In some companies, getting calendar time with a senior executive may only take place if you contact the executive assistant or the executive’s secretary. You simply can’t get on the executive’s calendar by contacting them directly. In that case, you may have to either use a sponsor or treat the gatekeeper as a resource to help you schedule a meeting with the executive.

The techniques that can be used to address them include:

• When there’s an organizational change in your company, suggest having a meeting to explain the new structure.
• Suggest a meeting with an equivalent level executive from your organization (like-rank selling).
• Accept redirections to meet other executives or people of lower rank, but always ask for an introduction. to be made and request a follow-up meeting to review the outcomes.
• Schedule a meeting with an executive to communicate past value delivered or to confirm your ongoing value.
• When there’s any significant event in the customer’s market unrelated to the current sales campaign. Executives like to know that you’re thinking about them, even if there’s nothing for you to sell.

The stakes are high if you cannot access the relevant executive for the sales opportunity. Some of the latest data from companies whose sales cycles are nine months or more indicates that it can cost more than $200,000 to pursue an opportunity, whether you win or not. That’s a significant sum to bet on selling to low-level managers. If you don’t have the chance to get past the gatekeepers and meet the relevant executive, it may be prudent to walk away, save the cost of sale and spend time on other opportunities where you have a better chance of winning the deal.

There’s one other word of caution that bears mentioning at this point. Don’t attempt to circumvent the gatekeeper unless you have a high degree of confidence that you can obtain the meeting with the executive. As one savvy salesperson put it: “Hell hath no fury like a gatekeeper scorned!” Once around a roadblock, a salesperson will be quickly tested. CXOs told us that salespeople who get past their roadblocks on a cold-call receive five minutes to show they can add value.
Here are some tips:

• Speak from a business perspective and don’t get caught up in the “bells and whistles” of product features.
• Raise relevant questions and share business perspectives that are new to the executive – getting credit for the homework you’ve done on their organization and the knowledge and experience you bring to them.
• If you’re an incumbent salesperson, point out potential limitations of your products in light of changing demands, with ideas to make improvements, thus enhancing your credibility.

Try treating gatekeepers as though they were the executive.  Explain your proposition and ask their opinions.   By nature, they like assisting.  The best Executive Assistants will be conversant with their boss’s business issues and immediately see your value. The poor ones won’t understand the discussion, but may pass you forward because you sound like you belong. If you are successful in obtaining a gatekeeper’s support, make certain you keep them in the loop – it will serve you well in the long term.

About the Author

Dr. Steve Bistritz has more than 40 years of high-tech sales, sales management and training management experience.  Steve co-authored the best-selling sales book, Selling to the C-Suite, which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2010. He is president and founder of SellXL.com, a global sales training and consulting firm, based in Atlanta. Visit his website at www.sellxl.com or contact him directly at steveb@sellxl.com.

Why is it so critical to identify the relevant executive?   Because that executive can often exert his/her informal influence to either proactively make a buying decision or usurp a  buying decision that was made as a result of the formal decision-making process.  Salespeople are usually very tuned to the formal decision-making process – it’s the one that is described in the RFP or articulated by those who actively participate in the formal decision-making process. But in nearly every sales opportunity there is an informal decision-making process in play.  Successful salespeople understand that But how do you identify the most powerful person in the client organization? Identifying the relevant executive for the sales opportunity may not be an easy task. It takes time, resources and a degree of energy; however, when you are able to identify that executive, your rewards can be great!  In order to begin to identify the relevant executive you should constantly be aware of what’s happening in the client organization.  Observe how major buying decisions are made, who wins when re-organizations take place and which executives receive the special assignments that are meaningful and significant. In addition, look for who’s connected to who within the client organization.  Notice which executives are tapped to lead the new projects of high importance.   Discuss these events with your supporters or mentors in the client organization – and then triangulate your information to develop your conclusions.

Then, if you can align with the relevant executive for the sales opportunity and spend some quality time with that person – you will significantly reduce the time you spend trying to close the deal. And guess what?  If you are not aligned with the relevant executive for the sales opportunity, your competitors probably are – and if that’s the case your odds of winning the sale are slim.

Most importantly, your objective is to get that relevant executive selling for you!  Salespeople are always talking about their coaches in the client organization and about the value of those people when buying decisions are about to be made.  I view the role of a coach as someone who is on the sidelines cheering you on and perhaps, even being very open about their support for you, your company and your solutions – when you are in their presence.  What I like to cultivate is someone in the client organization who becomes your mentor – and I define a mentor as someone who not only openly supports you in your presence – but someone who sells in your absence.  In other words, after your presentation is over and you’ve left the building, a mentor is someone who will stand up and openly support you and your solution.

If you can identify and align with the relevant executive for the sales opportunity and have that executive become your mentor – you will have positioned yourself  to win the deal!

About the Author

Dr. Steve Bistritz has more than 40 years of high-tech sales, sales management and training management experience.  Steve co-authored the best-selling sales book, Selling to the C-Suite, which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2010. He is president and founder of SellXL.com, a global sales training and consulting firm, based in Atlanta. Visit his website at www.sellxl.com or contact him directly at steveb@sellxl.com.

Initial questions asked when and why executives get involved in the buying process for major purchases. Here’s what we discovered:

• Salespeople who want to build executive-level relationships must enter the picture early in the buying process because this is when 80% of executives get involved when major purchase decisions are being made. Their motivation at this stage is to understand current business issues, establish project objectives, and set overall project strategy.
• During the middle phase of the buying process, executives tend to reduce their involvement and delegate decisions to lower-level subordinates or committees.
• Those same senior executives said they get involved again late in the buying cycle, but this time they’re typically seeking to monitor implementation plans and measure results.

When these executives were asked what has to happen in meetings with salespeople for the executive to feel it was effective, they stated they want salespeople who are willing to be held accountable, provide value and deliver results. Also, they don’t want to educate salespeople about either their business or their industry – they expect salespeople to have that knowledge before making the first call. And most importantly, they want salespeople to listen before proposing a solution – not someone with a solution looking for a home!

When we asked those same executives what characteristics salespeople have to demonstrate to become perceived as trusted advisors to them, the answers were very similar:

• Ability to marshal resources
• Understood my business goals
• Responsive to my requests
• Willingness to be held accountable

The ability to marshal resources was the single most important factor cited for building credibility. What executives were saying is they want a single point of contact who has responsibility and accountability for the solution – even if multiple business partners are involved. With the complexity of today’s solutions potentially involving global partners, this was seen as an evolving issue.

The bottom line is that executives are looking to build relationships with salespeople who perceive they are involved for the long term, not just this particular buying decision. They also want to build relationships with salespeople who deliver significant business value and are responsive and accountable to them.

About the Author

Dr. Steve Bistritz has more than 40 years of high-tech sales, sales management and training management experience. Steve co-authored the best-selling sales book, Selling to the C-Suite, which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2010. He is president and founder of SellXL.com, a global sales training and consulting firm, based in Atlanta. Visit his website at www.sellxl.com or contact him directly at steveb@sellxl.com.

Sales has grown up a lot in the last ten years and this book is good example of just how far selling has come.  When the manuscript first landed on my desk I looked at the title, Selling to the C-Suite, and I couldn’t suppress a groan.   “Another collection of impractical advice about how to get in front of any key executive without even trying,” I thought.   And you can’t blame me for being skeptical.  Almost without exception, books on how to get access to “The Man”, “VITO”, “the fox” or a dozen other names for the top dog whose signature can change your life, have been mediocre and unrealistic.  So, I must admit, I started reading with very low expectations. 

By the time I reached the end of the first chapter, all that had changed.  Three things were immediately evident:

• There is a refreshing realism about the authors’ advice.  No gimmicks, no tricks, no smoke and mirrors.  Selling successfully at C-level is hard, thoughtful and strategic and the book offers none of the usual unrealistic silver bullets.
• The ideas are based on research, not on anecdotes.  The authors interviewed hundreds of senior executives to learn about their buying practices and, for this alone, the book is worth its weight in commission checks.
• It is one of the few books that actually demonstrates an understanding of selling in a global business environment.  There are cases and examples from – among other places – China, Europe and Australia.  Everybody says we must think globally.  Nic Read and Stephen Bistritz have been doing it.  They have been working all over the world and they really understand global business because they live it every day.

The reason it is so critical to identify the relevant executive is because that executive can often exert their informal influence or power to either make or usurp the buying decision that was made as a result of the formal decision-making process.  Salespeople are usually very tuned to the formal decision-making process – it is the one that may be described in an RFP or it may be articulated by those who participate in the formal decision-making process. But in nearly every sales opportunity there is an informal decision-making process in play and salespeople eventually learn that the informal process always trumps the formal process.

Therefore, it you can identify and align with the relevant executive for the sales opportunity you can significantly reduce the time you spend trying to win the deal. And guess what – if you are not aligned with the relevant executive for the sales opportunity – your competitors probably are – and if that’s the case you will probably not win the deal!

 Identifying the relevant executive for the sales opportunity may not be an easy task. It will take time, resources and a lot of your energy – however, when you are able to identify that executive, your rewards can be great!.

In order to begin to identify the relevant executive you should constantly be aware of what’s happening in the client organization – always watching how major buying decisions are made, who wins when re-organizations take place and which executives receive the special assignments that are meaningful and significant. In addition, you should be looking for who’s connected to who within the client organization – and noticing which executives are tapped to lead the new projects of importance. You should also be discussing these events with your supporters or mentors in the client organization – and then triangulating your information to develop your conclusions.           

By using this approach to identifying the relevant executive for the sales opportunity – and aligning with that executive – you will find that you have significantly improved your odds of winning key deals!

In the book, Selling to the C-Suite, we discuss the fact that it is not only necessary for the salesperson to deliver value, but to clearly communicate the value delivered as well. Don’t assume that the client executive fully understands the value delivered – make certain it is communicated in a formal way and done so in a fashion that conveys the specific business value delivered, using the client’s metrics.

Communicating value to client executives is often done in the form of a value proposition. In my SellXL workshop, we discuss how to communicate value in this manner, and stress that the construction of a value proposition should be done in such a way that it focuses on the following three elements:

• Addresses the client’s key business issues and focuses on payback or return on investment
  -  In other words, what’s important to the client?
• Describes how our solution can help, in both a qualitative and quantitative form
  -  How does our solution create specific business value for the client?
• Includes an example of how we addressed a similar problem in the past
  -  How we can demonstrate our capability?

In addition, salespeople learn that there are three elements of value that they should bring forward in every value conversation with client executives.  Those three elements of value are:

• The specific value that a salesperson personally delivers (as a result of their background and experience)
• The value of their company’s resources (often an overlooked factor!)
• The value of their company’s solutions

I also encourage sales managers to conduct Value Delivery Brainstorming sessions, using the above three elements of value as the discussion points. It’s also important that the outcomes of these brainstorming sessions are captured in a structured manner – so that each salesperson on the team leaves the session with the ability to clearly articulate those elements of value that they bring to each interaction with a client.

By using this process it can often define your company’s differentiation when competing for key business deals!

Most books about selling were written from the salesperson’s point of view – often containing anecdotal information about how those salespeople closed the big deals!  This book is different from most books on sales – because it was written based on research we conducted with CXO-level executives where we asked them about their relationships with professional salespeople.  Consequently, much of the content of this book about selling is presented from the perspective of the CXO-level executive.

“Accessing senior client executives is the goal of every sales professional,” said Bistritz. “These are the individuals in the ‘c-suite’ who are responsible for approving top-dollar deals. Selling to the C-Suite is the result of in-depth interviews with more than 500 senior-level executives around the world who reveal secrets of accessibility which can result in career-making sales.”

Among the book’s findings:

• To sell or not to sell. Leaders at the highest corporate levels do not always avoid sales pitches; in fact, they often welcome them – provided the sales professional uses the right approach. Selling to the C-Suite reveals the 21^st Century sales techniques CEOs react best to, as well as those that should be avoided.

• Selecting the right executive is key. The need to identify the relevant executive for each sales opportunity is essential, but in today’s complex organizations, how do you know who that is? The relevant client executive is defined as the executive who stands to gain the most or lose the most as a result of the application or project associated with the sales opportunity. Selling to the C-Suite provides details of how to identify and align with the appropriate decision maker.
• Executives want to understand the value that the salesperson delivers. Regardless of level,. client executives want to validate their buying decision and confirm the value that was delivered by the sales organization. Salespeople learn that it’s not only important to deliver value, but to communicate that value to executives in the client organization.

In the Foreword to the book, author Neil Rackham writes, “The new salespeople are highly skilled value creators, who live by ingeniously solving customer problems. The measure of these new salespeople is the value they create and, to create maximum value they must understand the issues and concerns of their C-suite customers. This book is timely and essential reading for them.”

A result of more than 10 years of research among Bistritz and co-author Nicholas A.C. Read, Selling to the C-Suite is closely aligned with the Selling at the Executive Level (SellXL) workshop that has been successfully used by professional salespeople in companies around the world ranging from start-ups to global leaders for the past six years.  More information about the workshop can be found at www.sellxl.com

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