Single Contact Selling Is Killing Your Deals
If your entire deal lives with one contact, you’re not selling – you’re hoping.
And hope is not a sales strategy.
One of the biggest mistakes I see BDMs and sales teams make is parking the whole opportunity with procurement or one friendly contact and thinking the job is done.
It isn’t.
When we built PeopleCo from scratch, our Sales SOP was clear:
Every target account has multiple influencers and decision-makers.
In a typical manufacturing or industrial business, that could include:
• Production Manager
• Warehouse Manager
• Customer Service Manager
• Sales Manager
• Finance Manager
• HR Manager
• And ultimately… the Leader – Owner, GM, MD, or Site Manager.
And here’s the strategy most salespeople miss:
👉 Go to the Leader first.
If they see value, they’ll direct you to the right hiring or operational manager.
If you can’t reach them?
Go to the divisional manager who feels the pain – poor quality, slow service, staffing gaps, operational headaches.
That’s where the real problems live.
And where real solutions get traction.
Only after value is created should procurement enter the conversation.
Procurement’s job is cost control.
Your job is value creation.
(And sorry HR and procurement teams – but too often good opportunities die in process before value is understood.)
If you’re only talking to one person, your deal is fragile.
Multi-thread your relationships.
Understand the real business challenges.
Solve real problems.
That’s how deals get won.
And yes – sometimes that means going around the door, not just knocking on it.