Finding out who the decision maker is

Quick tips on how to find the right person to approach at a prospect’s company

In sales and marketing, we all want to aim to reach and positively influence the decision makers.

People who will decide if they want to open their wallets to you.

Here are some proven tactics to identify them:

1. LinkedIn, AngelList and Twitter — Top three places where B2B decision makers are likely to be active, approachable and talk about their roles.
2. Find a common connection at the prospect company and ask the person to help you figure out.
3. Call the board number and ask for the right person to contact about your services
4. Mail a person of almost equal experience as yours and ask them to help you out on your job to figure out who the right person at the prospect company could be.
5. Top-down — A neat way to also do this is to figure out the email ID of the top guy and send them a crisp email like this:

Hi Tom,

I’m Sonya from XYZ. Are you the right person to discuss global events participation at Tom Enterprises? If not, I’d appreciate you guiding me to the right person.

Best,

Sonya

Also, there’s a thumb rule I learnt early in my career on figuring out decisions makers when it comes to company size. Sharing in case it comes handy to anyone 😉

Up to 20 employees — CEO or Founders

20–100 employees — VPs of Sales, Marketing, operation, Tech etc.

100–1000 employees — Managers

1000+ employees — Regional heads

First published here on LinkedIn