While taking over a small sales group for a marketing communications firm - I inherited a forecast and pipeline that was grossly overstated to say the least. After doing a deep dive into all the deals that were identified - I quickly recognized that this sales team had become creative writers not effective sales persons. At the conclusion of the exercise - I proceeded to the white board in front of the conference room and scribbled the words "Who do you know?".
This became a quick and effective way to identify what deals were real and had any probability to close.
I received answers like "procurement", "purchasing manager", "departmental supervisor" but no titles that were clear and had the authority to make purchase decisions. If you are not at a higher level in the company you are trying to sell to - then the probability of closing that business is diminished greatly. If you have not identified the decision makers you are not going to close the deal.
How do you get there? We will cover this in a future posting.
Kind regards,
Ed
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