Surrogate Authority

Problem:  The majority of Pamela’s prospects were Fortune 1000 companies that were headquartered outside her geographic territory.  Unfortunately, most of the people who had final decision-making authority on her product were at headquarters and she often had to deal with local decision influencers who could not make the final decision.  She was frustrated by this situation and usually just made her presentation locally, hoping for the best.  As a result, her closing rates were in the 20% range and her sales cycle was exceedingly long.

Analysis:  Obviously, Pamela understood the importance of speaking directly to the final authority, but travel budgets and other considerations often prohibited that from happening.  However, the real problem was that she lacked an effective strategy to deal with the difficulty of getting a decision when she didn’t have access to the final decision maker.

Solution:  Someone has to make a decision and the worst nightmare for you, as a sales professional, is to be denied access to the decision maker and you have to rely on an influencer to make the  presentation for you.  Influencers typically just forward information to others with an explanation and, sometimes, with a recommendation.  The problem is that usually the salesperson doesn’t know who is being recommended.

The solution is quite simple.  Promote your influencer.  Yes, make your influencer the decision maker for this particular sale.  Here’s what to say: “I realize that the decision is made elsewhere, but here’s what I’d like to do if you agree.  I’d like to get from you as good an understanding of your needs as possible and then I’ll offer our solution to you.  When I’ve made the presentation, I’d like you to be able to tell me that, if the decision were yours to make, would you select my company?  And by the way, I’m okay with a ‘no’ if you think another vendor would be a better choice.  Is that fair?”

This tactic is a major stroke to your prospect and requires him to get more involved in the process than he might otherwise.  If he agrees to this (and he usually will), you must treat him as if he has final authority, make your presentation, and get a “yes” or a “no” at the end.  When the prospect sends the information to the ultimate decision maker, hopefully it will go with his recommendation to use your product.  That will improve your chances for the sale by at least 50%.