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In your daily professional life, who is wearing a mask?

Venice has the most incredible ones. Perhaps in the world.

I'm not talking about their canals or the pigeons at St. Mark's Square.
Venice has the most ornate, original, innovative, and beautiful Venetian
Carnival masks you will find.

If you look back throughout the city's history, the wearing of masks was problematic for centuries. In 1268, governing bodies, in an attempt to control masquerading, voted for the first of many city statutes that would control the wearing of masks in public. Venice tried to control when and how and who wore masks in public.

So why do your decision makers get to wear masks?

In 1608 a decree was issued declaring that the wearing of the mask posed a serious threat to the Republic. Every citizen, nobleman and foreigner alike, was obliged to only wear a mask during the days of carnival and at official banquets.
As the tradition continues today, visitors from around the world come to Venice to take part in this exceptional event of uninhibited celebration during the Venetian Carnival.

In your daily professional life, who is wearing a mask?

Come with me through the sales cycle. You do your homework to find the prospect. You identify the decision maker or they identify themselves. You meet. You painstakingly craft a polished proposal. You return to the prospect to present the perfect proposal or email the proposal and wait for the YES to be transmitted back to you. You wait. And then comes the email or phone call to tell you that someone else, with whom you never met, has misgivings or has rejected the proposal. Has this scenario ever happened to you?

How do you know who really owns the project? You know buy-in is important, but buy-in from whom? Some decision makers wear the mask of the non-decision maker. Some non-decision makers wear the mask of the decision maker.

You are ahead of the game if you know that prospects and clients wear masks. You may win the game if you know how to identify the decision maker behind the mask.

Who is wearing a mask in your professional life? How do you know?

What can you do to strip away the masks to find the real decision maker? Who is wearing a mask to project more responsibility than they have? Who is wearing a mask or to prevent you from going through the real decision maker?

How do you know?

The only way to distinguish the real decision maker from the one masquerading as a decision maker is to ask questions. Questions are all you have going for you on your side

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