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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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:
- Introduction: You receive a personal introduction from a common connection.
- Willingness: The executive you want to meet takes the time to talk to you based upon the recommendation of your common connection.
- 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.
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.
Most sales professionals will probably never take up permanent residence in the domain of finance.
However, if you want to sell to the C-Suite, you need to be as comfortable as possible in their world so you can understand executive-level concerns and solve strategic business issues. Otherwise, you are just a pretender.
Let’s start with the basics of an annual report. An annual report is exactly what it sounds like - a formal report on a company's performance in the preceding year. It is one of the most important documents a company produces and is often the first document someone consults when researching a company. It reports how the company did financially and often explains the scope of its business mission and management philosophy. It typically includes:
- Financial highlights. Probably the most often-read section of any annual report, these highlights give a quick summary of a company's performance. The numbers appear in a short table, usually accompanied by supporting graphs.
- Letter to Shareholders. This letter may be from the chairperson of the board of directors, the chief executive officer, or both. It can provide an analysis and a play-by-play review of the year's events, including any problems, issues, and successes the company had. It usually reflects the business philosophy and management style of the company's executives, and often it lays out the company's direction for the next year.
- Corporate message. Some analysts, business executives, and Shareholders consider this message an advertisement for the company; others find it useful. However, it almost always reflects how a company sees itself, or how it would like others to see it.
- Management discussion. This series of short, detailed reports discusses and analyzes the company's performance. It covers results of operations, and the adequacy of liquid and capital resources to fund operations. Important financial issues are referenced, and often the company’s key ratios are given.
- Financial statements and notes. These statements provide the raw numbers for the company's financial performance and recent financial history. These statements include a comprehensive set of related notes that provide explanations, additional detail, and supplementary financial information.
- Selected financial data. This information summarizes a company's financial condition and performance over five years or longer for comparison purposes.
- Board of directors and management. This list gives the names and titles of the company's board of directors and top management team. Sometimes companies include photographs. This information is often in the back of the annual report.
- Shareholder information. This information covers the basics of the company's corporate office headquarters, the exchanges on which the company trades its stock, the location and time of the next annual Shareholder's meeting, and other general Shareholder service information.
- Auditors' report. This is a summary of the findings of an independent firm of certified public accountants showing whether the financial statements are complete, reasonable, and prepared consistent with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) at a set time.
- Report of management. This letter, usually from the board chairperson and the chief financial officer, takes responsibility for the validity of the financial information in the annual report, and states that the report complies with SEC and other legal requirements. The discussion attests to the presence of internal accounting control systems that cover effectiveness of operations, reliability of financial reporting, and compliance with federal laws.
Selling to executives is different than selling to middle management or other levels of an organization.
Success requires a unique approach, a different attitude, and it comes with very different expectations. Here are four tips to set you and your sales team up for success when it comes to selling to the “corner office.”
- Be Prepared. Before walking into a C-Level meeting, make sure that you have done your homework. This includes knowing how and why your executive buyer’s investment decisions are made, how they and their company are measured, their top 3-5 strategic priorities, and the financial benefit your solution provides.
- Be Succinct. Executives are busy with multiple priorities vying for their attention. Be clear, be focused, and get to the point with as few words as possible. This all must be done with a compelling message, the appropriate level of confidence, and a keen eye on building an executive-level relationship. Do not be fooled. This takes practice. Winging it with a CXO does not work.
- Be Authentic. It has been said that dogs and bees can smell fear. While that may or may not be true, we do know that most executives can smell B.S. from a mile away. To build rapport, be sincere, talk straight, and be yourself. Anything else will cause you to lose credibility and the deal.
- Be Easy. Executives expect you to make the first step in the relationship easy for them. Some even expect it to be free. To begin a long-term relationship, be magnanimous, add value generously, and make it easy for them to “try you on.”
Executive decision makers want to work with people who can help them succeed. So remember, “behave at their level” if you want to be “treated at their level.”
