Power-Holders, Go-Betweens, Double-Agents and Black Holes

Black-Holes

One of the biggest challenges I have had is learning the differences between the Power-Holders, Go-Betweens, Double-Agents and Black-Holes. I will start at the bottom and work up.

BLACK-HOLES – In general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including light, can escape its pull. (Wikipedia)

In the world of business and sales, BLACK-HOLES (BH) exist on both sides of the aisle.
BH like to rat-hole down a discussion about the MTBF data and the methodology used in its derivation. Or perhaps the 3 different types of Hard Drive technology used in a SATA array. Is it FATA or SATA?

BH come unprepared to a sales call, ask you all sorts of basic questions about your company (all available on the web), and then proceed to wing a presentation or regurgitate one they have memorized.

A BH only has time to meet you for lunch…for the third time. Oh, and did I mention that they like the really nice places?

BH sales people take weeks to get a quote turned around.

I particularly like the BH that wants to try your product before they introduce you to the Power-Holder. Once your testing equipment is in place the staff in charge of testing it have mysteriously gone on vacation or been pulled on to a more pressing project. Voila!…endless and eternal proof of concept.

BH love to hold meetings that routinely go over an hour and have a slide deck for every point… I can read the slides too! Then they spend 40 minutes of your 1-hour meeting talking about the Add on the back of the USA Today.

My favorite is when BH make me complete a sales presentation, asks for a quote, requests I send it to them in email (which I rarely do), then conveniently forgets to check email, return voicemail or acknowledge a post card.

A BH is rarely the Power-Holder and never has approval authority. Beginning a Sales effort with a BH, will also end (unsuccessfully) with the same BH after having your time, effort and patience sucked mercilessly from your very soul. My advice…identify the BH early in your sales and purchasing efforts.

If you are working through a BH to purchase a product or service, ask to involve their manager in a higher-level discussion with your boss. Make sure you call out the purpose of the meeting and that you expect to make a decision based on the outcome of the meeting. Make sure the call out that the meeting will have a time limit and that there will be take-aways and due dates for follow up.

As a “Snake-Oil Salesperson” there is nothing more frustrating to have spent hours working on a request for a customer, followed up and completed all the action items to find out that the BH has no purchasing ability or are too weak to tell you that they cannot get approvals and have had their project denied. If you find yourself calling or emailing more than 2x over a 2 week period with no response, you have had your time and efforts sucked away and down the maw of the Black-Holer... Time to find a new audience in the organization. Once you do, invite the BH to the meeting, but don’t make them your point of contact moving forward.

Next week I'll talk about the Double-Agent.

The Best Sales Training I've ever had

I've decided to start sharing ideas that I've learned over my carrer in Sales. I hope that my readers find the tips and ideas that I will share helpful and productive.

Most of what I have learned came from others. Many of the tips I share came from other salespeople and purchasers.

Over 10 years ago, I was thrust into the challenging world of Sales for a large technology company. After about a month and limited success, I had a Buyer for Kohler Plumbing Products pull me aside and politely tell me that I needed help. Over the next 6 months, he taught me how to sell to his organization. It was the most valuable training I had ever received.

His name was Tony. He had written a manual titled "How to Deal with the Successful Saleperson" and he was teaching it to the other buyers in his organization. I borrowed it and never returned it. It was gold! Over the next few years I learned how to deal with each purchasing strategy he shared in his manual.

I will start sharing those tips and others. Stay tuned.