Finding the right decision-maker isn’t about job titles—it’s about knowing who truly takes the deal forward. Influence stems from budget ownership and direct alignment of KPIs— and not just seniority. Yet, sales teams often make three critical mistakes that stall deals:
- Attributing decision-making authority to job titles – Senior executives may show interest, but true decision-making authority often lies elsewhere.
- Fail to multithread within influencing ecosystem– Deals often do not materialize through a single POC; multiple stakeholders and teams need to be engaged meaningfully and simultaneously.
- Wasting time on manual research – Sales leaders eventually reach there, but often later than their competitors do.
Leveraging AI-powered sales intelligence solves such challenges by instantly mapping decision-making processes, identifying key influencers, and ensuring early engagement with the right stakeholders.
Unlocking the Right Decision-Makers in Tech Sales with Sales Intelligence
Consider the following scenario:
A cybersecurity software provider was pitching its solution to a large enterprise technology company. The sales team identified a senior IT Operations executive as the key decision-maker. This executive:
- Showed strong interest
- Attended multiple demos
- Provided positive feedback
Yet, weeks later, the deal stalled. Communication slowed, and approvals never came through.
By leveraging sales intelligence, the team realized three critical mistakes:
- Attributing Decision-making authority to job titles
The sales team assumed the senior IT Ops executive had the authority to approve the purchase. However, while this executive happened to be one of the stakeholders, the actual evaluation, shortlisting and purchase were being driven by some other teams.
- The engineering team was responsible for vetting compatibility and integrations.
- The CISO’s team was assessing compliance risks.
- The CFO and his team needed to justify the investment, factoring in the business priorities and annual objectives.
By not engaging these stakeholders early, the sales team failed to build technical and financial alignment, causing delays in approval.
- Fail to multithread within influencing ecosystem –
Chasing one contact in an account is a classic sales trap. If that person goes dark, changes roles, or leaves the company, your deal is dead in the water. Yet, too many sales reps rely on a single POC, only to realize too late that:
- They don’t have enough internal pull to drive the deal.
- Their priorities shift, and your solution gets deprioritized.
- They leave, forcing you to rebuild momentum from scratch.
Multithreading—engaging multiple stakeholders across the buying committee—keeps your deal moving, reduces risk, and ensures you’re not left stranded when a single contact drops off.
- Wasting time on manual research –
You can gather all the data manually, but by the time you’re done, your competitor has already had the key conversations and moved the deal forward. While the sales team was stuck in research mode, buyers were already:
- Engaging with competitors who delivered insights faster.
- Progressing through internal discussions without their input.
- Prioritizing solutions that moved at their speed.
How Leveraging Sales Intelligence Could Have Prevented This
Sales intelligence fixes this by giving reps real-time data on key stakeholders, account activity, and buyer intent—so you can engage the right people at the right time and stay ahead of the competition.
Sales intelligence platforms like Draup helps Microsoft, Salesforce, Accenture, CapGemini and 260+ others fast track enterprise sales by revealing market/account-level signals, buyer behavior, decision-making patterns, existing tech stack and channel partner ecosystems.
Draup empowers sales teams to navigate intricate organizational hierarchies with confidence. Draup’s AI sales intelligence instantly maps the entire decision-making processes, identifies key influencers beyond surface-level connections, and ensures early engagement with the stakeholders who truly drive deals forward.
This strategic advantage translates into accelerated market penetration, enhanced ABM effectiveness, and ultimately, the ability to secure and expand into high-value accounts.
Discover how Draup’s sales intelligence gives your team the edge in complex B2B sales.
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