Your buyer is not always the real decision-maker
One of the strongest stories from my conversation with Rakhesh Martyn was a deal Hachiko thought it had earned.
The customer wanted to work with them.
A year later, they chose somebody else.
The reason was outside the obvious buying team.
The lender financing the project did not know Hachiko.
So Hachiko was not considered an acceptable candidate.
The account is not the buying system
Your CRM says the account is Company A.
The actual decision system may include the buyer, a lender, an investor, a consultant, procurement, technical evaluators, the board, a regulator and existing partners.
One of them may never attend a sales call.
They can still kill the deal.
Champions also have risk limits
A champion can genuinely like you and still fail to carry you through the organization.
Maybe the personal career risk is too high.
Maybe the vendor is too unfamiliar.
Maybe the person does not have enough political capital.
"Great relationship" and "safe buying decision" are not the same thing.
Map influence, not only buyers
For important accounts, ask:
Who gets blamed if this goes wrong?
Who needs to recognize our name?
Who can veto the vendor?
Who does the champion ask for advice?
Who finances or approves the project?
Who has done this purchase before?
That map may matter more than adding ten more leads.