They chose your competition.

Have you ever heard a prospect say this or something like it? It hurts, does it not? Maybe it sounded like, I'm sorry, I chose to go in a different direction. We are going to address this situation in our message today.

Over the past month, we evaluated an account's buying influences. All organizations consist of four primary buying influences based on job type: users or workers, technical influences, coaches or champions, and the economic buyer, often called the final decision-maker.

We finally look at the most critical influence in an account: the economic buyer. We define the economic buyer as someone who can approve buying without permission. You may have heard this person referred to as the final decision maker. Ironically, the economic buyer may be the most critical influence within an account, but it is often the most ignored! To be successful, we must win the economic buyer's attention early in the sales process, or we will run a much higher risk of losing.

However, one of the main reasons many salespeople shy away from meeting with economic buyers is a lack of confidence or not knowing what to do when working with economic buyers. Here are some suggestions.

Focus your questions and conversations on these topics, and you will win their interest.

• Return On Investment
• Cost of Ownership
• Payback Period
• Costs Justification
• A Strong Business Case
• Alignment with Corporate Objectives