{"id":25025,"date":"2020-06-24T17:35:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T00:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nimble.com\/blog\/?p=25025"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:43:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:43:56","slug":"finding-decision-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nimble.com\/blog\/finding-decision-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Quickly Find the Decision Makers at Any Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talking to the decision-maker for a sales rep is an activity that belongs to the top of the 20% of the Pareto Principle formula.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How does one find the right person in a company who is in a position to sign a check for the product that you have to offer?<\/span><\/p>\n

These are concrete actions one can take to find the right decision-maker.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Do You Define Decision-Makers?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Who are decision-makers anyway? Are they the CEOs of the company? CEMs? CFOs? CTO? C-level executives?<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes and no.<\/span><\/p>\n

A decision-maker is a person in an organization or a company, who is responsible for taking the final decision on the issue raised by the sales rep or other potential partner.<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Such a person can be either a company’s senior manager or even a department manager, as long as he or she has the right to approve budgets assigned to his entrusted business unit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision can be passed on approving the purchase of a product or service, or on concluding a partnership or agreeing on a fundraising donation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, it’s not all about money or budgets. Let’s take a casting agent in the film industry for illustration. For a person in this position, a Mom and Dad of young talent<\/a> are decision-makers, who may approve of the long-term contract in another country or not, based on their circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n

11 Empirically Derived Steps To Find A Decision Maker<\/b><\/h2>\n

No more theoretical chatter, sales don\u2019t have the time for that, let\u2019s get down straight to the action. These are some practice-derived tricks that work, which Nimble users shared with us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Know The Hierarchy Of The Company<\/b><\/h3>\n

Decision-makers are a coveted asset for hundreds of hungry salespeople out there. Their gatekeepers managed to build a defense the height of Mount Everest to keep their business schedules and email spam-free.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is why knowing the hierarchy of any company is a promising start.<\/span><\/p>\n

Positions aside, who surrounds a decision-maker [further – DM for convenience]?<\/span><\/p>\n

Gatekeeper<\/b> \u2013 such a person is usually a PA or a secretary, who is very familiar with the DM, but whose only duty is to guard their schedule closely to plan. Not part of the DM\u2019s plan for today? It is a <\/span>gatekeeper<\/span><\/a>\u2019s job to keep it that way. If you devise a methodology on how to get through to such a person, chances are you will quickly become a six-figure salesman.<\/span><\/p>\n

An influencer<\/a><\/b> is a mid-level manager who has the power to advise or provide conclusive investigative work for the DM on which to base the verdict on your question.<\/span><\/p>\n

Influencers may be quite knowledgeable about the product you are offering, so making sure you are on the same page is important for the success of the overall mission. <\/span><\/p>\n

Always be on the lookout for competitors’ affiliate and loyalty programs \u2013 they may include incentives for gatekeeper and influencer positions, depending on the market. Being aware of such schemes is a good practice to estimate the motivational level of each party in such a potential transaction<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A self-declared decision-maker<\/b> is a phenomenon more common in governmental bodies and NGOs, as they may find a corporate environment too hostile & overly regulated for them to thrive in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The perfect habitat of the self-declared decision-makers is in the muddy waters of the more corrupt societies, with lesser levels of democracy than the USA and Western Europe. They may be milking the system by looking out for opportunities to offer their middleman-ship and even bragging about their power to get things moving.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The only way to deal with them is not to deal with them unless you are ready for high-risk business and are looking for a perfect opportunity to ruin your reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Define Your Decision-Maker Personas<\/b><\/h2>\n

Having a buyer or user persona is something truly fundamental and ABC-like for marketing endeavors in e-commerce to succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to B2B sales, drawing a Decision Maker Persona is as essential, but not so often done routinely.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to answer the question \u201chow to identify the decision-maker,” one should have drawn a good half-dozen of DM personas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make sure you have a few of the DM personas<\/b><\/h3>\n

The decision-making process in B2B sales will vary dramatically based on the size of the organization you are trying to get your foot in the door of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Use existing clients to describe the major aspects of your DM personas<\/b><\/h3>\n

Look into your closed deals and late stages of the funnel to find out which roles, departments, companies, and professional backgrounds your DMs may come from. Investigate their digital habitat: do they use LinkedIn? Facebook? What messengers do they prefer? How did your company find & reach out to them initially?<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider doing a DM journey map, akin to a User journey map<\/b><\/h2>\n

To better understand and describe your perfect decision-maker types, try to trace back the history of your existing top accounts and understand the journey of those people towards becoming your top client. Using a User Journey template is perfectly fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Research a company website<\/b><\/h2>\n

First things first, now that you know who it is you are looking to reach out to, you start with the most basic info: a corporate website.<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision maker\u2019s contact info is likely to be found in the following frequently used sections:<\/span><\/p>\n