People come out of sales meetings, celebrating that the order is on its way. They argue the meeting was great with the person they met. When you ask who participated in that meeting they say the potential user.
An order will not come until you make sure that you talked to the right people, all of them not just the potential user of your service or your product.
The first question one needs to wander is who plays an integral role in the purchase process? I am not suggesting that there is a problem talking to the potential user, this is important but until you talked to all involved parties the opportunity is not well qualified.
Depending on the industry, lifecycle and budget level there are many people that might be involved in a purchase from the budget owner, the manager of the department, the board, the procurement department, the information technology team, the legal team, operations and the user’s management. There might be a different person that owns the budget, another that approves
Some of the functions and the authorisations above might be gathered in one person, this is something that one needs to find out.
Follow the people mentioned above, try to meet them and get their view on the order. Find also the relations between them, see who has the decision power in the organisation.
A sales opportunity is a complex process. Stay close and committed to this process.
Happy hunting!