The Power Trio: Why Investing in Relationships with Finance, Procurement, and IT Pays Off
In the world of B2B sales, it's easy to fall into the trap of identifying the "obvious" decision maker and putting all of our prospecting and nurturing on that ICP. From my experience of selling to mid-market and enterprise companies, I've found that there are decision makers who are an inevitable part of the buying committee who can be my allies and help significantly in progressing the deal up to closing. I've found 3 main strategies that helped me close those deals, which are not related to the value the solution provides to the main users:
Find your allies (who are great influencers) - When planning a deal and identifying the ICP, we usually go with the end user - the obvious. For example: when selling a SaaS solution for sales people, I would focus on the VP/Director of sales. However, there are a few more important decision makers that have nothing to do with sales but have a lot of influence on whether or not to move forward with the purchase and how much to invest in it (they could look at it as a solution for the entire team, one department, just the minimum amount of users etc). By building relationships with influencers such as finance, procurement and IT (when selling a SaaS product), you gain an understanding of the internal politics, who is responsible for the budget, and who is influencing the budget holders. Moreover, you position yourself as a trusted advisor vs. “another vendor”, because you invest time in understanding the full picture and not just one role point of view.
Focus on their objectives - when selling to sales leaders we usually focus on increasing ROI, building pipelines and helping the sales reps to work more efficiently. However, when speaking with stakeholders from the buying committee who are not part of the sales organization, we need to understand their objectives. The value of the product we sell should be framed in a way that will meet their KPIs. For example: when speaking with procurement or finance, the focus would be on pricing and payment terms. When speaking with IT, the focus would be on integration and the potential of making other competitive tools redundant.
Find champions to be your advocates - your time with DMs is limited and you never have the full picture of the customer’s internal processes. When you build relationships with different stakeholders who can affect the budget holders, they become your advocates (champions) and “speak your voice” in the rooms where decisions are made. I’ve found that in large organizations, having an internal champion to promote the advantages of my product, helps significantly in closing strategic and long term deals.
Moving forward here are my 2 cents
The rule of thumb in B2B is that in most purchasing decisions there are made by 5-11 people involved. To make sure you fulfill the potential of closing larger deals, focus on building relationships not only with the "obvious" decision makers who are your ICP. Make sure you build a strong net of allies who can promote and advocate your product internally. It might feel like an obstacle or a potential delay in progress (as you invest time in more people), however, in the long run you’ll see that it pays off.
By engaging with those influencers and champions, you’ll be surprised how you can close larger deals in less effort. You will transform from being the “vendor” who keeps pushing to close a deal, to the trusted advisor who understands the full picture of your customer’s sales cycle.
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