You have spent time on building out your TAM, you have designed your Company’s ICP, you have developed your buyer persona’s, you developed and refined a good Account Score. But Sales are not closing at the anticipated rates you expect.
Why?
Here is a possible answer, Sales did not identify the Key Players in the Sales Cycle.
Who are the Key Players?
The identification of who your Sales Rep is speaking with and who they need to speak with is a vital part of the sales process. Your Sales team needs to identify the coach, the champion, the decisionmaker, the enemy, the guru, etc.
With out understanding the Key Players, The Sales Rep can be trapped in the prospect’s sale cycle “they lie to you, they steal your knowledge and experience, then ghost you”.
Here are seven personalities you need to uncover as part of your sales process.
Gatekeeper:
The person who tries to control how information and access to other stakeholders are facilitated.
Coach:
They have no influence and no authority over the sale process but may help you identify the Champion aka Influencer or the Decision Maker and help you navigate the buying process.
Champion:
They have influence in the selection process, they understand the needs of the company and how your product or service will benefit the organization, they also persuade others to act and influence the decisionmaker.
In many cases the Champion may have initiated the buying process, and can provide due diligence, and demonstrate potential ROI to the Decision Maker(s) or the buying committee.
Enemy:
The enemy is not in favor of your solution. They may have a bias towards your competitor or disagrees that there is a need for change or is opposed to any change at all.
Guru or Expert:
Most organizations have a “guru” or “expert”, these are individuals that know and understand their organization process and systems inside out. Many times a Decision Maker will seek out their advice on the expected ROI, and if the potential disruption to the business is worth the investment.
Decision Maker:
The Decision Maker is the final say in the buying process and would control the budget for the selection of the vendor. There are multiple levels of involvement for this individual, from a yes/no, to a full-blown ROI analysis of your solutions.
Blockers:
In many cases the blocker can be many different people, such as Legal who want to review every master service agreement, or Finance, who present egregious terms or deny budget approval. These people can slow or even terminate a deal. So, make sure you understand their objections early in the sales process to deal with these blockers.
Look at your historical data and your recent wins, what was the reason for winning? who were they engaged with during the sale?
Finding our early the personalities of who you are engaged with, allows you to reduce the unknown and helps you navigate the buyer journey, leading to faster sales cycles and higher win rates.
Leave a Reply