Selling to Executives

How many sales have been lost because your competition had inroads with the senior executive and you didn't? How often did you find out, too late, that the middle managers you had been talking to didn't have the power to make the final decision to buy?

The hard truth is, many times it's very difficult to get the executive's attention and connect your products and solutions to their priorities and business agenda.

Initiating and developing relationships with executives requires more than getting in and presenting your value proposition. It requires you to be able to answer several critical questions before you even make your initial call:

• How can I establish unique value that is relevant to the CEO's most pressing issues?
• How can I create alignment among the executive team?
• How can I ensure that the value they will expect will be the value they can achieve and measure?

The bottom line is, ill-prepared salespeople will continually be pushed back down to support levels if they don't keep in mind the five key steps to engage the executive and increase the value they can bring to them.

1. Establishing an "Executive Team" Mindset. Many salespeople believe executives will not see them because they are not on the same level as other members of their leadership or advisory team. Let's start with the premise that the executive will see you because you can help them accomplish their agenda. It's important that you see yourself as a member of the executive staff, assigned to manage a key value creation project, namely the investigation, purchase and implementation of the value creating solution you represent.
2. Creating Relevancy for the Executive. The first step in understanding the executive's key agenda is to look at the most critical objectives in their business plan that you can impact. A salesperson must recognize that the executive's priorities center on three core business drivers: finance, quality and competitiveness. Financial drivers center on increasing revenue and decreasing expenses. Being able to position your solution as a contributor to the executive's agenda item and positioning yourself as ready and able to guide the investigation and implementation, takes you out of the realm of seller and into the world of trusted advisors.
3. Creating the Incentive to Change. As the salesperson discovers the agendas and priorities of the executive, they develop what we refer to as the value assumption. It represents a hypothesis as to the amount of value that may be available to this prospect via your solution. The key point is that it is a hypothesis, not a statement of fact, and the objective is to join with the prospect to prove or disprove the hypothesis of value. The best-case scenario is that the executive believes the value assumption has merit and decides to support your efforts to investigate it further within their organization. He can then either prove or disprove the hypothesis.
4. Creating the Confidence to Invest. Now, as a respected advisor, the salesperson can lead this cast of characters in a collaborative design process to create alignment around the solution. Based on the information collected on the business situation, the potential problems, and the costs or consequences, the salesperson now leads the design discussions. Once the cast of characters achieves alignment for the solution, it is then time for the salesperson to share their progress and value agreement with the sponsoring executives.
5. Creating Measurable Results. The final stage requires that the salesperson not only ensure that value is achieved during the delivery process, but he must also identify how the value achieved will be measured and reported. This must occur throughout the implementation process and on an on-going basis as the company uses the solution. To build and maintain strong executive relationships, the salesperson should conduct business review meetings with the executive to communicate the value being delivered to the company, manage expectations and answer questions that arise during the implementation. These meetings will help to identify new opportunities where value can be achieved in the customer's business.

In the world of complex sales, calling at the executive level is most often not an option and it is not as simple as repeating the same strategy and using the same skills you used at other levels. It involves shifting your focus and becoming a business advisor, understanding and diagnosing the customer's situation at multiple levels and multiple disciplines, collaborating with those impacted by the change they will go through, and ensuring value is achieved during the delivery and implementation of the solution. The sales professional who can accomplish this clearly earns the respect and credibility of the executive and will gain access to the executive suite.

About the author
Jeff Thull, CEO of Prime Resource Group, is a leading-edge sales and marketing strategist. He has worked with companies like Shell Global Solutions, Seimens, and Georgia-Pacific. Jeff is author of 3 best selling books, a columnist for Inc.com, and his articles are published in hundreds of business and trade publications. For more information contact: Prime Resource Group http://www.primeresource.com or call 1-763-473-7529.

Please note that the Viewpoints listed in CRM magazine and appearing on destinationCRM.com represent the perspective of the authors, and not necessarily those of the magazine or its editors. If you would like to submit a Viewpoint for consideration on a topic related to customer relationship management, please email viewpoints@destinationCRM.com.