Decision Making 101

Decision Making 101 is a college course that unfortunately is not taught at the Harvard Business School, or any other universities for that matter. That’s no surprise since sales continues to be the least taught profession in the world.

Ultimately, decision makers want to know three things:

1.)  What are my options?

2.)  What’s the impact on my business (or personally)?

3.)  What are the associated costs?

Knowing this, a salesperson can very easily ask for a meeting by saying, "Mr. Customer, would it make sense to get the appropriate people together so we can map out your options, the impact on your business, and the associated costs?"

Don’t just ask for a meeting! Asking for just another meeting where a vendor is likely to pitch their wares is a bland request at best. Of course they won’t prioritize it enough to ask their boss to attend, or even block out much time.

Just know that when you suggest getting together to "map out" a strategy, most customers immediately default to saying something like, "We have to make sure that Larry, Susan, and Bill are involved if we’re going to be mapping stuff out!"

Bingo! Asking for more than a meeting causes people to block out more time, invite more people, and they come ready to discuss the decision at hand.

                                          –Thomas A. Freese