Gatekeepers Advocates and the Final Decision Maker

written by: Patricia Terrone; article published: year 2007, month 01;


In: Root » Business » Ethics and presentation » Gatekeepers Advocates and the Final Decision Maker

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Three people stand between you and a successful sale: the customer's gatekeeper, advocate, and final decision maker (FDM).In smaller, decentralized, and less-bureaucratic companies, the same person might assume two or three of these roles. Sometimes, people pretend to assume roles they do not really play. Your challenge is to find out what role each person really plays. You need to know, not assume, who gives the final yes to buy your products.

Note  Most sales theories break contacts into two groups, the C level and the D level. The C level comprises the chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief information/technology officer, and so forth. The D level is composed of directors and heads of departments such as operations, finance, engineering, accounting, and customer service. Ensure that you understand both C and D level goals to gain support throughout the organization.

The roles, in order of their ability to issue purchase orders if they are three different people, are as follows.

Gatekeepers

Gatekeepers play an interesting role. They either open or close the gates on your efforts to get to the advocates or final decision makers. They can say an initial no to your pursuing sales opportunities but not a final yes to purchasing your products. Yet, if they feel you take their goals seriously, gatekeepers provide invaluable information. They know what goals interest the advocates and FDMs most—and details of the filters. They can also tell you what the best way is to build rapport with them.

Gatekeepers' areas of expertise are mostly technical or operational in nature. Their goals often look more like requirements or specifications. Purchasing agents use gatekeepers to help them insert technical language into requests for proposals (RFPs). Advocates and FDMs view gatekeepers as inside consultants. If your products fall within their field of expertise, your products must satisfy their technical requirements. Because of their technical nature, gatekeepers tend to discuss specific products and features rather than broad goals.

Companies often use outside consultants as external gatekeepers. They provide guidance on how best to achieve their goals. Like gatekeepers, they too can give you an initial no but not a final yes. The role of consultants surfaces when you discuss the filters of plans or alternatives. When gatekeepers show uncertainty about their goals or filters, do not be surprised if outside consultants appear. Companies hire consultants to help them clarify their goals, make them measurable, and eliminate uncertainty.

Advocates

Advocates receive the most benefit from any proposed goals. They are responsible for making sure your products achieve their goals. Advocates become your internal salesperson because they have the most at stake. They become your coach—a coach who wants you to win. They sell the benefits of their goals—and your products—within their organization without you being there. They know what it takes to get the FDM to say yes. Often, the advocate's recommendation is all it takes to get orders. The FDM's approval is merely a rubber stamp.

Sometimes, an advocate will tell you that he or she doesn't need you to make a presentation. The advocate wants to handle it on his or her own. This situation often occurs because the advocate is not sure what you will say in front of his or her boss. Ask your advocate if there are any topics he or she doesn't want you to bring out at a meeting with the boss or others. You will continue to build trust as a confidant with this approach.

You also need to point out to the advocate that if you aren't at the meeting, any unanswered questions/concerns can take on a life of their own and jeopardize the goals he or she wants to achieve if these questions are not addressed promptly. Offer to make your presentation and then leave so the advocate and his or her boss can discuss any concerns without you there. However, agree to wait outside (and out of earshot) until they summon you when they have completed their internal discussions. Answer all concerns at that moment or set up a return meeting if you need to review these concerns with your sales team.

Everyone wins with this approach. You present (after all, no one can make a presentation better than you—or they should be working for your company as a salesperson), the customer gets to discuss matters in private, and you address any concerns immediately, so the advocates and your goals are not at risk.

Their role becomes critical to your success if you cannot meet with the FDM. Now, you need the advocate to sell your formal proposals to them. If you format your proposals properly, they will guide advocates in their selling efforts. By highlighting goals, measurable benefits, SOEs, and unique strengths in your proposals, advocates sell measurable value the same way you do.

Note  Ask your initial contacts to draw an organizational chart to help identify their role in the company. Ask them to draw their direct subordinate and supervisor boxes. Ask them also to draw any dotted line boxes (staff positions). Find out how these positions (people) interact with them with respect to purchasing decisions and the amount of sway (political influence) they have.

The Final Decision Makers

The saying, "The buck stops here,'' definitely applies to FDMs. They release or allocate money to achieve any proposed goals. They also give the final approvals on the measurable specifics of the four prerequisites. If they choose to delegate their responsibilities, they decide who becomes the anointed FDM. Sometimes, they skip the advocate and appoint the gatekeeper as the FDM. This is yet another reason not to ignore the goals and filters of gatekeepers.

Note  Consider these two requirements as the acid test for the FDM: They must be able to (1) release funds and (2) approve the SOEs used to calculate the value derived from achieving specific goals.

Locating the Final Decision Makers

You try to locate FDMs by using your customer knowledge, experience, and educated guesses. You can also locate FDMs by reviewing sales opportunities you lost and won in similar-size organizations and market segments. Ask yourself, "What positions made the final decisions involving those sales?''

Once you review your answers, factor in one more aspect to complete your evaluation. Are you contacting positive, neutral, or negative customers? Using your answers as reference points, you would:

  • For positive customers, start at the same contact level.

  • For neutral customers where you had successes, start at the same level. Begin one level higher where you lost sales.

  • For negative customers, start one level higher than the position of your positive customers.

Type Of Customers Past Contact Levels Revised Contact Levels as Compared to Positive Customers
Positive Position X Same level
Neutral Position Y Same (successful) or one level higher (unsuccessful)
Negative Position Z One level higher

Top-Down Often Beats Bottom-Up Selling

Many public figures (Arthur Clarke, Mark Twain, and Henry Kissinger) have commented that debates among academics become vicious because so little is at stake. In the debate over where you begin your sales calls, a lot is at stake. If you start your sales calls with the gatekeeper or the advocates, he or she might block you from the FDM. If you start with the FDM, he or she might redirect you to gatekeepers or advocates who feel you went over their heads. So, where do you start? Again, it depends on whether sales opportunities involve positive, neutral, or negative customers. However, often top-down selling means starting with C-level positions: chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO), and chief financial officer (CFO). Make sure you know their goals, industry trends, company market position, and so forth. These chiefs will demand that you do before you meet with them.

How Much Sway?

When dealing with a gatekeeper, advocate, or final decision maker, you want to evaluate his or her influence or sway on the purchasing decision. For comparison purposes, assign sway a 1, 2, or 3 value as follows:

  1. Can't define measurable benefits gained from achieving his or her goals

  2. Defines measurable benefits of goals and systems of evaluations used to calculate benefits

  3. Defines measurable benefits, SOEs, and releases funding

You should question why you worked up a proposal if your contact doesn't qualify as at least a 2 in the sway category.

Contacting Neutral or Negative Customers

Start at the highest position that would receive the most financial benefit from your product. That is probably the FDM. The higher up the organizational chart you go on your initial contact, the more receptive these positions are to change. Their perspectives are more concerned with the so-called big picture. They do not think in terms of specific products, but rather measurable results. Results-oriented individuals with broad goals are excellent candidates for you. They reward sales professionals for converting their general goals into measurable value and benefits.

Conversely, the lower you start on the organizational chart, the more resistant individuals are to change. Their goals and responsibilities are narrower. They think more in terms of specific products than broad goals. They equate measurable value with lowest prices or fastest deliveries. Yet, a common sales mistake is to start with negative or neutral customers at the same level (position) you do with your positive customers. While you are more familiar with these positions, they are not your best place to start. Fortunately, competitors fall into the same trap with whom they should contact first. First one out of the trap wins.

Contacting Positive Customers

Continue to work with the decision-making roles that make sales happen. If the person is not the FDM, use the one up, one down strategy. Encourage your contacts to set up meetings at least once a year with the FDM ("one up''). Make sure that if your contact leaves, the FDM knows how you provide value for the company and will pass the word on to your contact's replacement, making it easier for you to maintain the company as a positive customer.

In addition, meet with your contacts' subordinates ("one down''). If your contact leaves, a subordinate might be promoted to fill the vacancy. It benefits you for the person to know the goals you achieved for his or her company. Past goals that produced measurable value are your best assurances that companies, not just contacts, remain positive ones.

Note  Most salespeople who have a history of sales successes dealing with gatekeepers or advocates rarely meet with the FDM. They do not feel they have any reason to meet other than for public relations. Again, this presents you with excellent sales opportunities to dislodge competitors. Nothing beats the surprised look on competitors' faces when they find out they lost sales to you—and they did not even know you or their contacts' bosses existed.

Contacting Gatekeepers or Advocates at the FDM's Request

Often, FDMs require you to obtain the approval of advocates or gatekeepers before they enter the purchasing process. You use the FDM's interest to help raise the interest level of advocates or gatekeepers when you meet them. When contacting advocates or gatekeepers, even at the FDM's request, keep your focus on their goals and filters first. You earn the support of gatekeepers and advocates when you help them to achieve their goals. They might not be the same as the FDM's goals, but they must be met. Otherwise, you will not make it back to the FDM. A good sign of their support is when gatekeepers or advocates encourage you to meet with the FDM after your meetings.

Note  Most bruised egos occur with uninterested or hostile gatekeepers or advocates when you contact the FDM after making initial contacts with them. With neutral and negative customers, you might as well start where you need to end up—with the FDM. Finally, let FDMs or advocates—not you—confer authority, responsibility, and importance on people and positions.

However, gatekeepers and advocates will be pleasantly surprised when you tell them that you discuss only broad goals, systems of evaluation, and measurable benefits with their bosses, not specific products. After all, that is their job.

Get the Top Five Buzzing

If you still are not sure whom to contact, use a top-five approach. Go to a prospect's Web site or call the receptionist and find out the names of the top-five positions or C levels that would most likely benefit from goals achieved by your unique strengths. Send the same letter to each one outlining potential goals, measurable benefit, and systems of evaluation. Include references from similar companies by positions. Put a cc on the bottom of the letter with the names of the other people you sent it to. Put in the letter to the top position the date on which you plan to make a follow-up call (two weeks from the delivery date). In the other letter, reference the date of your follow-up call.

Your goal is to create an internal buzz ("Hey, did you see that letter from ... ?'') Call the highest position first and see what happens. Work your way down the list (if need be) but always refer to the letter and the others to whom it was sent when you start your follow-up telephone calls. At worst, they know you did your homework and have an understanding of their industry.

Note  Without measurable details, it is difficult to distinguish between decision makers' roles. Verifying vague and general information will not cause any differences between decision makers to surface. The more details you receive, the more you can determine a decision maker's authority and influence.

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