B2B sales professionals spend a significant amount of time and effort identifying the decision makers in their target accounts, as well as obtaining their business contact information, before making a sale. The next step is to communicate with the decision maker in a clear and concise manner and schedule sales appointments. You keep in touch with that one person and make sure that they have all of the information they require to make an educated decision on your behalf.
While you are ecstatic about the prospect of closing a deal, you learn that the decision maker with whom you collaborated has left the company. As a result, you are stranded because every conversation and piece of communication you had was with that single decision maker. Losing a chance because it slips through your fingers is a very frustrating experience.
It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? You are not alone in your feelings. More than half of all salespeople rely on developing relationships with a single contact in their target accounts to close deals. It carries a significant risk of losing business.
Decision-Making Authority Is Reducing
According to studies, the average length of time that decision makers spend at a company is getting shorter. The average length of service for top decision makers and C-level executives is less than three years on the job. There is a chance that a new decision maker will replace your contact, and she may have previously worked for a competitor and been a customer of your competitor. You will not be able to proceed any further, nor will you have anyone in the company who can exert influence on your behalf. All of your efforts are for naught, and you are deprived of your sales revenue. You’ll have to start from the beginning. When you have multi-year contracts with companies, the situation becomes even worse. This is a significant challenge that B2B sales professionals must overcome.
Target a large number of decision makers and influencers
Make sure you contact a number of different people within your target company. You should make it a point to reach out to the decision maker’s co-workers as well. It facilitates your communication with other influencers and decision makers within your target organization.
Statisticians discovered that decision-making in B2B organizations is not limited to a single individual. On average, 6 people are into the decision-making process at any given time. As a result, reaching a large number of decision makers and influencers will give you the opportunity to speak with and demonstrate your product to a large number of people. So, even if the decision-maker leaves the company, you will always be able to communicate with other co-workers.
How to communicate with multiple decision makers within an organization
Investigating the decision maker’s co-workers will help you gain a better understanding of their role. You will also understand how you should approach them in your pitch.
The next step is to obtain the contact information (email addresses and phone numbers) of the co-workers. Finding co-workers’ email addresses, on the other hand, is not an easy task. If your company is large enough, you may have a large number of influencers who are interested in your solution. Even for experienced researchers, manually locating all of their co-workers’ email addresses is a time-consuming and exhausting task.