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Key decision makers and stakeholders

Key decision makers and stakeholders

Now that you’ve narrowed down your ICP, you will need to be able to target specific decision makers and stakeholders within a company. This section covers how to identify those individuals and understand their roles and responsibilities.

Research the company's organizational chart

The first step in identifying key decision makers and stakeholders is to research the company's organizational chart. This will help you understand the roles and responsibilities of different employees within the organization.

Look for positions like executives, department heads, and project managers, as these individuals often have decision-making power related to your product or service.

You can find that using Linkedin Sales Navigator, which we will cover in the next chapter.

Understand the decision-making process

Once you've identified potential decision makers and stakeholders, it's important to understand their roles in the decision-making process. Who has the final say on purchasing decisions? Who are the influencers and gatekeepers within the organization?

More often than not in B2B, the end-user is not necessarily the one having the purchasing power.

Depending on your product, going bottom-up or top-to-bottom will be more or less effective:

  • bottom-up means you’re targeting lower-level employees within an organization and working your way up. This approach can be effective in industries where purchasing decisions are decentralized and made by a large group of individuals, or where you can offer a free version of your product that those people can find valuable & use before submitting an upgrade request to their superiors.
  • The top-to-bottom approach to prospecting involves starting with the highest-level decision makers within an organization and working your way down. This strategy usually involves targeting C-level executives, such as CEOs, CFOs, and CMOs, as these individuals often have decision-making power and can make significant purchasing decisions. The idea behind top-to-bottom prospecting is that if you can convince the highest-level decision makers to buy into your product or service, they will be more likely to influence the rest of the organization to do the same.

Understanding these dynamics can help you tailor your sales approach and messaging to effectively communicate with each stakeholder.

✍️ What you should do now

Homework for you, fill the following template:

Who are the key decision maker and stakeholders in my sales cycle?

  • <role 1> : <how he is involved in the sales cycle>
  • <role 2> : <how he is involved in the sales cycle>
  • …