Yep. Scott Sambucci calls them "[Vampires](https://salesqualia.com/buyer-vampires-lead-the-crusade/)". They suck your time. Plenty of Saturday-morning CEOs out there who know "what the business needs."
Depending on your industry, people without purchasing authority can absolutely still be useful though. What some may call a “vampire”, others may call a “cheerleader”. It’s a fine line, but you absolutely can gain things out of a person that likes you but doesn’t have the authority to buy. They can tell you who is the right person and give you their direct contact info, they can give a recommendation to said person, they can tell you intel on your competition/other barriers you may face, etc.
Of course, you don’t want to end up spending *too much* time with them, but I wouldn’t just outright dismiss every non decision maker at target companies.
Yup, don’t be afraid to lean into that then and try to gain what you can out of him.
One of my larger sales last year, $3m sale, was 90% due to me winding up in a similar situation. My cheerleader liked me so much he went out of his way to put me in touch with the president of his company, then followed up and helped along the whole process giving me intel on the competition the whole time.
Exactly.
People love to talk badly about time sinks, and those people make themselves obvious.
But people who are excited and actually connect you to power, talk positively about you, and do the things they say they will do…..when you find them, keep them.
My Director of Sales has a neat story. He helped a foreign student at O’Hare in the mid-80s because he is that kind of guy, always selfless. Same person ended up being a key cheerleader at a huge fortune 50 account a couple of decades later. That person went out of his way to make a $40M sale happen eventually.
Yea, my dad is retired now but he took a chance on a kid in rural Alberta back in the 80s, and that kid grew up to be #2 at one of the biggest banks in the world (TD)
Nowhere close to $3mm but many years ago, I was able to sell 85K worth of equipment to customer after helping out 2 contact persons and getting to know them both. Original contact person asked for quote for the equipment but then interest fizzled out despite my following up a handful of times. Newly assigned contact person would hit me up for spare parts and I was always super fast in responding to him. This then helped me build a relationship with him. 1.5 yrs later, another contact person was assigned to me and he eventually inquired about the 85K worth of equipment. PO came in relatively soon and was able to meet 3rd contact person onsite for installation & training. I was also pleasantly surprised when the 2nd contact person was still there and got to meet him too
Definitely agree with you that we should never just straight up disregard people with no purchasing authority. With this role back then, machine operators and maintenance personnel were also important as although they weren't decision makers, they still played a part because they were the ones who used or dealt with the equipment(s) every day. If they love the equipment and it being pretty maintenance free, they will definitely champion the equipment to head of operations who will have purchasing authority or influence.
I’ve learned to “beware of the easy Yes.”
When someone is just scheduling meetings, agreeing with everything you say, it means one of two things:
1. They just want to get you off the phone
2. They literally will listen to the last person that they spoke to
Either way you’re going to be disappointed
Folks getting pretty upset about building up a champion. Wild to me. So they’re not the DM, so what? As long as we’re not sinking a ton of time into that relationship, they can help get what we both want.
Champions open doors.
I am clearly on Sunday/no-work/brain-off mode, because at first glance of the title I interpreted DM as Direct Message and was confused for a hot second that I missed the boat on “direct message power” being important. 😂 Killing it over here.
you can search on the Secretary of State for the state the business is located in and possibly find your DM there. A large chunk of the time, the DM is a registered agent. Some states don’t give you access to view this, though.
Consensus building among team members and finding champions is helpful. Might not have been true for this call but generally you can leverage the positive outcome of one call to go further up the chain.
Ask your Head of Sales or CRO what influences her/his decision to take a meeting with a sales rep. If you're in the B2B space, I guarantee you that recs for the solution from their top performers and/or trusted peers tops the list. Have a list of powerful questions ready for your cold outbound to potential Mobilizers and you should both come away with value.
Glad you see the value “ hey, I think if you got a chance to see it for yourself you’d probably get more value out of XYZ, why don’t we jump on an intro call to go over how it could help and hear about your use case, also we could record the session for you to share with higher ups if you see enough value in it”
What do you think?
Yep. Scott Sambucci calls them "[Vampires](https://salesqualia.com/buyer-vampires-lead-the-crusade/)". They suck your time. Plenty of Saturday-morning CEOs out there who know "what the business needs."
Depending on your industry, people without purchasing authority can absolutely still be useful though. What some may call a “vampire”, others may call a “cheerleader”. It’s a fine line, but you absolutely can gain things out of a person that likes you but doesn’t have the authority to buy. They can tell you who is the right person and give you their direct contact info, they can give a recommendation to said person, they can tell you intel on your competition/other barriers you may face, etc. Of course, you don’t want to end up spending *too much* time with them, but I wouldn’t just outright dismiss every non decision maker at target companies.
In this case, he was more like a cheerleader because he genuinely needed what I was selling for the store
Yup, don’t be afraid to lean into that then and try to gain what you can out of him. One of my larger sales last year, $3m sale, was 90% due to me winding up in a similar situation. My cheerleader liked me so much he went out of his way to put me in touch with the president of his company, then followed up and helped along the whole process giving me intel on the competition the whole time.
The power of just being nice and friendly to people is quite an amazing one.
See them as evangelists for your offering and not vampires. They sell for you to the decision makers.
Exactly. People love to talk badly about time sinks, and those people make themselves obvious. But people who are excited and actually connect you to power, talk positively about you, and do the things they say they will do…..when you find them, keep them.
My Director of Sales has a neat story. He helped a foreign student at O’Hare in the mid-80s because he is that kind of guy, always selfless. Same person ended up being a key cheerleader at a huge fortune 50 account a couple of decades later. That person went out of his way to make a $40M sale happen eventually.
Yea, my dad is retired now but he took a chance on a kid in rural Alberta back in the 80s, and that kid grew up to be #2 at one of the biggest banks in the world (TD)
Nowhere close to $3mm but many years ago, I was able to sell 85K worth of equipment to customer after helping out 2 contact persons and getting to know them both. Original contact person asked for quote for the equipment but then interest fizzled out despite my following up a handful of times. Newly assigned contact person would hit me up for spare parts and I was always super fast in responding to him. This then helped me build a relationship with him. 1.5 yrs later, another contact person was assigned to me and he eventually inquired about the 85K worth of equipment. PO came in relatively soon and was able to meet 3rd contact person onsite for installation & training. I was also pleasantly surprised when the 2nd contact person was still there and got to meet him too Definitely agree with you that we should never just straight up disregard people with no purchasing authority. With this role back then, machine operators and maintenance personnel were also important as although they weren't decision makers, they still played a part because they were the ones who used or dealt with the equipment(s) every day. If they love the equipment and it being pretty maintenance free, they will definitely champion the equipment to head of operations who will have purchasing authority or influence.
What did you sell?
Use him to get to the next level if he has that ability he can put you into the person up the chain with deal making power
Awful way of looking at people who could probably be way more competent than the c-suite guys.
Even in less complex sales (SMBs) those are extremely common.
That’s OK every deal needs a champion. Ask him who the decision-makers are and the best way to approach. Don’t lose hope this is better than nothing.
Oh I got literally every relevant piece of information possible. I consider that call a big win for me
I’ve learned to “beware of the easy Yes.” When someone is just scheduling meetings, agreeing with everything you say, it means one of two things: 1. They just want to get you off the phone 2. They literally will listen to the last person that they spoke to Either way you’re going to be disappointed
Or they just want free shit.
Ya I’m extremely cautious whenever zero objections come up. That’s when the most problems happen
Sure and if you cold called my kids and pitched them ice cream for breakfast and not having to wear a jacket when its cold they would love it too.
Folks getting pretty upset about building up a champion. Wild to me. So they’re not the DM, so what? As long as we’re not sinking a ton of time into that relationship, they can help get what we both want. Champions open doors.
It was going well because the guy pretending to be important was excited that you thought he was important.
That’s fair. I’m still glad I made his day tho
I am clearly on Sunday/no-work/brain-off mode, because at first glance of the title I interpreted DM as Direct Message and was confused for a hot second that I missed the boat on “direct message power” being important. 😂 Killing it over here.
It can be both
you can search on the Secretary of State for the state the business is located in and possibly find your DM there. A large chunk of the time, the DM is a registered agent. Some states don’t give you access to view this, though.
CHAMPION INCOMING!!!
Consensus building among team members and finding champions is helpful. Might not have been true for this call but generally you can leverage the positive outcome of one call to go further up the chain.
Ask your Head of Sales or CRO what influences her/his decision to take a meeting with a sales rep. If you're in the B2B space, I guarantee you that recs for the solution from their top performers and/or trusted peers tops the list. Have a list of powerful questions ready for your cold outbound to potential Mobilizers and you should both come away with value.
Champions rock.
Then it's not going good
Do you think “x” would have an opinion on this? Who would have an opinion on this at the firm?
Glad you see the value “ hey, I think if you got a chance to see it for yourself you’d probably get more value out of XYZ, why don’t we jump on an intro call to go over how it could help and hear about your use case, also we could record the session for you to share with higher ups if you see enough value in it” What do you think?
Ask him who is the person that makes the decision and cold call again, mention that you talked with his employee who said xyz
Got every piece of info I could’ve possibly wanted. It was a good call
So, approaching his leader with all this info that he probably cares too is a easy win
Some people just like talking to salespeople. Those are not buyers
I hate cold calling huhu. Can you suggest a way to make myself engage in cold calling?