When you are just starting out your career in B2B sales, one of the biggest obstacles you will face in closing deals is finding the right people to speak to; people that have the authority to close deals and make those big decisions.

While every prospect in the B2C world is a possible customer – with each consumer capable of making their own buying decisions – the B2B world operates differently. Getting to speak to the business decision maker in a company about your game-changing products or services is not so straightforward. Read on if you want to be able to increase your chances of cutting through the noise and reaching decision makers in a company that can make things happen for your business – and your commission figures.

What is a Business Decision Maker?

First and foremost, it’s important to be able to recognize what a business decision maker looks like in a company. Growing organizations are required to make strategic buying decisions on all kinds of goods and services throughout a financial year. A business decision maker is typically a high-level employee, often a department manager or even a head of department. These figureheads will oversee maintaining productivity within their respective teams and may be given the responsibility to take strategic decisions such as capital investments to acquire new products or services that can improve output and efficiencies.

While this may be the case in bigger corporate firms, it’s less likely that heads of department will be the decision makers in a company that’s considerably smaller. In this scenario, it could be the company owner or CEO that has the final say on all strategic decisions. When preparing your B2B sales pitch, it’s important to know the scale of a business you are reaching out to first. This will enable you to go in at the right level at the first time of asking.

Business decision makers shouldn’t be viewed with trepidation as a B2B salesperson. In fact, they should be respected. After all, they are the gatekeepers of businesses. They weigh up all the relevant information, compare the alternatives and make analytical decisions that can accelerate business growth. They have their company’s best interests at heart and rarely make quick, rash decisions.

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Who Are the Decision Makers in a Company?

If you want to understand the potential business decision makers of a target company, it’s a good idea to map out the organization first. This is a relatively easy task if the company is public, with their 10-K filing detailing their corporate structure. It’s not so straightforward when it comes to private companies.

At this juncture, it’s a good idea to formulate the ideal persona for your target decision makers in a company. Decide the key qualities your target business decision maker will have. Will they be required to manage budgets? Must they have strategic oversight of a company’s operations? Should they have a lengthy period of service to give them more influence and gravitas internally?

To help you learn more about potential decision makers in a company, you could also identify mutual connections with your targets. By liaising with your mutual connections, it may be possible to glean more information on your targets. Your mutual contacts may be able to verify that they are a credible decision maker to save you valuable time. In this instance, your mutual contacts could offer a direct route into your target decision maker by referring your business to them directly and verifying your legitimacy.

How to Reach B2B Decision-Makers 

When it comes to sales, one of the most difficult challenges is reaching business decision-makers, influencers, and gatekeepers. These are the individuals who have the authority to approve a purchase or give access to key people, and they can be notoriously difficult to contact. Thankfully, the most experienced sales reps have a few tricks up their sleeves to find email addresses by name and reach them.

  • Create several customer personas: When trying to target specific types of business decision-makers, create a customer persona for each (all key people involved, including influencers and gatekeepers). Your personas should include demographics, interests, pain points, deal-breakers, and buying habits. Remember, decision-makers tend to be very busy, so they don’t have a lot of time to research products or compare brands. Instead, they’re likely to make decisions based on word-of-mouth recommendations or simple brand recognition. Because of this, you should also focus on building strong relationships with influencers at companies or within the industry who can help spread the word about your products or services.

 

  • Use LinkedIn Premium: LinkedIn Premium can be especially useful when you’re looking to connect with business decision-makers. If you’re still on the fence about springing for the $30+ per month, here’s how to get contact details from LinkedIn. You’ll tap into their database of 830 million professionals, and you’ll be able to use 40+ advanced search filters to find the people with the power to make decisions and influence purchases. Also, LinkedIn Premium allows businesses to send messages directly to individual users, making it easy to start a conversation and build a relationship before competitors who are still stuck on the free tier. 

 

  • Get past gatekeepers: In business, the term “gatekeeper” refers to someone who controls access to a business decision-maker. If you’re trying to find a CEO’s email address or other executive, then connecting with their gatekeeper is essential. The gatekeeper’s job is to protect their boss from useless, spammy calls and emails, so of course they have a huge influence over what information their boss sees. Your best chance of getting your message through starts with making an excellent impression on the gatekeeper. Get your elevator pitch ready, and if you can, even do some research on the gatekeeper themselves to see what might capture their attention.

 

  • Cold calling: The key to cold calling is to have a well-crafted script that clearly articulates the value of your product or service to business decision-makers. You also need to be prepared to answer any questions or rejections they might have. Remember how we talked about customer personas above? Make sure to craft a different cold-calling script for each one. Our free sales script generator can help you craft your winning pitch for when you get through to those decision makers.

 

  • Cold emailing: Email is still one of the best ways to connect with key people. First, make sure your email is relevant to the recipient and that it includes a personal touch. Second, don’t oversell in your email – keep it brief and to the point. Finally, follow up with a phone call or an additional email a day or two after sending your initial message. By following these tips, you’ll be more likely to reach business decision-makers and get the results you’re looking for.

 

  • Create top-of-the-funnel content: When creating content for decision-makers in business – as well as lower-level employees tasked with doing research for them – don’t forget the sales funnel. The top of the funnel is all about awareness and education; content here should focus on introducing the problem your product or service solves. Once you’ve grabbed attention and piqued interest, you can start to talk about your solution in more detail. Keep in mind that several team members often research on behalf of B2B decision-makers, so your content should be comprehensive and comparative, covering all the key points so it can be shared, viewed, and help key people. If you can provide value at every stage of the funnel, you’ll be well on your way to reaching decision-makers. 

 

  • Use contact finder tools: Email permutators are a tool that can be used to generate a large number of email addresses. Email permutators work by taking a list of names and combining them with common email domains. For example, if you have a list of names and you want to generate email addresses for each name, you could use an email permutator to generate [name]@gmail.com, [name]@yahoo.com, and [name]@hotmail.com. Another tool to use is Lusha’s B2B prospecting tool. It locates email addresses and phone numbers when prospecting on Linkedin, inside your Gmail inbox and B2B websites. You’ll also receive info about their job roles and career!

Key Takeaways

  • A business decision-maker is an individual who has the authority to influence or make purchasing decisions on behalf of a company. They’re responsible for evaluating vendors and choosing the supplier that will provide the goods or services that best meet the needs of the company. 

 

  • The different types of decision-makers can include executives and managers, gatekeepers,  and influencers who specialize in technical or departmental knowledge, and investors. 

 

  • How to reach decision-makers quickly? When executing the above strategies, use Lusha’s sales intelligence platform to get B2B contact data at your fingertips and import it into your CRM in real time. When you’re prospecting on LinkedIn or B2B websites, Lusha will provide accurate email addresses and phone numbers and up to 37 data points on your lead – including job title and job role – to help you decide within seconds whether they’re a decision-maker, gatekeeper, or influencer at their company!

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    This information should not be mistaken for legal advice. Please ensure that you are prospecting and selling in compliance with all applicable laws.

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