Learning Your No-Po Lacks Power Before They Know

The last thing a No-Po is going to do is admit they lack power, so they’ll exercise the little power they have over vendors. It makes them feel important, needed, authoritative and poweful.

Earlier this year, I wrote about this concept in Why do we call people who have no power? The answer to this question is we don’t always know they don’t have power. They will show interest, be cooperative and sound excited about our products and services, and we respond well to all that. After all, who wants to question that? As salespeople, we are confronted with rejection on a minute-by-minute basis; it’s refreshing to receive such positive signals.

But that doesn’t last long before red flags start popping up and we start piecing things together and realize they don’t have the power we thought they had. The most suprising fact is that we sometimes find out before they do how little power they actually have. We find out by calling deeper and wider and learning the political hierarchy. Even if we confront them with this knowledge, they may deny it and keep leading us on because that’s their job.

Learn to qualify the hierarchy early in the sale. Ask questions about the decision-making process early. Questions such as:  Please tell me about the decision-making process within your organization/department? How do you come together on decisions? Who researches it? Who signs the purchase orders? Please walk me through your approval process? Who has spending power over $10K or $30K projects? What is the chain of command? What is your role?

  Asking these questions early will drastically shorten your sales cycle and help you forecast realitically.