Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / How One Sales Rep Won by Mapping the Buyer’s Org Chart
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this deal I keep thinking about. A B2B software rep at a mid-market company — let's call her Sarah — had been working a prospect for four months. She had a champion in the director of operations, she had a great demo, the pricing was competitive. But every time she thought she was close, the deal stalled. Luna: Right, the classic 'we're still evaluating' brush-off. She must have been pulling her hair out. Lucas: Exactly. So finally she asked her champion a simple question: 'Who else needs to be involved for this to get approved?' The champion rattled off six names — procurement, IT, finance, the COO, the head of product, and someone called the VP of Operations. Luna: Wait — she already had the director of operations as her champion. The VP of Ops is a different person? Lucas: Different person entirely. And here's the kicker: the champion had been excluding the VP from every meeting because he 'hates software demos.' Sarah realized she'd been selling to the wrong person. The director was an influencer, but the VP held the real veto power. Luna: Oof. That's painful. So what did she do? Lucas: She built a full influence map of the buying committee. She actually sketched it out on paper — who had authority, who had influence, who had veto power, and who was just a passenger. It turned out the VP of Ops had killed two software deals in the past year because of integration downtime concerns. Luna: So she was selling the benefits, but he was worried about the disruption. That's a classic blind spot. Lucas: Yeah. So she asked the champion to set up a 15-minute call with the VP, just to 'validate the implementation timeline.' She framed it as a risk assessment, not a sales pitch. And once she got him in the room, she led with the integration plan — how they'd minimize downtime, how they'd roll out in phases, how they'd have a dedicated support engineer for the first 90 days. Luna: And that did it? Lucas: That did it. The VP said he'd been burned by a previous vendor that promised seamless integration but caused a two-day outage. Sarah's detailed plan addressed that exact fear. The deal closed three weeks later at full price. Luna: Love that. It's such a simple fix, too — just ask who's really making the decision. But so many reps skip that step. Lucas: If today was actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support. You can keep that going at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it really helps us keep bringing stories like Sarah's. And honestly, it's a small way to say this podcast matters to you. Lucas: So back to the influence map. Sarah's win is a perfect example of what Gartner has been saying for years — the average B2B buying committee now includes 11 to 14 stakeholders. That's up from about six a decade ago. Luna: Fourteen people? No wonder deals take forever. How do you even know who's actually calling the shots? Lucas: That's the key question. And the data says most reps only identify about half the stakeholders. A study from Gong showed that deals where the rep identified and engaged with at least 80 percent of the buying committee closed at a 30 percent higher rate. Luna: So the reps who win are the ones who do the homework. But how do you even discover all those hidden stakeholders? You can't just ask, 'Who else is involved?' because people forget or they strategically omit someone. Lucas: Right. Sarah's approach was good — she asked directly. But there are better techniques. One is what I call the 'meeting after the meeting' question: after a positive call, ask your champion, 'Who's going to push back on this? Who's going to have concerns?' That surfaces blockers you wouldn't otherwise know about. Luna: Oh, that's clever. It frames it as a way to help the champion prepare, not as you trying to get more access. Lucas: Exactly. Another tactic is to ask about past purchase decisions. 'What software did you buy last year? Who was involved? Who opposed it? What happened?' That gives you a map of the political landscape before you even start. Luna: So you're basically doing a mini-org chart audit. I've seen reps use tools like Lucidchart or even just a whiteboard to visualize it. But the key is updating it as you go. Lucas: Yes. The influence map is a living document. Because people change roles, priorities shift, and sometimes a new stakeholder emerges halfway through. Sarah actually updated hers after every call. She color-coded it — green for champions, yellow for neutral, red for blockers. Luna: That's intense. But I bet it saved her from more blind spots. What about the blockers? Do you try to convert them or just work around them? Lucas: Great question. The instinct is to avoid blockers. But research from CEB — now Gartner — shows that deals where the rep directly engages with a strong detractor actually close more often than deals where they only talk to supporters. Because if you don't address their concerns, they'll kill the deal in a private meeting you're not in. Luna: So you want the detractor's objections on the table where you can respond, not lurking in the shadows. Lucas: Exactly. Sarah's VP of Ops was a detractor — he'd killed deals before. But by getting him in the room and addressing his specific fear, she turned him into an advocate. He actually ended up championing the deal internally because he felt heard. Luna: That's the dream scenario. But here's my concern: if you have 14 stakeholders, that's a lot of meetings. How do you not burn out your champion or yourself? Lucas: You don't need to meet with all 14 individually. You group them by role and concern. Finance cares about ROI, IT cares about security and integration, operations cares about downtime. You tailor one message per group and use your champion to get you a group meeting or a recorded message. Luna: So the influence map helps you prioritize. You're not trying to sell to everyone — you're just making sure the people who matter get the right information. Lucas: Right. And here's a specific number to take away: Forrester found that deals where the rep maps the entire buying committee in the first two weeks of the sales cycle are 20 percent more likely to close. The earlier you map, the less rework you have to do. Luna: Twenty percent — that's huge. So the takeaway is: before you send another proposal, draw the org chart. Identify every stakeholder, their role, their attitude, and their concern. And if you can't name them all, you're not ready to close. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're not sure where to start, ask your champion, 'Help me understand who else will be affected by this change.' That opens the door to the hidden committee. Luna: Alright, I'm going to start doing that in my own conversations. This was really practical, Lucas. Lucas: Glad to hear it. Next week we'll look at another rep who won by doing something counterintuitive. Until then, map your deals.