More complex deals involve influencers to a decision we call advocates, and often more than one gatekeeper. It is very rare for a deal to involve more than one individual decision maker. These type of deals can have

• complex requirements and delivery, and/or
• large capital investments, and/or
• consensus based decisions, and/or
• many buying advocates

To better understand how individual can plan a role in complex deals, we assign names to the roles and will explore how individuals can behave in those roles to affect the final decision and outcome. We will seek to plan a deal strategy understanding what we can affect and what we cannot. The roles include:

• Executive Sponsor = Can say yes, fund, controls budget
• Advocates = Seek to Influence Executive Sponsor, can carry a recommendation or proposal
• Gatekeeper = Can only say no or block deal
• Coach = Provide insight, internal and external voice of insight and ideas for solution alignment

Strategic deals require varying levels of planning and analysis to increase our success or potential for a positive close.
In this sales environment the company executive must consider the following:

• Standardize the sales process and language
• Define and document alignment for a sales team
• Leverage existing and extended relationships and investments
• Predict position in a deal
• Decide if/when/why to proceed (Value determination, cost of sale)
• Determine if Customer Why can be achieved effectively
• Track and learn from success or failure on each deal