2 of 7 Sales Qualification - MANDACT – (A) - Authority, who decides?

Sales qualification is key for a sales manager, rep or situation. We need to understand of the prospect is worthwhile. Does it fit our business, can they afford us, is it worth putting the effort in.

If we are winning deals we are probably also losing them , but we need to make sure we put effort into the deals we can win, and less or none to those that are borderline. The worst thing is to put serious effort in a deal we then lose.

We use a qualification acronym – MANDACT to help us remember what information we need to obtain from the prospect.

For a senior manager, how much authority they have over their organisation's expenditure is often a politically sensitive issue.
It is probable that you will get the answer " yes" to the question " Do you have the authority?" but you cannot be sure that it is correct.

Many ego's are attached to spending authority, so;

• If asked directly, a senior manager will usually say that they alone have the authority
• This is sometimes not the case
• Check with others in the organisation.

Try the MANDACT 'likely story' technique to find out who has the authority. For example; " Tell me, when making similar sized investments at this company, what logistically has to occur?"

In more complex sales there are often many people involved in a decision, the classic case being in the public sector, where often decisions are made by committees. In large corporates there are often several different stake holders involved in any decision.
A common way of classifying the key players is to find:

• The Economic buyer – responsible for the budget/money
• The User buyer – representing the actual users of a new system , product or process
• The Technical buyer – responsible for the installation, fit, environment for the new product/system

Each of these buyers can have a veto and influence on a decision and it is important to speak to each of these buyers, and/or their representatives.

Also when involved in a longer more complex decision it is often useful to find a Champion for your product / service. This person effectively becomes your internal sales person in the organization and helps you get the sale. He will usually have some personal interest in the success – i.e. a promotion or internal recognition especially if he is a new person brought in to do a specific job or project. Find and keep a champion and you reduce your workload and increase your chances of success.

As you can see speaking or meeting all of these people to understand how they feel about your product or service can be a lot of work particularly with larger value deals. Remember these days even a £10k decision can require board approval in quite large companies.

See also D for Decision criteria.

Next installment - "N" - Need

Excerpt from our sales training course: "Selling is just a conversation".