In Milan, I once pitched a mobility integration deal to the city’s transport authority. The meeting went flawlessly. The director was on board, nodding through every slide, agreeing on timelines, even discussing launch events.
And then… silence. No follow-up. No signature.
It took me a week to find out why:
The deal was killed by someone I had never met — his deputy, the one managing budgets behind the scenes.
That’s the Silent Third Partner: the unseen influencer who holds no official spotlight in your meeting, but whose opinion will make or break the deal.
Here’s how I handle them now:
1. Assume they exist.
Every meaningful deal has one. It could be a CFO, a board member, a spouse, or even a trusted friend. Don’t get blindsided.
2. Find their fingerprints.
Listen for lines like “I’ll need to check internally”, “We have to run this by finance”, or “I’ll get back to you after our leadership meeting”. That’s your clue.
3. Arm your champion.
If you can’t meet the third partner directly, equip your contact with a bulletproof, easy-to-repeat case for you. Short, memorable points travel better than a PDF they’ll never read.
4. Plant indirect influence.
Sometimes you can reach them without “reaching” them — through articles, PR, mutual contacts, or case studies they’ll stumble upon in their own research.
When I finally won that Milan deal, it wasn’t through another meeting with the director. It was after I got an article placed in a transport innovation magazine — the exact magazine the budget gatekeeper read.
Takeaway: You’re never just selling to the person in front of you. You’re selling to the room they’ll walk into after you leave. Influence that room, and you’ll win deals you never even attended.