Dec 2008
'Tis the Season... but not for YOUR reason...
22/12/08 08:53
Seasonality is a very real issue when it comes to executive sales. And end-of-year issues affect everyone. I’m not talking about your internal end-of-year sales targets and end-of-quarter quotas. No one (at least none of your customers) cares about that. Unless you’re in the sorry habit of trying to cut low-margin deals just to hit your numbers because you haven’t been able to take care of business properly until it’s almost too late.
And those “last minute specials” really aren’t doing anyone a favor anyway. You trade away your credibility and standing as a true business advisor interested in the customer’s success for a little low-margin volume on product your clients probably don’t really want-- “empty” sales that will make your next target that much harder to achieve. And the customer is stuck with stuff they didn’t really need. More importantly, feeling that once again, someone who should have been looking out for their interests (YOU) was willing to sell them down the river just so you could get your personal bonus.
So forget about yourself. You should really be thinking about seasonality from your client’s perspective. And while the seasonality that affects the clients sales is important, there are cycles and calendar items that are likely even more important when you’re selling at the executive level:
And those “last minute specials” really aren’t doing anyone a favor anyway. You trade away your credibility and standing as a true business advisor interested in the customer’s success for a little low-margin volume on product your clients probably don’t really want-- “empty” sales that will make your next target that much harder to achieve. And the customer is stuck with stuff they didn’t really need. More importantly, feeling that once again, someone who should have been looking out for their interests (YOU) was willing to sell them down the river just so you could get your personal bonus.
So forget about yourself. You should really be thinking about seasonality from your client’s perspective. And while the seasonality that affects the clients sales is important, there are cycles and calendar items that are likely even more important when you’re selling at the executive level:
- Budget cycles-- when you pitch at the wrong time relative to budgeting and forecasting exercises, and you will not only miss the window of opportunity, but you’ll have difficulty getting and keeping their attention.
- Earnings announcements—for at least a week before and after 10Ks and Qs (or international equivalents are released, it is not only futile but shows a lack of insight to be putting YOUR stuff on a C Exec’s plate uninvited. Annual meetings, analyst meetings, fundraising roadshows and annual report prep time are all key deadlines that you should be aware of if you want to impress your customer that you understand their pressures and priorities.
- Marketing initiatives—major industry tradeshows, significant new product line launches, massive press junkets and new advertising campaigns can also make it difficult to get the mindshare you need to get the necessary audience for your proposals.
- Regional calendars—pity the sales executive that tries to schedule meetings in Japan between April 29 and May 5 (Golden Week) or in Australia the first Tuesday in November (Melbourne Cup). If you don’t know the local calendar, you don’t deserve their business.
What's so HARD about selling to a CEO?
15/12/08 14:05
Nothing—if you know what you’re doing and use a little common sense.
C-Level Executives are Smart. And Busy. C-Level execs looks at a potential purchasing decision the same way as anyone else-- WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?). And frankly, they couldn’t care less about what YOU have to sell. There are only a small handful of things that they really care about. If you have something to contribute on those issues, they're all ears. If not, they really couldn’t care less about whatever it is you're pitching.
So what does a CEO or CFO care about? I’m not talking about on a personal level, but as part of his or her job. And to get there, he or she must have been pretty good at it. Pretty focused. And 95 times out of 100 the CEO, COO and CFO are going to be most highly focused on the financial performance of the company relative to the goals and objectives serving the shareholders.
So that should be easy, right? More sales, more profits—what else is there?
If it was really that simple, do you think those execs would be pulling down the big bucks?
To gain the credibility necessary to a) get a C-Level exec’s attention and b) keep it for more than 30 seconds, you need to do better than that.
First of all, you have to truly have a desire to not only help them succeed personally and professionally. No, really. I’m serious. The superficial, “who loves you baby, let’s do lunch,” approach will not work at this level. They’ll see right through it.
Secondly, you have to be able to let them know how you’re going to help them succeed-- in the context of what they care about and in the language that they understand. And do it first in 30 seconds-- and if you’re lucky, you’ll get another 10-15 minutes to go into detail. Once you actually get that golden opportunity to meet the "top dog," you'd better know what to say, and even more importantly HOW TO SAY IT.
And that’s what Corner Office Conversations is all about.
C-Level Executives are Smart. And Busy. C-Level execs looks at a potential purchasing decision the same way as anyone else-- WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?). And frankly, they couldn’t care less about what YOU have to sell. There are only a small handful of things that they really care about. If you have something to contribute on those issues, they're all ears. If not, they really couldn’t care less about whatever it is you're pitching.
So what does a CEO or CFO care about? I’m not talking about on a personal level, but as part of his or her job. And to get there, he or she must have been pretty good at it. Pretty focused. And 95 times out of 100 the CEO, COO and CFO are going to be most highly focused on the financial performance of the company relative to the goals and objectives serving the shareholders.
So that should be easy, right? More sales, more profits—what else is there?
If it was really that simple, do you think those execs would be pulling down the big bucks?
To gain the credibility necessary to a) get a C-Level exec’s attention and b) keep it for more than 30 seconds, you need to do better than that.
First of all, you have to truly have a desire to not only help them succeed personally and professionally. No, really. I’m serious. The superficial, “who loves you baby, let’s do lunch,” approach will not work at this level. They’ll see right through it.
Secondly, you have to be able to let them know how you’re going to help them succeed-- in the context of what they care about and in the language that they understand. And do it first in 30 seconds-- and if you’re lucky, you’ll get another 10-15 minutes to go into detail. Once you actually get that golden opportunity to meet the "top dog," you'd better know what to say, and even more importantly HOW TO SAY IT.
And that’s what Corner Office Conversations is all about.
...and what this blog ISN'T
08/12/08 23:23
You’ve come to the WRONG place if you’re looking for:
- Sales Training. Corner Office Conversations is NOT another “sales training” blog. There are a lot of good ones out there, and from time to time I may even refer to a few of them. We won’t be covering “tie-downs,” “overcoming objections,” “takeaways,” and the myriad tricks and tactics of typical sales training. No “SPIN Selling,” “Little Red Books,” or even “Solution Selling.”
- Presentation Skills. Figure out how to dress for success and create PowerPoint slide animations on your own. It doesn’t matter how charismatic you are or how snazzy your presentation is if I (as a C-level executive) don’t understand what you’re talking about or even worse, couldn’t care less.
- Decisionmaker Matrices. Yes, in typical sales situations it is sometimes difficult to figure out who really makes the decisions, and ever harder to get to them. In our world, it’s not that difficult. Go about as high in the hierarchy as you can imagine, and that’s where you want to be. We may drop a few hints along the way as to how to get there, but for the most part I’m assuming you can figure that one out.
- Sales “Tools.” Don’t get me wrong-- I’m a huge believer in leveraging technology and other tools of the information age. And I will point you towards specific resources that support my particular perspective here. But you’re not going to get tips on maximizing the efficiency of your SFA system or implementing solutions for a distributed mobile workforce.
