What happens if we don’t involve all decision makers early in a sales presentation or negotiation? Wayne Berry: We get the objection “Leave it with me, I now need to speak with George, our CEO”. So what can happen now, is we have to rely on this person, the “ball carrier”, to explain everything as well as we have just explained it to them, and hope that they can get an affirmative decision. How likely is this? Not very likely! So we’ve done all of this work and in many cases the ball carrier will condense everything to a few sentences and get a NO and come back to you and say, “Well I really like the idea but George doesn’t share my enthusiasm”. Of course George doesn’t, because George doesn’t understand your full proposal. So the lesson is don’t waste your time speaking with people who can’t make the decision. By all means involve the “ball carrier” but get ALL DECISION MAKERS INVOLVED EARLY. Is there a way to recover the situation? Well sometimes yes, as Wayne explains in this video.