What a power map in sales is
A power map in sales is a picture of the people involved in a buying decision inside a company, with each person's role and how they relate. It answers three questions: who decides, who influences the decision and who can open the door.
In B2B sales to large companies, a purchase goes through several departments. The head of the area feels the pain, finance approves the budget, IT evaluates the integration, legal reviews the contract and the team uses the system every day.
Without the map, the rep talks to whoever answered first and hopes they move the topic forward. With the map, the rep knows who else needs to hear the proposal and in what order.
The roles in the purchase
The champion makes the case without you in the room
The five roles in a buying decision
Names vary by method, but five roles show up in almost every complex sale. One person can hold more than one role, and one role can be split between two people.
| Role | What they do in the purchase | What they want to hear |
|---|---|---|
| Economic decision maker | Approves the purchase and the budget. Can veto at the end. | Business results, risk and return |
| Champion | Argues for the proposal internally, when the rep is not in the room. | Material to convince the boss and a gain for their own area |
| Influencer | Gives an opinion and carries weight without signing. Usually technical, financial or legal. | Precise answers about the part they evaluate |
| Entry point | Receives the first contact and decides whether it moves up. | A clear reason and little work to pass it on |
| User | Will use the solution day to day. | What changes in the routine and what stops being manual work |
Formal power and weight in the decision
The org chart shows who reports to whom, but weight in the decision does not always follow that chart. A long-tenured manager with the director's trust can outweigh a director who just arrived. A technical specialist can veto a purchase the executive had already approved.
That is why the map tracks two axes: power, meaning how much the person weighs in the decision, and interest, meaning how much the topic affects them. People with high power and low interest need short, regular updates. People with low power and high interest are often the best candidates for champion.
How to map a large company
The map starts before the first contact and fills in over the sales cycle, in six steps:
- Define the area that buys your solution. At a large company, the same need can sit in several divisions or at the holding company.
- List the area's leadership and key roles from public sources: website, announcements, professional profiles and news.
- Check each person's current role. A new director changes the whole map.
- Mark each person's likely role in the purchase, as a hypothesis.
- Choose the entry point: someone with interest in the topic and access to the decision maker. Going straight to the decision maker works when you have a strong fact to bring, such as an announced expansion. Without one, go in through a manager who feels the pain and can become a champion.
- In the first conversation, validate the map with the questions below and fix what is wrong.
Questions to validate the map
Only the customer can confirm a map built from the outside. These questions work in the first or second meeting:
- Besides you, who else usually takes part in a decision like this?
- How did the last similar purchase in your area go? Who approved it and how long did it take?
- Who tends to be more cautious about projects like this, and what will they want to see?
- Who needs to be in the next conversation for this to move forward?
- Is there already a budget for this, or does it need approval?
Common power map mistakes
The first mistake is treating the entry point as the decision maker, because the person who answered the first contact rarely signs. The second is ignoring the technical or legal influencer until the contract stage, when they raise an issue nobody prepared for and the deal slips by months.
The third is having only one champion, because if they leave the company, the deal leaves with them. The fourth is not reviewing the map in a sale that runs for months: a new director comes in, the champion moves to another area or the decision moves up to the group. When the champion stops replying, first check whether they are still in the role.
The fifth is building the map and not using it to decide who to reach, with what topic and with what material. The prospecting maturity assessment, with 18 questions, shows whether mapping decision makers is already part of your team's method.
The power map in the GoSeek dossier
In GoSeek, the power map is part of the dossier for each company. It shows decision makers, champion, influencers and entry points, with an org chart by area and level. The rep enters the CNPJ, the Brazilian company tax ID, and gets the dossier in 7 to 15 minutes, built from 100 to 500 public sources.
The map feeds the other sections of the dossier. Discovery brings questions for each role in the purchase, and Objections anticipates what each person may raise. From the Intermediate plan up, Cadence opens through managers and directors, leaves the C-level for the second week, as the decision makers, and writes each touch for the recipient's role. The rep reviews it. On the Advanced plan, GoSeek sends it from the rep's own email, WhatsApp and LinkedIn; on the Intermediate plan, the rep sends it. For two roles that often carry weight at the end, read how to sell to the CFO and how to sell to the IT director.
What comes out about the company
The power map feeds Stakeholders and buying center, and guides Risks, Cadence and MEDDPICC
What people ask about power maps in sales
What is a champion in B2B sales?
The person inside the customer company who argues for your proposal when you are not in the room. They care about the result and have access to the decision maker. The champion entry shows how to spot one.
What is the difference between a decision maker and an influencer?
The decision maker approves the purchase and the budget. The influencer gives an opinion and can carry weight, but does not sign. In a complex sale, a technical or legal influencer can block what the decision maker already wanted.
How often should I review the power map?
Whenever something changes at the company: new leadership, an acquisition, a reorganization or silence from the champion. In a long sale, review it before each major stage.
Founder of GoSeek. Specialist in market intelligence and consultative B2B sales for the enterprise market.
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