the level of official authority. Now plot your buyers on this graph. Those in the top right hand corner will be most likely to be agents of change.
Why are they so important? Because you can’t sell to someone who won’t change, can’t buy and doesn’t have a vision of the potential value of improving their business. And we can help give them that vision, as it relates to our product or service!
Sometimes known as Foxes. Jim Holden of the Holden Corporation, an international sales training company, calls these strange creatures ‘Foxes’. They can sometimes be disruptive, demanding and quick to make judgements, but they have the advantage of being highly likely to actually do something positive.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people we deal with in business are followers – content to let others take the risky decisions. Selling is about convincing someone to do something different, and it can be hard going if we only ever deal with people who want an easy life, or require proof that every decision they make carries no risk.
Look for the rare individuals who combine authority with a willingness to change.
It’s one thing to have understood the customer’s organization and identified all their buying roles; it’s another actually to form a business relationship with the decision makers, or the Agents of Change.
Ideally, it should be our goal always to seek access to those with the authority to make buying decisions, even though we will also need to form relationships with people in other
