Recent research performed by The Sales Executive Council revealed the number one reason organizations make buying decisions… and the answer will surprise you. It’s not price, relationship, technology, or any of the typical answers. Their research of hundreds of decision-makers exposed that having a consensus among their people is the number one reason buying decisions are made today. Think about that for a second and compare it to your experience in the security industry over the last few years. Has there been more committee-type decisions? This fact leads me to conclude that there are no more true decision-makers. So, what do we do?
First, realize that you have a huge opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition by understanding this change in the buying landscape. For your top customers and prospects, identify the key influencers in the decision making process and get to know them. Understand their objective of the project. Security, IT, accounting, HR, and others will all have different objectives. Illustrate how your solution will help them meet their individual objective and then share it with the team.
Result: the decision-maker (a better term might be “committee head”) and the committee will see that you’ve met with everyone involved, have met their individual objectives, and that you care about the entire organization. Meanwhile, your competition will be sitting in the corner of one of these people and that’s it (probably security or IT).
