Seven Simple Rules for Selling to Senior Executives

As critical as sales is to the success of any company, particularly in the B2B segment where outcomes

are determined by sales and revenue momentum, the quality of the sales function seems to be at an

all-time low. So, in the spirit of decreasing the pain of the prospect and empathizing with the humane

side of the senior corporate executives, and the pain of others who are in the line-of-fire, the following

are seven very simple best practices for selling to senior executives

1- Earn the opportunity to engage – As a B2B sales professional you probably get some credit for

effort: number of emails sent; number of calls made; time on phone, etc. No matter how persistent or

creative you are, you will not rise above the noise unless you establish credibility. There are only two

ways to do this: (1) send valuable data or information that is easy to consume, directly relevant to my

business, and reflects your value proposition; or, (2) get an introduction from someone the prospect

knows and who believes that their company would benefit from your product or service--even better

if that person is already your customer. Do this, and you are likely to get a meeting.

2- Communicate the agenda in Advance - If you get a call or meeting, it is on you to make sure that it

is productive. At least two days before, send an agenda and an email summarizing the value

proposition of your product or service for the prospect’s company, how it's differentiated and better

than other offerings, and a general idea of what it would cost. If you can get a head start on helping

your prospect understand those things, you can have a real conversation. Your email should be short,

customized for their business, and should include a copy of your presentation.

3- Get to the point--and focus on the value proposition of your product or service on my business.

Once the meeting is scheduled, arrive early to set up your presentation. If we're meeting on the

phone, make sure you are on the bridge before your prospect and have your presentation ready to

go. Please don't bother with small talk-- no need to "connect" with them on something you learned

about them on LinkedIn.

Briefly introduce yourself and your company, and then clearly explain to them why they and their

organization can't live without your product or service. This is a very high bar.

Any new relationship, especially if there are integration requirements, requires resources and creates

overhead inside an organization. Before they agree to divert resources to you, they must believe that

they can't live without what you're selling, i.e., that your product or service can help them

generate materially more revenue, save significant costs, or much more effectively compete in their

market. As a senior executive, those three things--plus how they use time and how their company

deploys its resources-- are the things is the real ice breaker.

4- Do your research. You will instantly lose any credibility you earned to land the meeting if you

demonstrate that you have not done your research. If the answer to your "qualifying question" is

available through a little simple research, you're done. If you're selling a recruiting tool and you don't

know how many jobs the company have open in their public career site, you're done. Show that, you

care about more than just taking them through your process-- and have invested the time to

understand their business and think about how your product or service meets my needs.

5- Know your product or service. The only thing worse than not doing your research about a

prospect’s business is not understanding your product or service inside-out. You should be able to

answer any question that can be asked, whether technical or related to your business, competition

or market. If you don't know your stuff--and refer to sales engineers and account managers--what

value are you adding to the conversation?

6- Less talking, more listening. It is very easy to "swing into gear" once the meeting starts--fire up

your PowerPoint and the canned spiel. Getting into this comfort zone might help you get through the

meeting, but you won't get any closer to a sale. Don't build the meeting around your presentation

and sales script. Build it around what you know about their business and your thesis for why you can

help--and listen for clues. Every question they ask is a reveal, an invitation to steer the discussion

towards them. Shame on you if you miss it

7- STOP SELLING!! Your biggest challenge is to convince them that you are not a salesman. In other

words, even though you are an advocate, or even better, an evangelist, for your product or service,

you understand that salesmanship is about conveying value, not just taking it. Educate them by

providing data and insights about my business. Show me how your product or service

can materially help. But please don't sell; instead, help them understand the value and make the

decision to buy from you.

Note – This article is adapted from James Beriker’s (President & CEO Simply Hired) article

published by him on LinkedIn and is a classic example of how to win Complex Selling at C-Level.