Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

Most 'sales gurus', including Dave Kurlan, will tell you that selling at 'c' level is the MOST productive way to sell more business, more quickly at higher margins.  But let's further define 'c' level when it comes to sales, sales activity and making calls to set up qualifying appointments.  

I would define 'c' level as the level where the individual either makes the decision or directly makes the recommendation to the person that makes the decision.  The larger the company the more likely that you will start your conversations somewhere below the very top 'c' level executive unless you have been introduced to that level. Jill Konrath has some great guidelines to selling to executives and I would like to add the following five important things to consider when selling in the executive suite:

1. The executives are just people.  Don't get yourself in a wad worried about pitching to the 'powerful' CEO.  I promise you they put their shoes on just like you do, have the same common day worries that you do and want to solve problems just like you do
2. According to a Harvard Business Review article, executives make decisions differently then junior managers.  The key here is to be gutsy enough to ask them for a decision. Not, 'how do you feel about this?'; no, ask them if your product or solution is the one to solve the problem and ask them if you can do business with them.  You may not get a 'yes' but certainly you will make an impression as someone gutsy enough to ask for the business.
3. When meeting for the first time, don't ask second level questions.  As Matt Hogan once told me, 'think presidentially'.  Think about the responsibility of the president and ask questions accordingly.  Questions about profit, shareholder value, market value and market share are the things that presidents concern themselves with not how many power units does the company have.
4. Do your homework in advance. Take every opportunity to leverage your relationship with inside coaches and influencers. Find out how this executive makes decisions and find out what this executive has communicated to their direct reports regarding solutions to problems you are about to address.
5. Leave the powerpoint at home.  My best ever meetings with 'c' level executives has been when we wrote stuff on a white board or flip chart.  Make sure that you are meeting in a room with those resources.  It will engage them in the conversation and certainly will cause them to look at you differently then your competitors.

Speaking of competitors.  You will be in competition.  There are those in the sales training space that would have you believe that you should eliminate your competitors prior to presenting.  I can tell you that that just won't happen.  If you pursuit that strategy then you won't make it to the executive suite to demonstrate that YOU are the person they should be hiring to fix what ails them.