How to Find the Right Decision Maker

Why emailing the wrong person is a strategy killer

Cold email sent to the right company but the wrong person is invisible. Even if your email is perfect, a junior employee who has no budget, no authority, and no urgency will either ignore it or forward it to someone who might — but that forwarding almost never happens.

In B2B sales, there are three types of people at every company: the economic buyer (holds budget and signs), the champion (wants the problem solved and will advocate for you), and the blocker (uses your competitor or feels threatened). Your cold outreach should target champions and economic buyers. Blockers are a waste of time until later in the deal.

Mapping decision makers to your product

Different products have different buying personas. A sales engagement tool is bought by VP Sales or Head of Growth. A payroll tool is bought by the HR Director or CFO. A marketing analytics platform is bought by the CMO or Head of Data. Before prospecting a single company, be crystal clear about who the buyer is for your specific product.

In smaller companies (1–50 people), the founder or CEO is often the economic buyer for anything. In mid-market companies (50–500), department heads own specific budgets. In enterprise (500+), you'll need to navigate procurement, IT, legal, and a champion — rarely a single person.

• Map your product to 2–3 job titles who are most likely to have budget authority.
• In SMB, the founder is often both the champion and the economic buyer.
• For enterprise, find the champion first — they'll introduce you to the budget holder.

Using LinkedIn to find the right person

LinkedIn is the most reliable tool for finding decision makers. Search for the target company, go to the People tab, and filter by department and seniority. Look for VP, Director, or Head-of titles in the relevant function.

Also look at the person's activity feed. Decision makers who post about their challenges, share industry articles, or comment on relevant topics are far more receptive to a cold email that references something they care about publicly. Their LinkedIn activity is a roadmap to their priorities.

• Use LinkedIn filters: Current company + Seniority level (Director, VP, C-Suite) + Department.
• Check the 'About' section — people often list their key responsibilities there.
• Recent posts and activity reveal priorities and frustrations — use them in your opening line.

LinkedIn trigger example: "Saw your post about your team struggling with manual data entry before sales calls — that's exactly the problem we built [Product] to solve. Takes about 20 minutes to set up..."

Multi-threading: targeting multiple stakeholders

Single-threading — putting all your eggs in one contact at a target account — is risky. That person might be on holiday, changing jobs, or simply not the right fit. Multi-threading means reaching out to 2–4 people at the same company simultaneously, each with a message tailored to their role.

For example, if you're selling an HR tool: the HR Manager gets a message about reducing admin time, the CFO gets a message about cost per hire, and the CEO gets a message about retention risk. Same product, three different angles, three chances to get a conversation started.

• Don't multi-thread with more than 4–5 contacts at once per account — it looks like a blast.
• Space your multi-thread emails 2–3 days apart across contacts.
• If one person replies, immediately pause the campaign to others at that company.

When the decision maker is impossible to reach

Sometimes the right person has an inbox protection service, never checks email, or is simply impossible to reach cold. In that case, look for the champion one level down — someone who experiences the pain daily and has the internal influence to bring a solution to their manager.

A well-prepared champion who believes in your product is worth more than a lukewarm economic buyer. Give champions the ammo they need: a one-pager, ROI data, and a clear script for how to introduce you to their manager. Your job is to make them look smart internally.

• Champions are often managers or senior ICs — not VPs — who feel the pain every day.
• Arm champions with a clear business case they can present upward.
• Follow up with champions regularly — they're your inside advocate.