New post on InsideView Blog - Appealing to All Decision Makers by lisafugere

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New post on InsideView Blog Appealing to All Decision Makers
by lisafugere

In most business organizations, more than one individual holds decision-making responsibility. This is especially true when there is a large volume order or a very costly item. When multiple executives weigh in on a purchase decision, a salesperson has to work harder to get a sale. This is because you must appeal to all the decision makers, each of whom has a different need. By educating yourself on what each decision maker wants, you have a better chance of getting everyone on board, and making the sale.

The more decision makers, the longer it will take for them to reach a decision. Decision makers all value certain initiatives that will aid their careers, their reputations, or their teams. If your offering will affect a number of different decision makers, you need to make it clear how your offering relates to each of their key initiatives. The move the process along, you can take a couple of actions before you initiate a sale:

Have a Detailed Website
If a manager puts a potential purchase in front of a VP for budget approval, the first place the VP will likely go for information is the company's website. On your website, you can direct people by their interests to content that's compelling to them. You have to answer the main question all prospects want to know: what is in it for me? The answer will vary, but patterns will emerge. Sales executives, for instance, care about quota attainment and win rates. Marketing executives, on the other hand, care more about lead generation and conversion. Business people are self interested and want to know how a product or service will help their company and their careers. By providing product specifications, descriptions, features, and benefits on the webpages, and packaging them for specific title and job roles, you can influence all the decision makers with one website.

Understand How Each Team Operates
A manager's success usually depends on the performance of his or her team. Managers not only care about cost and staying within the budget for the department, but how the product or service impacts their subordinates lives at work. Each department has its own concerns and needs when it comes to buying products or services. As the salesperson, it is your job to have an idea of what is most important to each decision maker and tailor your pitch to focus on these wants.

Have Information Ready for Each Decision Maker
Avoid last minute scrambling by creating sales documents tailored to each title you may sell to. A standard data sheet or slide deck that you can quickly customize can make your job a lot easier as you get closer to a close. For example, if you have a new enterprise software program sell, the most important thing the owner or CEO cares about is whether your product will add value to the company overall and improve its bottom line. If the software saves money in some way, it is perceived as more valuable to the owner. However, the head of human resources wants to know if the software is easy to use or if there is a sharp learning curve that requires training at an additional cost. The head of the IT department wants software that is easy to install, compatible with the other applications already on the computers, and also wants to know how much hard drive space it needs.

When it comes to multiple decision makers, you have to influence each one by offering the features and benefits in which they are most interested. You can only accomplish this by communicating with each individual decision maker. By asking the right questions, using past work experiences and a pre-call research, you can influence decision makers more effectively.