How to find the key person in the client company?
Different companies have different corporate cultures. Some decision makers like to control everything, while some decision makers like to listen to other people’s opinions and delegate decision-making power. Many foreign trade salesmen believe that the purchaser has the decision-making power, or that the CEO has the decision-making power, or that the marketing department has the decision-making power. This inertial thinking is wrong. Even if experience tells us that the decision maker of the previous company that was sold was the vice president or CEO of this company, it does not mean that the next customer will be the same.
There are usually two strategies, one is top-down and the other is bottom-up. Then you can use mind maps to establish the process of developing large corporate customers.
It is easy to assume that the decision maker of the client company’s purchase is the most influential person in the company, and it is usually believed that the senior management in the organizational structure is the target to be found. Therefore, the top-down strategy has become a very popular sales strategy. This strategy often seems to make sense, but salesmen often run into obstacles in actual operations because the senior management may not be the right target.
For example: If you want to sell $10,000 worth of shoes to a small retailer, it is reasonable to contact the customer’s company’s senior management directly, because the boss of this company is the only one who has the power to make a purchase decision. If you want to sell $1 million worth of medical devices to a medical device company, it may not be reasonable to contact the company’s CEO at the beginning of the sales process. Because large companies have layers of decision-making restrictions, going straight to the point and contacting the company’s senior management at the beginning will greatly reduce the success rate. Based on the above mind map, you need to consider what are the advantages and risks of using a strategy, and then you can draw a mind map after thinking about it.