Part 4: Final Words on the DM Process

We've talked a lot about the Decision Making (DM) process, but we haven't mentioned everything. Here are some miscellaneous tips about the DM process that we've found helpful:

1. It's OK to ask your contact if they are a DM as long as you ask appropriately.

2. Don't just believe their words. Measure their actions against their words to validate if they are a DM. Scrutinize the results you get when working with them.

3. Once you reach the DM, don't allow yourself to get pushed back down. Earn the right to stay at that level by aligning specific Value Propositions to directly address their needs.

4. You need to build relationships horizontally with others in the company to increase your chances for retaining their business. Don't limit yourself to just one contact. The more people you reach and help, the more widespread your acceptance will be.

5. Even with a team decision-making approach, there is typically one driver.

Our final note on DMs comes from Woody Allen: "In my house I'm the boss, my wife is just the decision maker."

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of three leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, and VertMarkets.

Part 3: How To Contact The DM

Contacting and influencing the Decision Maker (DM) and others in the DM process is required. It's part of your job as a salesperson. In addition to contacting the DM and those in the DM process, you must:
* Identify each person in the DM process
* Validate each person's role in the DM process
* Determine what to accomplish with each person in the DM process

When your initial contact is a blocker (or other non-DM), there are several ways to get around them and reach the influencer or DM. This is a partial list -- you can come up with your own to fit your situation:
1. Ask to have the DM paged
2. Mail them a personal note
3. Mail an article from the newspaper or a magazine that would interest them
4. Send them a new report pertinent to their industry
5. Send them a testimonial from a competitor
6. Send them a personal gift
7. "Carbon copy" the DM on an email to the non-DM
8. Join a club or organization they belong to
9. In your voice mail or email, lead with value to get their attention and increase the likelihood they will contact you.

Leaving a vanilla, generic email or voice mail is rarely effective. Same with sending a form letter. They are a waste of your time and their time.

Important note: No matter what method you use to get to the DM, you MUST be honest with your words and actions.

If you get through by bypassing a blocker, you must be ready with a presumed value to give the DM based on your company research, your market research, and your knowledge to keep them engaged with you. Depending on how much time they have and how much value they perceive in you, you may have to schedule an appointment when you and the DM can talk further.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of three leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, and VertMarkets.

Part 2: Understanding the DM Loop

If your initial contact does not have a title that indicates a decision maker (DM), you must quickly get thorugh them and to the DM. Titles that typically indicate influencers or DMs (these are guides, not absolutes:
* Influencers: Managers, some Directors
* DMs: Some Directors (especially of a division), VPs, Owner, President, CEO

These can vary with company size and management structure. For example, a Director in a very large company may not be the DM, but in a smaller company they may be part of the executive management team.

The role of each person in the DM loop is not always tied to a title. If it is not an obvious DM title, you need to test them. Regardless of title, use skepticism to ensure you identify their true role in the process:

1. Ask about the DM process. Get into the details, and if they are not the DM they will not be able to answer effectively. Surface answers usually indicate they are not a DM; once this is recognized, you should consider ending the conversation and going upline ASAP. The longer you talk with a non-DM, the more rapport you build and the harder it becomes to end the conversation.

2. Do they make recommendations to the DM? Sometimes it's a rubber-stamp situation where the DM will sign whatever the contact recommends. Often you need to talk with the ultimate DM because your contact is only an influencer. Many people will speak to their ego and say they're the DM when they have only a small amount of input.

3. Exhaust your questions on the DM loop. Get the information you need, but don't go to the point of offending the contact.

4. Should you circumvent the contact and go upline? Some contacts want you to go upline to make their job easier. Some don't. This is a judgment call based on their personality and the rapport you have built.

If you're going by titles, it's much better to aim high and get referred back down than to start low and have to claw your way up. You may get talking to the DM right away, but worst case you get talking to an influencer and have not burned any bridges. You can usually validate influencers by asking:
* Would you present this and support this to the DM?
* Why would the DM like or dislike our product/services?
* How often does the DM follow your recommendations?
* What was the last thing you recommended and was it successful?

Because "Getting To The DM" is a make-or-break subject in sales, the Erie Sales Club will devote several entries to this subject. This article is Part 2 of our series on "Getting To The DM."

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of three leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, and VertMarkets.

Part 1: No Sale Unless You Get To The DM

Although many sales reps have anxiety about getting to the decision maker (DM), reaching the DM is important because:
1. In order to make a sale, you must talk to the person who makes purchasing decisions to show that you can help them.
2. Prompt identification of the ultimate DM and influencers prevents wasting time speaking to someone who either cannot make the ultimate decision or cannot influence the person who does not make the ultimate decision.
3. You can have a textbook conversation with a non-DM and sell nothing. You can make mistakes with a DM and still make the sale.

How To Identify & Contact The DM & Influencers
In today's collaborative business environment, sometimes there are multiple people in the DM loop. If this is the case, you must reach the ultimate DM and all their influencers to understand what's important to them. What do they need to see in order to purchase your product or service?

Here are some tips on doing that:
1. Schedule separate conversations
2. Develop separate action plans
3. ID different Value Opportunities
4. ID if there is an upline influencer and contact them
5. Keep everyone in the DM loop informed when appropriate.

If your discussions are out in the open, recap discussions of accepted value and "cc" the entire DM loop as a follow-up to your conversations. If you cannot reach everyone in the DM loop, then ensure you keep the influencers informed of all the discussions you have with the ultimate DM you do talk with.

Because "Getting To The DM" is a make-or-break subject in sales, the Erie Sales Club will devote several entries to this subject. This article is Part 1 of our series on "Getting To The DM."

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of three leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, and VertMarkets.