Know-How Exchange : Strategy

As BARQ says, C= Chief.

Chief Executive Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Technology Officer
Chief Information Officer
Chief Marketing Officer
Chief Strategy Officer
Chief Investment Officer

etc., depending on the type of organisation.

They usually have the spending power, and are where the decision-making buck stops. There is no A and B level that precede the C, it's not about ABC.

The above are correct, C level are those tiles as Barq suggested.

Now, as far as your question-- there are many decision makers not at all C-Level. It really depends on the sale. C-Level execs are charged with running the company. Yes, they can be involved in the final stages of the sell-- but if they were involved in every sale-- they wouldn't need buyers, department heads, etc.

A decision maker from the point of view of marketing and or sales is the person assigned to make the decision that directly impacts your business.

If I am trying to sell printer inks, then I need to speak with the person in charge of ordering the printer inks.

In some companies, this may be a secretary or a junior accountant in the admin dept. in others it may be a more senior person.

It really doesn't matter, what matters is finding out WHO is in charge of the particular decision that you are interested in.

Once you do that, then try to make your pitch always to the appropriate decision maker.

There is no fixed hierarchical structure, every company is different and it all depends on the management structure and the size of the organisation.

If the CEO is a micro manager, you may find that ALL decisions have to be run by the CEO first. Other companies give some decision making responsibilities to more junior persons.

In the end, doing business is all about people so don't worry too much about text book definitions and useless acronyms.

Good luck,

Matthew