Use one-on-one breakout meetings to gather intel you can't get in a group setting. Ask directly about competitors, pricing, and evaluation status. The private, trusted environment makes stakeholders more likely to share candid details, effectively turning them into your internal informant on the deal.

To effectively influence partners, you must understand their priorities. A scrappy research method is to watch their executives' public interviews or internal all-hands meetings. This reveals their strategic goals and allows you to frame your proposal in their language, increasing its resonance.

The goal of asking questions isn't just for you to gather information. It's a Socratic dialogue designed to help stakeholders think differently and arrive at the real need themselves. By guiding their thought process, you build deeper alignment and co-create a better solution, rather than just extracting requirements for yourself to fulfill.

After a group discovery call, don't just set one follow-up. Schedule brief, individual breakout sessions with every stakeholder. This creates multiple parallel threads, uncovers honest feedback people won't share in a group, and builds momentum across the entire buying committee, dramatically increasing deal velocity.

In complex enterprise sales, don't rely solely on your champion. Proactively connect with every member of the buying committee using personal touches like video messages. This builds a network of allies who can provide crucial information and help salvage a deal if it stalls.

When you identify a deal blocker, don't confront them alone. First, approach your champion and ask for their perspective on the dissenter's hesitation and advice on the best way to engage them. This provides crucial internal political context and helps you formulate a more effective strategy before you ever speak to the blocker.

Building influence requires a strategic approach. Actively survey your professional relationships, identify where you lack connections with stakeholders, and methodically invest time in building alliances with leaders who can advocate for your ideas when you're not in the room.

To find the true influencer, ask how a low-level problem affects high-level business goals (e.g., company growth). The person who can connect these dots, regardless of their title, holds the real power in the decision-making process. They are the one paid to connect daily actions to strategic objectives.

Don't just hand your champion a perfectly polished soundbite or business case. The act of creating it together—getting their feedback, edits, and "red lines"—is what builds their ownership and conviction. This process ensures they internalize the message and can confidently sell it on your behalf.