Sometimes once you’ve identified a prospect, you may have concerns about whether the person you’re talking to is really the ultimate commercial real estate decision maker, or whether you need to really be talking to someone else instead. This can become a sensitive situation, as you don’t want to insult the person you’re already talking to, but at the same time, you really want to be talking to the ultimate person who will have the final say so on all commercial real estate decisions.
Keeping this in mind, a question you can utilize in this situation, when you’re talking to the person who you believe may not be the ultimate decision maker, is “Who along with you will be making this decision?” This will help to preserve the ego of the person you’re talking to, as you’re complimenting them and acknowledging that they will be involved in making the final decision, while at the same time you’re now opening the door to having them tell you who the real decision makers will be…as these are the people who you definitely want to be talking to.
Whether it’s within Corporate America, or within families, sometimes people like to project that they have more influence than they really do when it comes to influencing important decisions, and if you just try to leapfrog over them, they can get angry, and then act as an impediment against you attempting to do business with the ultimate decision makers.
But by asking the question that I’ve mentioned, you’ll help to preserve the person’s ego, you’ll have them feel complimented by you, and this will then lead to them wanting to work along with you, and wanting to then introduce you to the ultimate decision makers.