What's interesting is when sales people think they can get a leg up on closing the deal by going over your head because they don't think you are a key decision

What's interesting is when sales people think they can get a leg up on closing the deal by going over your head because they don't think you are a key decision maker or influential enough in the process to worry about. A couple years ago I had a sales guy at a large ad tech company that shall go unnamed try to go over my head to executive team members. Of course the first thing that happened after that initial contact was that executive coming over and saying "so and so reached out to me...what do you think about them?" At that point I explained that not only did I not think they offered a great solution, but that it spoke volumes of how they do business if they go behind people's backs like that. The icing on the cake was when that executive sent an email back to the sales rep, CCed me, and said that he would defer to my expert knowledge of our needs. Note to any sales reps reading this...just because someone doesn't have an executive-level title, don't for one second think that you might be able to close the deal without their buy-off.