Closing the deal requires more than effort and a great offering. You need to connect with the right people. That can be easier said than done, and if your point of contact isn’t the decision maker, your challenge increases. Fortunately, you can still win the sale even without a direct line to the top. If your contact at a potential client isn’t the decision maker, here’s how to get the access you need. 

Impress Your Contact, Impress the Decision Maker

Approach every meeting as if you were talking to the decision maker. Bring your A-game and let them know you won’t waste their time. Their buy-in is important to winning the support of the decision maker and may be the path to getting that opportunity.

According to The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson,”Widespread support for a supplier across their team is the number one thing senior decision makers look for when making a purchase decision.”

Focus on Discovery

Every interaction is an opportunity to learn more about your prospect. Ask your contact about the company’s pain points and goals, where their current solutions deliver, and what inefficiencies hold them back.

As always, do more listening than talking. According to Gong, top-performing sales reps talk less than 50% of the time.  Ask lots of questions to get the insights you need to impress the decision maker when the time comes. That way when you score face time, your clear understanding of the company’s priorities will be an advantage. 

Make Things Easy (and Make Them Look Good)

With your new perspective in mind, you’re well-positioned to show how a partnership will make the contact’s company more productive, competitive, and profitable.

Use your time to demonstrate how you could make life better for the decision maker, whether that means more units produced, better material handling, or faster, smarter tech. Plus, don’t forget your contact. Your message should also make it clear they’ll come out looking good for introducing you.  

Make Them a Brand Evangelist

If you can win over your contact, you can prep them to win over the decision maker. To do so, give them the right content to make that case. Demand Gen Report shows that 79% of B2B buyers said the winning vendor’s content had a significant impact on their buying decision 

When all your latest materials are available in a sales enablement platform, it’s easy to curate the right collection of assets for any situation. Give your contact the information that best communicates your value, and you’ll be meeting with the decision maker in no time. 

Turn Contacts into Customers

When a decision maker seems out of reach, persistence and the right tools can turn your first contact into a powerful advocate.

With a sales enablement platform that ensures easy access to all your sales content anywhere on any device—even without internet access—you can make the strong, positive impression needed to grow a relationship. 

If your current sales technology isn’t opening doors, StorySlab can help. Request a personalized demo to see how our done-for-you sales enablement app makes it easy to access and share the content you need to reach the decision maker at any organization.