The Best Time to Engage Executives in the Sales Process

If you want to engage the executives at your client company, you need to time it right. Depending upon the complexity and visibility, they typically bow in and out of the buying decision. Your best chance of presenting to and influencing the senior decision makers is at the beginning and the end of the sale. Executive sales training professionals explain why your timing matters…

The Beginning of the Sales Cycle. Executives want to be involved at the beginning because that is when the objectives of the project are defined. They want to be sure that the project’s goals are fully aligned with the organization’s overall strategy. Only then will they be assured that an investment is warranted.

The Middle of the Sales Cycle. The middle of the sale process is usually handled by managers who are responsible for understanding and evaluating competitive options. They are the ones with a stake in the more routine vetting, management and negotiation of the sale. Any executive-level contact at this stage is only for those sales people with very strong executive-level relationships in order to better understand politics, size up the competition and navigate the buying process.

The End of the Sales Cycle. Executives often reappear near the close of the buying cycle. Their interest then is making sure that the final decision makes sense, the project is set up to succeed, the success metrics are clear and that the relationship is starting off on the right foot.

2 Critical Things You Should Know - Talking to Executives So They Listen

Selling to executives is perhaps the most difficult of all sales scenarios. Executives have so many demands placed upon their own time that they are, themselves, a very demanding audience. What drives them crazy and pushes you back out the door is when they think that you are wasting their time.

Take a few tips from executive sales training experts—many of whom have had to learn the hard way—on how to talk to executives so that they listen.

1. Capture their interest right away. Craft your message so that it is clear why you are there and why they should pay attention. Be concise and use simple language. Convince them that you have something that will help them further their specific strategy for their organization.
2. Tell them what you want of them. Set expectations upfront. Do not leave them guessing. What kind of decision do you want from them at the end of your discussion or presentation? 

Now they are ready for the “rest of the story.”