Avoiding the “shout down the corridor”

Heard this wonderful expression from a seller inside a customer of mine that’d been there for 20+ years.  The “shout down the corridor” is where you propose something, and you leave thinking the deal is as good as done.  Afterwards, your contact asks their boss whether the money can be spent, and the resounding response is a “no!”.  You can probably hear it yourself in your ‘mind’s ear’… “boss, can we spend a few grand on this and that…?”  Ouch.

This situation is a constant hassle for people selling to one person who then must go to someone else for authority.  Often, you may not even realise further permission is required.  As solution-orientated sales people, we are constantly taught that you must get to the “real” decision maker, yet how do you prepare your contact to tee this up?

The solution the fella I spoke with has used for years is simply this.  He gets his initial contacts to say to their boss “had this fella in from [such and such] the other day and it looks like we can earn a few bob out of it…..”  There’s no mention of spending whatever amount of cash, and a further meeting more often than not results.