While waiting to catch a plane, a lawyer asked me some questions and my thoughts on each question.

His first question was:

How do you ensure you are getting to the key decision makers and approaching the opportunity in the ideal way?

businessman thinking

To determine who the right decision makers are I recommend you do as much research as possible. You might also find it valuable  to have a mole (someone who can guide you) either in the company or in the industry association.

You want to learn as much as you can about the company strategy and as much as you can about the decision makers. If you are in a large firm with a knowledge management team have them provide you with information.

If you are in a smaller firm, set up Google Alerts. If the company and/or it’s decision makers are on Twitter, follow them on Twitter and find out what others are saying about them on Twitter

One final thing, I learned a lesson about giving presentations and conducting workshops.

A national seminar company asked me to give a half day seminar. Another lawyer was asked to give the afternoon session. t I found those who attended the seminars were not the decision makers.

I changed my strategy to doing in-house workshops for individual contractors that I selected. That was far more effective.