How do you get to the decision maker in a client organisation?

It's a bit of a trick question, of course.

There's no one decision maker.

According to the latest research by the Conference Executive Board, an average of 6.8 people are involved in buying decisions in large organisations. More when the decision is big and important.

Of course, not everyone involved has an equally important role to play. But typically, most of us meet far too few people when we're trying to sell.

We tend to stay in our comfort zones and stick with the people we already know or who are the easiest to get to and the most open to meeting us.

And unfortunately, they're rarely the most influential people in the decision.

So if you already know someone in a client organisation, how do you “get to” the key decision makers? And how do you avoid it seeming like you're going behind people's backs or being manipulative?

I've found a simple 2-step strategy works well pretty much every time.

Step 1: identify and get to the person who feels the pain of the issue you hope to help them with.

No matter who you're talking to in a client organisation it's a perfectly legitimate and above board thing to do to ask who is feeling the impact of a problem you're talking about (or an unfulfilled goal) the most. It makes complete sense to want to talk to the person who stands to gain the most from ideas and solutions to the problem.

And if you've got something valuable to say about solving the problem (like the “high value briefing” I often mention) then it makes complete sense for whoever you're talking to to introduce you to that person. They're doing them a favour.

Step 2: Partner with the person who feels the pain and help them get the issue addressed

The person who feels the pain is strongly motivated to want to get rid of it. If they see you as the easiest and best way of solving their problem, they'll work with you to make it happen.

Now, of course, they won't be the only one involved in either the decision to get started (by hiring you) or in making all the changes needed to get the solution implemented.

So talk to them about what it will take to get this solution implemented. Who needs to be involved? Who needs to buy in?

If they believe you're on their side (which you should be) then they'll usually be open about the process and you can share your experiences on how others in their position you've worked with have managed to get this solved. Who they spoke to in their organisation. Who they had to get involved.

Rather than sneaking around on your own trying to meet and influence key decision makers so that you get a sale, focus on helping the person with the pain to manage their organisation so they get their problem solved.

If they trust you, they'll take you with them to meet the key decision makers. You don't need to go sneaking around.

I've found that this simple process of partnering works way better than any kind of clever strategies for bypassing gatekeepers and getting to senior people to sell to them.

If you partner with someone inside the client organisation who's motivated to solve a problem, they're far more likely than you to be able to get key meetings and to get buy-in from the right people. 

Don't treat selling to a large organisation like a battle or chess game. Treat it as making friends and helping them.