Few things are more likely to destroy the trust between businesses, not to mention the confidence of employees who are tasked with representing their companies in a variety of roles, than sending those employees into situations and to meetings without the requisite power to make decisions.
A contract manager, account manager or salesperson who doesn’t have full authority to negotiate and strike deals with customers and clients, for example, can do no more than act as a messenger, which not only prolongs the whole negotiation process, but also undermines the confidence that the client has in the person that he or she is dealing with, and in the company as a whole.
After all, if a company sends along a representative who is not trusted enough to make decisions on its behalf, why should the client trust the individual, and how can the client feel special in any way if the supplier is only prepared to send in a lower ranking employee who lacks authority?
If there are important deals that need to be struck or crucial negotiations that need to take place, either give your employees the authority to act fully on the company’s behalf or make sure that they are accompanied by someone, such as a company director, who does have that authority; otherwise you risk compromising your business’s credibility.