Today, we will look at The Financial Influencer, or as I like to call this very important person – The Cheque Signer, or The Final Authority. This is the most important person to get to know. This should be the first person you contact whenever you are trying to open a new account.

Many times we contact someone we know in a prospective account, and many times they are users of our product or service. We definitely need to know these people too, but if you start at the top, then you can always go back to them later in the sales cycle. If you start with someone below the financial influencer in the organization chart, then you will have a very, very difficult time trying to reach this influencer and authority later in the sales cycle, when you may need to talk to him or her.

So, let’s look at the financial influencer, and see what traits this person has, and why this person is so important to know.

The Financial Influencer

The financial influencer’s role is to give the final approval to buy. This role may consist of more than one person. It may be an executive committee. It could possibly even be the Board of Directors. Much of this role will depend upon a number of factors. The three most important factors to you are:
1.    The size of the company
2.    The dollar amount of your proposal
3.    The impact your solution has on the organization

There are number of reasons why this influencer may be a committee.  The most important factor in the buying process is what impact your product or service has on the organization. Does you product or service affect a whole department? Does this department have to change the way they currently operate? If so, then it will probably affect more than one department.

The financial influencer is focusing on the bottom line and what influence your product does have on the organization. This influencer has the following characteristics.
*    Has direct access to the dollars needed
*    Can release the funds
*    Has some discretionary use of funds
*    Has a veto power

This influencer asks “What kind of return will the company get on this investment”.

So, be aware of this when you are selling. This influencer has the most persuasion power of any of the other influencers. However, it is imperative to incorporate the other influencers into the process too. In fact, very few if any corporate decisions are made today, without the approval of all of the buying influencers.

Ensure that you get to know this person very early in your sales cycle. There are many ways to get to know this person, and we will discuss some of these ways in a later marketing tips ezine.