Are You Too Focused On The Decision Maker?
Written by Kevin on July 21, 2008. Leave a Comment on this Post
“Gentlemen, before people start filing in for your presentation, I just wanted to let you know, off the record, that there is absolutely no way that you are going to earn our business. So good luck.”
So yeah, weeks worth of phone calls, hours of internal meetings, and thousands of dollars in travel expense were rendered worthless in one sentence.
And this was before we even got started.
So what happened?
In our team’s collective “group think”, our system was so new, so cutting edge, it was obvious that anyone who witnessed a demonstration would cast away all doubts and reason and immediately hurl purchase orders in our direction.
Naturally, we took pity on those ignorant fools who refused to recognize our incredible potential and instead relied on mundane criteria such as an established client base, financial stability, or a clear, concise value statement.
When we encountered one of the “unenlightened” in a project at a mid-western company, we did the logical thing, and went above their head.
How many sales books have you read that state that you should get away from the gatekeeper as quickly as possible? Do whatever it takes, go around, under, above, whatever - the gatekeeper is there to keep from making your money.
What these books fail to mention is that the gatekeeper does not go away. In fact, a good many times they serve as a critical resource for the Executive Sponsor.
What happened to our team was that the Project Manager (PM) was in charge of determining which vendors they would review.
The PM politely told us thanks, but no thanks. So we called the PM’s boss, the Executive Sponsor, and explained why we should be included in the evaluation.
In that process we may have called into question the PM’s level of competence in this area, either intentionally or unintentionally. The Executive agreed that we should be included and sent an email to the PM with the instructions of allowing us to come in for a demonstration.
The thing that we wished we had known before this got started was that the Executive Sponsor trusted the PM on all technical decisions.
While it was the Exective Sponsor’s name on the Purchase Order, it was really the PM’s decision that determined which vendor was put on that purchase order.
Ouch.
This holds true at all levels. No one has the title of “Real Decision Maker” on their business cards, so you really don’t know who has the hidden vote that determines if you succeed or fail until the final outcome has been reached.
Remember, we run marathons, not sprints. You may lose or not be invited to today’s project, so start working on the one for tomorrow.
This post was written by Kevin Sasser. You can leave a comment and share your thoughts and feedback below this post. For more information about Kevin Sasser, visit this link.
Great article Kevin!
Its a good thing to keep in mind. You never ignore the team members. A smart decision maker will always listen to their advice.
Just as you wouldn’t ignore the boss and focus soley on his wife at a cocktail party, you should spread your attention around liberally, as long as there’s a chance they’ll be a place for you at the dinner table.
What you described happens all too often. Great Gatekeepers are, above all else, human. They don’t like tactics to get around them.
When we train people we train them to firstly interacty with the Gatekeeper as a human being and to treat them as a decision maker. To many people this is a startling piece of news.
I think the general idea is to focus on the “decision making process” - not on the “decision maker”. If you ask clients to recall “the last time they made an acquisition for a product or service similar to yours” and describe the acquisition process and the people involved, you’ll get a good idea of who not to tick off.