How to Get Through to the Decision Maker at an Organization

When selling to another business, it’s crucial that you’re talking directly to the purchase decision maker. All the most brilliant email strategies and tips won’t help if your emails are not being read by the decision maker at any given organization. To help make sure you’re getting through to the right person every time, we put together the following tips for you:

1. Do your research.

The internet is a powerful thing! Start on sites like LinkedIn or CrunchBase to research the company you’re interested in. You’ll learn things like number of employees, key leadership, where the company is headquartered, investors, competitors and much more. For example, check out everything you can learn about Salesforce with a simple CrunchBase search. This helps give you a leg up on any of your competitors by knowing as much as you can about your prospect before reaching out.

Bonus tip from PersistIQ: “The decision maker’s title may vary from organization to organization. As a very general rule, you can make an educated guess based on the company size, which you can find on LinkedIn or CrunchBase.

• 0-10 employees: The decision maker is usually the CEO unless the company has a co-founder in the vertical you are selling into (e.g., CTO for Product, CMO for Marketing) or has already hired experienced VPs.
• 10-50 employees: VPs generally have buying power here.
• 50-500 employees: At this size, look for specialized roles, such as Sales Manager, Business Development Manager, etc.
• More than 500 employees: Find the regional specialized role, such as East Coast Rep, North America Rep, New York City Rep, etc.”

2. Leverage your connections.

This is the time to use that network that you’ve spent time and effort building to help you out. Reach out to anyone you know who has a connection in common with your decision maker and ask for an introduction. Try a site like Conspire to help do most of the leg work here for you. A personal introduction from a common connection can be much more powerful than a cold email. Just be sure to pay the favor forward when people in your network reach out to you for help in the future!

Bonus Tip: Leverage your LinkedIn Connections 

3. Go through the gatekeeper.

Many blog posts or articles will tell you to try to get around the gatekeeper instead of getting through them. I’m going to go in a different route here – try going through the gatekeeper and you may be surprised. Many executives have gatekeepers whose job it is to filter out unnecessary meetings and calls while managing the executive’s schedule. These gatekeepers hold more power than you think. Be polite, up front and helpful when talking to the gatekeeper to up your chances of getting through the the decision maker.

4. Get a meeting.

You’re getting close now. You’ve done your research, gotten a personal introduction or gotten through the gatekeeper at this point. Finally, it’s time to get a meeting with the decision maker. Don’t drop the ball here! Decision makers are busy people. Be sure to quickly communicate in your initial email or phone call why the decision maker cannot afford to miss out on meeting with you. Keep the focus on how you can help the decision maker, not how they can help you. Check out these related articles to help you get that first meeting:

• Improve your subject lines to make sure your email gets opened: read here.
• Use these powerful words to improve your communication: read here.
• Tools to help you close the deal: read here.

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There you have it! Four actionable tips to help you reach the key decision maker at any organization.

Would you add anything to this list? Have other tactics worked well for you? Tell me in the comments below!