Written by Jamie May
If you’re selling to small businesses, read ‘Selling to VITO’ by Anthony Parinello. The whole premise is built around one idea. Find the Very Important Top Officer, the single person with the authority to say yes, and pitch only to them. They can make a yes or no decision in minutes. Everyone else in the organisation is a Seymour because they want to see more.
For small business to small business sales that approach works well. One owner, one decision, one pitch, yes or no.
But when you start moving into medium and large business something changes. There is no single VITO. There’s a committee. A leadership team. A procurement group spread across three time zones that hasn’t been in the same room since 2019. And the person you’re dealing with, however interested and well intentioned, is one voice among several.
That’s when you need advocacy.
What Advocacy Actually Is
Advocacy means teaching someone inside the prospect’s organisation to sell your product or service on your behalf. Not hoping they’ll figure out how to make the case internally. Actually training them to do it. Arming them with the tools they need to sell the product they know the company needs.
Think of it like sales training for someone who isn’t a salesperson. Your internal champion believes in what you do but has no idea how to pitch it to their CFO, navigate their procurement process, or handle the objections that will come up in a room you’ll never be invited into.
Don’t just hope that someone will present your case before the court favourably. Your job is to prepare them for that pitch.
Why It’s More Important Now Than Ever
Lockdown accelerated a trend that was already developing. Decision making teams spread out. Hybrid work made collective decisions harder. Buying committees replaced single sign-off authority across a huge range of medium and large organisations.
The deals that stall are almost always stalling because your champion is walking into an internal conversation underprepared. They want to buy. They just have a spend ceiling.
How to Do It
Understand who else is involved and what each person cares about. Give your champion the language, the numbers and the answers to objections before they face them. Build them a one pager they can circulate that speaks to the decision makers you can’t get in front of directly.
It’s often an interactive back and forth building of a case and can give a salesperson very little control, which can be uncomfortable.
The Takeaway
Small business sales, find the VITO. Medium and above, build an advocate. Help them pitch.
