Weekly Tip: 5 Things You Need to Know About Your Decision-Maker

I grew up with Mackay’s 66 Questions, Mackay 66, as the definitive list of things to know about a customer. Check it out, it is a classic in sales literature. The point of the list is that a good sales person should seek to know all of these things about his or her prospect and customer so as to develop a great relationship.

Times change and many of the things on the list can be discovered online without developing a relationship. Decision-makers have less time and are less willing to develop relationships. But you have to connect and develop trust in order to do big business. Here are my 5 Things You Need to Know About Your Decision-maker, above and beyond the Mackay 66:

1. Biggest career success to date.
2. Worst professional purchasing decision.
3. Best supplier/vendor example of how they like to be treated as a customer.
4. What they have learned about how to select suppliers/vendors from their past experiences.
5. How selecting the right supplier/vendor will impact their business in the next 6 months.

All of these questions will require stories, context, emotion and detail. You will get more information that will cast light on the decision-making process as well as the decision-maker.