Sell to CEOs and Other Top Decision Makers
Imagine if you had a shortcut to the CEO at the next company you call on. You know the profound difference the CEO's endorsement can make in opening relationships and closing sales. Of course, getting to CEOs is tough, and even if you manage to get through to them, salespeople face unique challenges when trying to win their confidence. But there are a few things you can do to earn their support.
Steps
- Identify ONE SPECIFIC THEME that is both strategic and mission critical.
- Smart sellers approach CEOs assuming they're extremely busy people with a metric ton of priorities all competing for the same, limited amount of time. For sales reps, just getting on a CEO's radar screen is murder. Once you're there, keeping a CEO's attention is even tougher. You need an incredibly tight, focused message. One mistake can be deadly.
- Ask questions that get the CEO/Decision Maker thinking about the consequences of getting it wrong.
- CEOs are responsible for setting company strategy, which is really about how resources will be deployed. If they make the wrong move, expensive resources will be mis-allocated at a disastrous financial and human cost to the company's shareholders and employees. If you understand the risks CEOs face in general, and if you understand the SPECIFIC risks that your prospect CEO is up against on the project you're trying to sell, you vastly improve your chances of success.
- Take control of the dialogue, keeping it focused on the long-term risks of going with the wrong vendor, making the wrong decision, etc.
- Most employees live in the present, working to make the CEO's vision a reality. CEOs, on the other hand, have to live in the future. For CEOs, it's about the big picture, the long-term. If you can get in sync with the CEO's concerns and show how your solution will be the right one a year, five years, ten years down the road, that'll go a long way toward winning over the CEO.
Warnings
- DON'T change the subject. It might be tempting to go off on a tangent about quality, or some other benefit you offer. CEO's aren't really interested in you. They're interested in what you can do for them. Stick to that message at all costs.
- DON'T dive into techno-jargon. Odds are the CEO could not possibly care less about the technical nitty-gritty of your product or service. They have people who will handle those details if the deal moves forward. Fall into the techno-jargon trap and you're certain to lose the interest of the decision maker.
