Over our last batch of regulatory outbound, 11 calls reached contacts with legal, risk, or compliance in their title. Four of them were not the person who owns the compliance decision. One of those four was an associate general counsel who booked a meeting and pulled the right people in. So the title is useful, but it does not settle whether the person can buy.
A title tells you where someone sits on the org chart. It does not tell you who signs off on a vendor, who carries the regulatory risk, or who controls the budget for the fix. Treat the title as a hypothesis and test it before you dial.
We run three checks before each call.
First, look at reporting lines. A general counsel who reports to the CEO or the board usually owns the decision. An associate GC or compliance analyst often owns the process but not the purchase.
Second, look for ownership in the company’s own material. Job posts for a “Head of Compliance” or “Director of Risk Operations” show where the pressure is and who is being hired to deal with it. Enforcement notices and audit disclosures name the function under scrutiny.
Third, check what the person actually works on. If their profile shows them running policy reviews, vendor assessments, or audit responses, they are close to the problem. If it shows only contract drafting, they are probably a stakeholder.
When the call reaches the wrong person, do not treat it as a dead end. Ask for the referral in a way that keeps the conversation open.
Lead with one sentence on why you called, tied to the regulation or risk they would recognize. Then ask a question that assumes they know the answer. “Who approves vendors for your compliance tooling?” works better than “Are you the decision maker?” If they are not that person, ask what they would need to see to bring the issue to the right owner. That question gives you the next step and a warm handoff in one exchange.
Then get the name and the best route in. Offer to send a short note they can forward, two or three lines that describe the specific problem they mentioned. Keep it free of pitch language. A forwarded note from a known colleague gets read. A cold email from an unknown rep often does not.
The associate GC who booked was not the buyer, but they knew the approval path and were willing to share it. That is the outcome to aim for on a wrong-title call: a clear map of who decides and a reason to speak to them.