You need someone on the inside of the prospective organization who can help you gain influence; someone who understands your goals and believes in your cause.
Find the right sales champion
Not everyone qualifies as a champion.
If your connection won’t benefit from whatever it is that you’re selling, she might not be the right person. Worse yet, if your product could potentially put her out of a job, she’s probably not the right person to champion your cause.
Pursuing the wrong champion will derail your deal.
Arm your sales champion
There’s a story of warring factions who were fighting for control of a city. The bad guys took the city, and the good guys were trapped outside trying to find a way in.
They found defectors inside the city who were sympathetic to their cause and provided wine to get them drunk. Once the defectors were drunk, the good guys snuck over the wall, gave weapons to the sympathizers, and reclaimed the city.
Your sales champion must know the ropes inside the organization. He must also have the tools required to influence the decision-makers.
You must sell your champion on your product so he can sell it to the organization. Equip him with enough information to coordinate a presentation, but don’t rely on him to close the deal.
Arm him with enough benefits to convince the team that they should hear from you.
Benefit the sales champion
Don’t focus on your own benefits. Figure out how your product or service will benefit your champion.
Does it save his department time or money? If so, the company can reallocate those resources elsewhere, which will help him impress his superiors.
Episode resources
The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League is an online coaching program that brings together sellers of all levels. Our next semester begins this month, and we’ll be discussing how to build strong value to increase your close rates.
We still have a few seats left and we’d be honored if you’d join us.
Audio in this episode was provided by Free SFX.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS