It’s impossible to sell to a person who is not authorized to buy. No matter what your sales plan may be or what sales courses you’ve taken, you can’t sell to someone if that person cannot make the decision to buy. You may often find yourself talking with a person whose responsibility it is to gather information yet lacks the authority to make the purchase.

As a part of your sales and marketing strategy, make a point to use this script early in the intelligence gathering phase:

“Jim, usually there are multiple stakeholders involved in making the final decision. Aside from yourself, who else on your team will be involved in making the final decision, and when do you think we should bring them into the process?”

Set the stage for the future of the process. Let them know up front that it’s okay that they aren’t the final decision maker and that you expect others to be involved. Sometimes people are reluctant to tell you that they’re not authorized to make the final decision or that their job is to get information and to pass it on to others. By bringing up the point and phrasing it as a question, you give them the opportunity to share this information without pressure or embarrassment. 

Doing this also saves you the time and hassle of delivering an entire sales pitch and spending a lot of effort explaining your offer to someone who, at most, will respond with “Well, thank you for the information. I’ll have to pass all these details to someone else to make the final decision.”

As always, remember the best sales professionals are always “sharpening the saw.” You can do this with sales courses and sales training, and those are important; however, experience is your best teacher. Add the above script to the intelligence gathering phase of your next sales call, and it will save you a lot of time and heartache later in the process.