to try to reach authority later by relying on other less senior people to refer you upwards. This isn’t always possible, of course. But as a rule, always try to call the most senior person available first.
Delegation. Even if you only get the chance to have a short conversation with the decision maker, and they refer you downwards, they have effectively ‘delegated’ the job of dealing with you, and you have now acquired their authority to move forward!
one minute wonder The next time a prospect asks you to travel a long way to a meeting, make a point of asking for the decision maker to be available when you are there. Explain that you will be gathering information about their business problems, and you want to hear the decision maker’s perspective first-hand.
Escalation. If you’re only dealing with influencers, they will at some point need to ‘sell’ to their superiors. Suggest how you can help them – by asking their permission to make contact directly with the decision maker.
Keeping the decision maker informed. Even if you have never met the decision maker, if they ‘own the business problem’, you can, with justification, call or email them to keep them informed of what you are doing and how it will benefit them. Do this as early as possible in the process, and keep doing it at regular intervals.
Bargaining for access. There will be opportunities during a sales process to negotiate for an introduction to a decision maker. If your buyer asks you to do something for them, can you ask to meet a more senior person in exchange?
Dealing with blockers. If someone is actively blocking your progress towards authority, try going sideways instead. Build alternative relationships and these may open up new paths to the decision makers. Weigh up the risk of going over their heads to the top: annoying them may be less of a problem than losing the whole selling opportunity.
Make every effort to network your way upwards.
You need a range of techniques and skills to find new opportunities in your chosen markets. If you work for a large organization, it can be easy to rely on the Marketing department to generate leads or just to stay in your comfort zone and try to win all your business from existing customers. But I have found that it is best to become self-sufficient in the art of creating opportunities for yourself.
The first thing you need to do is decide exactly what sort of customer you are targeting. Here are the five key questions to ask yourself when defining who your target customers will be.
1 Where are they? Make it easy for your customers to find you, in the real world or online, and target customers that you can reach with minimum time and effort.
2 How many of them are there? It’s important to give yourself as many opportunities as possible, so consider how big the total addressable market for your product or service will be.
case study A remark is attributed to Thomas J. Watson, the first CEO of IBM in the early 1950s: “There may be a world market for about five computers.” Despite this lowly prediction, IBM continuously targeted its selling efforts at people whom it identified could use its products. Its total addressable market has turned out to be a lot bigger than five computers!
one minute wonder Analyse past successes. Why did that customer buy? Are there other similar customers out there? Is there a common need in that market which you can address? What is unique about what you’re offering to them?
3 Can they buy? It’s no good going after customers who cannot afford your product or service, or targeting individuals who have no say in the decision. For example, kidney dialysis machines won’t be of much interest to a rural doctor, but perhaps his superiors at the main hospital will be in a better position to buy.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
