Module 1: Preparation Session Number: 3

Session Title: Identifying The Cast of Characters

Session Overview: How to learn what to look for in the cast of characters or key stakeholders

Relationships are critical when it comes to enterprise selling. Here are some of the things you can use to help build your cast of characters:

1. Develop an organization chart. This is very important when you are doing your outreach for business development.
2. To build your cast of characters, check out Lucid charts  
3. According to research, the average number of decision-makers is 6 - 8 and the average sales cycle is 9 months. Each of these decision-makers or buyers has their own needs, wants, and desires so any form of generic value proposition is unlikely to resonate with any of them.
4. Review the job descriptions to get a better understanding of their role and what matters most to them. What are they trying to achieve?
5. Do they have anything written or spoken about online? 
6. What is the companies 10K saying about their organization? 
7. Check out the company's annual report
8. Connect with EVERYONE on LinkedIn...as well as follow the company 
9. Follow their counterparts at other companies as well. This will help when the prospect look's you up on LinkedIn they will see that you know others in the industry. 
10. Join and follow trade groups, LinkedIn groups, association publications, etc. that your prospect may be associated with.
11. Learn events they attend.

Tasks to Implement: Using an excel spreadsheet or Lucidchart, start researching the cast of characters and building the key information. For each contact, identify if you have mutual connections in common.

Session Recap: Now that you have a better understanding of who you need to target and learned more about them, let's determine the best way of measuring success.