Sales Professional as a Symphony Conductor

When planning your strategy for closing a complex sale, one of the first questions you need to ask is, “How many stakeholders will be involved in the buying process – either as an initiator, a gatekeeper, an influencer, a decision-maker, a procurement specialist, or an end user?” (Those six classifications are the subject of an insightful Harvard Business Review article called, “Major Sales: Who Really Does the Buying?”)