Should you ignore decision makers early on? No! In other words, sales reps shouldn't wimp out and avoid trying to build a relationship with the decision maker, but it’s not always urgent to get there from the beginning (though it is a big help). Is reaching the ultimate decision makers any less important? No! Win over your internal champions and coaches first; build the case. Then you’ll be perfectly positioned to win over the final decision makers. You do want to build a relationship with the decision makers early, but don’t “sell” them until you’ve begun winning over the influencers, or at least until they’ve begun to agree with the value of your business case. Build some credibility and understanding of the business first. You’ll look weak, lame or‘sales-y’ if you’re pitching a business case to the decision maker that their influencers disagree with or don’t fully buy into yet. Finally, when a salesperson doesn’t understand the decision-making process (which is all too common!), there’s a lot less visibility into how long the sale can take, the likelihood of closing, and hidden landmines. Busy salespeople tend not to ask enough (or bold enough) questions of prospects around how the prospect’s internal processes work. If you’re a salesperson: With your current top five deals, how well have you mapped out their internal buying process? If you’re a sales executive: If you sat down with your team and had them talk about their own top deals, how clear are they, not just on the current status of the deal or the next step, but also the prospect’s actual internal process to get to a decision?