Selling to multiple decision-makers is a universal challenge for sales professionals. Oftentimes, it isn’t just the number of decision makers, it’s the inability to get all decision-makers in the same place at the same time to explore, discuss or to hear our sales presentation. As a result, we may have individuals involved in the purchase decision with whom we have had no direct contact. If your well-honed presentation doesn’t always close the sale, imagine the close rate via secondhand information presented by someone unfamiliar with your product or service.
Effectively Selling to Multiple Decision Makers
While we can’t control the reality of facing multiple decision-makers, here are four tips to help improve your success rate when this situation does occur:
- Proactively offer to repeat your presentation, demonstration or discussion for others in the client organization who were unable to attend the first time. Don’t assume your prospective clients know this is an option; your primary contact may be reluctant to ask you for a repeat performance.
- Develop leave-behind materials specifically for this purpose which are: Succinct, high impact, visually compelling, and customized for the individual client
- Arm your inside contact with good information. Beyond any written information, be sure to provide him or her with a succinct summary of key benefits and differentiating features of your product/service, so they can articulate effectively.
- Explore with your contact(s) as to what additional actions or materials will best enable them to share key sights with confidence.
Getting in front of all decision-makers should always be our primary goal. When that is not possible, we can maximize our indirect influence by providing high-impact materials and talking points to our contacts inside the client organization.
