Yes, Virginia, You Can Go Over Your Contact's Head.

Last week, in working with one of Northwood's SaaS clients, someone on the team said, "You know what? I finally got fed up with dealing with a manager who wouldn't make a decision, and went over my contact's head. I couldn't take it anymore?"

"And you're here to tell about it?"

"Dude, not only did I survive, but we got the deal closed."

This. Problem. Never. Goes. Away. Sales teams whittle away their pipeline dealing with the wrong people.

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See the image above? I didn't realize the guy on the floor is Tyronn Lue, the (former) head coach of the Cleveland Cavs. I did know the guy stepping over him is Alan Iverson, who single-handedly carried the Sixers to the Finals.

At least once a week, someone asks, "How do I get this particular deal unstuck? Do you have a strategy to help?"

The deal in question is always in the hands of someone in the prospect's company who cannot say "Yes," but could say "No." There's always approval required from a manager, director, or VP higher up the food chain. And reps are left wondering, "How do I get this particular person to make it happen?"

It helps to remind them of the following:

• No one is likely to really fight for your solution.
• Even if they do fight for it, will that get the deal closed?
• Even if it were to somehow advance the deal further, won't your fate still rest in someone else's hands? Someone you don't have access to?

There's the place many people engage. And it's not a place where sales are truly won. They're rarely the same, except for those few people who make a living crushing deals. That place is not in building a lot of rapport with our champion. It's talking to people who sign checks and who are held accountable for real results, not people who try to cover their rear.

Yet people routinely yell, "I'll upset my champion! I can't go over them!"

If this is the line of thinking, just look at historical close rates and ask yourself, "How well are these champions working out for me?"

Two quick examples drove this home for me, personally.

First scenario.

A company's learning and development team called me in to talk about helping their sales team, who were woefully underperforming. They wanted to start with a small beta group, which I suggested. So far, so good.

When it came time to scope it out, we talked a modest amount of money for both parties. Yet their finance person in the meeting screamed bloody murder. "We can't find that sort of money." They then delivered, in unison, a company line that despite being a 65 million-dollar per year SaaS company, there was no money to solve their performance problem.

Fine by me, but I was not going to do the work for less. So I left and said I'd be in touch.

The next day, I called the VP of Sales, introduced myself, and asked his opinion on what needed to be done to help the team. He didn't even know his L&D department was looking into development, but he knew they needed it.

I told the VP we were stuck over a small budget and that the managers below him claimed they couldn't find money anywhere. He said, "Send it to me." Guess what? He signed the PO and got me the money. You know whom I never saw again? The person from finance.

You know who never had an issue with me after? The head of learning and development.

Second scenario.

A CEO whose company I'd worked with years prior asked me to lunch. He opened by saying, "I owe you a lot of thanks."

I asked why.

He said, "I tell people how much of an impact you had on my company. We were getting killed in sales, and I told my VP to go find someone to help us better compete. He met with you, came back and told me it was expensive. I told him I didn't care, but we need to do something. If it fails, it fails, but we have to invest in solving this problem. So we did. I'm not sure how much we spent or how long we worked with you, but it made a huge difference."

"That's great," I replied.

He then said, "I sold my company and the valuation we received had to do with the growth we got from working with you."

This. Man. Never. Has. To. Work. Again.

And you know whom I never talked to in this sales process? That guy!

I was busy haggling with his VP over some money. (The VP did pretty ok in this deal, too. And every time we get together, I remind him of it!)

Yes, I got a deal done. But yes, it would've been much better had I gotten up top. And not just financially for me; with a larger budget, we could've done more work faster, accelerating their growth.

It's easy to mistake one person's perspective for that of the final decision-maker

The VP was worried about dollars, and the CEO was saying, "I don't care. I want the best." To win championships, sometimes we have to fight to get upstairs where decisions are made.

Things have worked out well for Tyronn Lue in his second act, but maybe he learned something from Iverson: to win big, you have to go for it and sometimes go around those who are slowing down the game.

To learn more about building an effective sales process, or playbook, or team, check out thenorthwoodgrp.com.

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