If you work in public relations or marketing then you are likely to be playing an indirect role on driving sales for your organization. Or perhaps you’re a PR person trying to motivate your company to engage in more activities. In either case you may want to have a better understanding of the sales process.

I recently have been re-reading The New Strategic Selling, by Stephen E. Hieman, Tad Tuleja, and J.W. Marriott. The methodology outlined in the book for selling has not only helped me in discussions with prospective clients for Communiqué PR’s services, but also has been helpful as I work to better understand the unique situations that our clients confront as they work to sell their products and services.

The book focuses on helping get a better handle on the complex sales cycle, which the authors define as “one in which several people must give their approval before the sale can take place.”

Clearly, when a person or team decides to hire a public relations firm, it is often the case that multiple people – such as the CEO, vice president of marketing, and PR managers – are required to give their approval before the business is awarded to a specific agency. And many of our technology or business-to-business clients face similar situations when selling their software solutions or products. They may need to have approval from the CEO, CTO or a variety of IT managers.

Given this situation, it makes sense that one of the first things one needs to know about complex sales is how to identify and know everyone involved in the decision to buy your service, solution or product. The authors help you do this by identifying four key roles that exist in every complex sale situation. They assert that in each complex sale there is 1) the economic buyer, 2) the user buyer, 3) the technical buyer, and 4) the coach.

The book goes into much more detail about why these roles exist and provide readers with an understanding of each person’s underlying interest depending on their role. But for example, the economic buyer cares about return on investment, while the user buyer cares about performance.

For me, having a better understanding of roles and the individual’s focus in the role has been one of the most helpful elements of the book. I have found it has implications not only for sales and business development, but also for public relations.

For instance, imagine as a PR professional you’re helping a manufacturer of wholesale spa equipment with key message development. The owner of the spa is going to play a different role and have very different interests than the technician using the product when giving a customer a manicure or pedicure. You’d therefore want to develop one set of messages for the owner and different messages for the technician. The owner might care more about the cost of the product, while the technician might want to know how its features would make their life easier.

If you’re looking to get a better understanding of complicated sales or even how to more artfully impact the sales process, I highly recommend this book. It is a classic.