Executive Selling Is All in the Timing

What is the difference between a successful salesperson and one who struggles? Often it is a question of timing.

Here are some executive selling training tips on how and when to move to the next stage in the sales cycle:

• Do not skip the budget question. Too many inexperienced salespeople do not qualify the opportunity by insuring that the prospective client is actually a buyer with means. Their mistake is to waste their own time by pursuing a deal that will never close.
• Do not rush the proposal stage. As eager as you may be to move forward, pay attention to the order in which you proceed. If you take the time to prepare a proposal before you gain the commitment to buy, you may have invested those hours in vain.
• Do not “beat a dead horse.” If all the signals are negative, give it up. There is nothing to be gained by chasing opportunities that are nonexistent. Invest your time and talents in more positive directions.

Be thoughtful about how you spend your time selling—especially to executives.

Three Steps to Staying REALLY Connected on Conference Calls

It is too easy to multi-task and tune out of conference calls.

Just press the mute button and tend to your own business…no one can see you yawn or hear your keyboard as you answer emails. But don’t count on being truly invisible!

Your inattention shows when you don’t respond right away, don’t participate at the right level, or need to have a question repeated. And the tenor of your voice can give you away as well. Imagine how this affects your credibility.

Stay really connected to your colleagues and, even more importantly, your customers by following these three executive selling training rules:

1. Stay focused on the call. You will be able to contribute to the discussion meaningfully and in timely fashion when your expertise and insight is called upon.
2.  Avoid distractions. Clear your desk and desktop prior to the call and turn off audio alerts to incoming calls and emails.
3. Listen carefully. How can you add value to the call? To help keep you on target, take notes and jot down ideas you can share when it’s your turn to speak.

Simple rules, yes, but ones that may even shorten your calls as you stay on subject and keep engaged.

How Referrals Stack Up as a Sales and Marketing Strategy

In our opinion (and the data back us up), referrals are THE most effective executive sales and marketing strategy.

Just think in terms of the temperature of your calls.

Cold calls to executives leave you flat; empty, at a dead end with nowhere else to go. But a warm call, the ones that were set up by someone you know who wants you to meet and executive that they know, leave you with realistic possibilities and likely opportunities. In fact, 70% of referral calls lead you to qualified prospects. And even if they don’t result in an actual executive sale, the other 30% can lead you to someone else who knows another target executive.

Referral selling builds upon the executive relationships that you have nurtured and your past successes. If you have proven yourself as trustworthy, able to help your customers, sincerely supporting their success, why wouldn’t they want to introduce you to a C-Level friend or colleague? It only enhances their value within their own network and allows them to repay you in part for the time and energy and focus you have leant them in your dealings together.

Why Executives Buy

When you are trying to sell to the C-level, you are placed under an executive microscope to be examined through an executive’s lens of different needs, expectations, and demands.

Most executives base their purchasing decisions upon a few key criteria that relate to both their personal success and the success of their company. To effectively sell at this level, you must be able to clearly link the value of your solution to what executives care most about in at least two areas:

1. Financial. First and foremost, most executives will analyze the financial impact on their business related to the key revenue, margin, and profit targets that they are held accountable to hitting in the next six to twelve months. Very few leaders will invest in a product or service that does not have a strong (and fairly reliable) return on investment.
   
   
2. Business Productivity. In addition to “running the numbers” to ensure that the investment makes financial sense, executives also want to feel confident that your solution will improve business efficiency and effectiveness in a way that aligns with the current strategic priorities. This includes making sure that your approach makes sense for their specific industry, culture, timeline, and leadership team.
   

Three Foundations of an Effective Sales Process

A business sales methodology without an effective sales process can be rendered useless.

Even the best sales tools, skills, and techniques cannot overcome the obstacles presented by the lack of a clear and implemented sales process that is based upon how your customers buy and how you differentiate and position yourself in the marketplace.

If your sales process is lacking any of the following three attributes, get the process right before looking into other areas:

1. Customized: It should be designed to align 100% with the unique sales culture, organizational structure, marketplace, industry, target clients, solution sets, go-to-market strategy, and target buyers.
   
   
2. Defined Sales Stages: Simple, clearly articulated and agreed-upon sales stages related to verifiable buyer behavior/criteria/evidence prove that a deal has moved from one stage to the next. These stages typically come with associated percentages to help with pipeline forecasting, sales coaching, and job aids. Each stage also has predetermined guidelines for actions and corresponding support tools to help the sales rep succeed.
   
   
3. CRM: Regardless of size or deal complexity, technology is a “must” to effectively organize, track, automate, and align sales, sales management, marketing, customer service, and support.

Using Referrals to Sell to Executives

Referral selling is a powerful, and greatly underutilized sales tool to gain access to executive buyers.

An executive referral means that you receive an introduction to a target executive buyer. An introduction is very different than just “getting a name” from a friend or colleague.

Remember, when you contact someone who doesn't know you, and doesn't expect your call, you are making a cold call from their perspective. This does not work with executive buyers.

Here's a more effective executive selling scenario:

1. Introduction: You receive a personal introduction from a common connection.
   
   
2. Willingness: The executive you want to meet takes the time to talk to you based upon the recommendation of your common connection.
   
   
3. Get the Meeting: You arrange a meeting where you can identify their most pressing needs, link your solution(s) to their challenges, and articulate your value in a way that makes sense to them.

Referrals allow you to get meetings with powerful C-Level buyers, significantly shorten your sales cycle, fill your pipeline with more qualified leads, and close more than 50% of your pipeline.

Selling to Executives – Know Thy Client

Executives want to do business with sales leaders who create business value and improve business performance. They make buying decisions that will help them achieve their strategic and financial performance goals.

Before trying to sell to an executive be certain that you and your sales team know how and why your executive buyer’s investment decisions are made. Be prepared and stay focused on their reason for buying. It is not about you or your company. It is all about them and their objectives.

Before meeting with an executive, prepare by:

• Getting Key Performance Information: Analyze publicly available business and financial information including recent shareholder reports, earnings calls, and recent News articles and press releases.
  
  
• Performing a High-Level Financial Analysis: To buy from you, executives need to know that you are in their league and speak their language. To keep your seat at the table, make sure that you review and understand their performance of the last 2-3 years, identify key improvement areas and trends, and link your solution (the costs and benefits) to their most important strategic priorities.
  
  
• Understanding Their Competition: Remember that your goal is to help the executive and their company to succeed. That means understanding their marketplace and how you help them win. To start, review Annual Reports and key ratio comparisons of competitors and have a point of view vis-à-vis your solution.

Sales professionals who skip these steps often find themselves at the losing end of the deal.