Respect Authority

Finding the real buyer

Fresh views and training on sales - straight into your inbox
Every Monday

Deals rarely die on the operating table - they die when the rep leaves the room

“Sure leave it with me, I’ll talk to my boss/wife/CFO and get them to approve it”

Then it vanishes into the fog, doomed to forever take up pointless space on a pipeline.

We’re talking about handoffs, the attempts a buyer makes to avoid taking ownership - and what you can do to create a real decision you can bank on

The moment you let someone else take charge of your sale you’re accepting that three things will now happen:

1. Your journey will get distorted

2. Questions from other parties will not be answered properly

3. Your frame will take blow

Relying on a sequence of Chinese whispers is not how good deals are made.

You’ve had this happen even if you don’t know it. We excite a potential end user. They go up the chain for permission to buy. The final decision maker asks our potential end user a question. Then our futile friend, the end user, has to say… “I don’t know”

If it’s not fatal, it’s at least a heavy blow

Uncertainty + Time/Money = Danger

So the final decision maker (the ‘Economic Buyer’ to borrow a phrase from enterprise sales) does the only thing they can think to do, they press pause.

This goes for selling software to a multi-million firm, and for selling a £500 fitness program, and everything in between

And there’s very little you can do about it.

---

This is why I like MEDDPIC even for SME deals and, heck, even for B2C deals

In case you don’t know, MEDDPIC is a system originally invented to track enterprise sales deals

Metrics: Quantifiable economic impact or ROI of the solution.

Economic Buyer: The person with authority to approve spending.

Decision Criteria: The technical and business factors driving the purchase.

Decision Process: The steps the company takes to make the buying decision

Identify/Implications of Pain: The core problem, and the cost of doing nothing, that the solution solves.

Paper Process (or Paperwork): The legal and procurement steps to finalize the deal.

Champion: The person with influence who actively supports the deal within the client organization.

Competition: Identifying, understanding, and differentiating against competitors

What I like the most is the constant reminder that every sale has two roles; the person who wants it and the person who signs the money off

Usually these are different people
Sometimes they’re not

But if we don’t separate those roles, even in someone’s own head, you end up leaving them unable to make a decision, then act shocked when they ‘need to check’

So as you move through every deal, ask yourself -

Who has Authority, and who has Ownership

Authority = Allowed to decide
Ownership = Will stand behind and push the decision

If a buyer has authority but no ownership, they can sign… but they won’t fight for it internally

If a buyer has ownership but no authority, they can want it… but they can’t complete

A deal only moves when the two line up.

---

When the classic “I need to talk to my wife/business partner/CFO/dog” objection comes up most salespeople either get too weak, too strong, or try to get clever with it

Let’s leave “how would they feel if you gave up on this amazing opportunity just because you felt you have to consult them” in the 2020 ‘high ticket sales’ boom where it belongs.

Use this system instead, perfected by timeshare salespeople since the dawn of the industry:

1. Force ownership, not a purchase

“I totally understand you need to loop them in, but can I just ask… do you actually want this? If they agree, are we going forward with the deal”

Make them say yes or now

The only unethical pushiness in sales is pushing people to say yes

Pushing people to make a decision is the job

2. Recruit them

Now we turn them into an ally

“Great, let’s think how we can get them onboard together. What will they care about the most?”

Now you’re building a plan

3. Bring the real/other buyer into the conversation

“Let’s get them on a call tomorrow”

Because the goal isn’t to make your champion sell

The goal is to make your champion say:

“Come speak to my guy. He’ll explain it properly”

That’s what a champion is for

Not to become a part-time salesperson with half the facts and none of the framing

---

You don’t need to be MEDIC-trained to understand this

You just need to respect how decisions actually happen, and stop letting your deals leave the room

If you’d like even more sales advice from some of the UK’s top closers, access to a billion-dollar sales academy, opportunities for regular exclusive Q&As and the chance to make life changing connections in a supportive international community of salespeople and business owners; feel free to join us in The LionsDen by clicking here

Respect the Economic Buyer’s AUTHORITAH!