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86 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

Do you know all the key people?
Even just making the initial list can be hazardous. In discussion with your main
contact you should get fairly close to who is going to be involved. However, what
you are looking for is who the decision maker will turn to for an authoritative opin-
ion on some aspect of the project.

The more people involved, the harder the campaign. The higher the individuals
in the organisation, the more difficult it will be to get regular contact with them.

The definition of this question is, 'Can we when we need it, get access to any-
one involved from the customer's side in the process of evaluation?'

If the project is big enough or important enough to the buying company, this
could be a lot of people. I was involved with a campaign where the selling team
identified 50 people who would have some influence and involvement in the evalu-
ation process.

Do we have as good access to the key people as your competitors do?
Here is another litmus test. In some cases you will not succeed in getting contact
with all the people involved. This second test then becomes crucial. You are on a
very uneven playing pitch if the competition is talking to people to whom you do not
have access. If these people happen to be the most senior managers in the buying
organisation this could be critical to your hopes of success. If you remember my
golden rule of qualification - 'If a part of your campaign could be going wrong, it
probably is' - you will pay enough attention to competitive level of contact to ensure
that you are not fighting the bidding battle with a considerable handicap.

Timescale

If the key-people question is one of the most important, then the timescale question
is one of the most difficult to answer authoritatively. The human condition leads, in
the main, to avoiding change and postponing decisions. A professional solution-