Selling at C-level for Dummies - #1/12

Well, so much for this being a weekly newsletter. It's been a few months since the last edition so I've tried to write something really valuable in for you.

This is the first in a series of 12 newsletters (more or less) on "Selling at C-level for Dummies" - each subsequent newsletter will be based around the areas listed below under "Contents".

I'll publish them as I finish them over the next few weeks so if you want the full set keep your eyes peeled.

(Incidentally I've recently returned from a trip to Europe (the UK & Paris) to catch up with friends & family.

The picture, taken at sea level, obviously is the waterfront in Hartlepool, half a mile from my birthplace. Not that you should care where I was born, nor about my bad puns (C-level/sea level)).

So what do I have for you? Two things I hope you'll find really really useful.

1. As I already said I'm in the process of putting together a series of newsletters (and carousels) with the title "Selling at C-Level for Dummies" - an idea I brazenly stole from Sam Browne 🦖 . They'll cover my methodology step by step & once I've finished them all I'll be selling them for a modest fee. But as a subscriber to this newsletter you get to see them first, in text rather than in a pretty carousel.
2. At the end of this newsletter there's a special announcement about a course that Fred Copestake & I have developed that's now available - again, you're the first to see this. I'm looking for a maximum of six people to form an exclusive Selling at C-Level Mastermind group. So scroll to the end to check this out.

As always I'll be grateful if you "like" this newsletter & comment. Likes nudge LinkedIn to show it to more people while comments are even more effective at doing that - plus I love the feedback. I'll answer any comments or questions you have.

Selling at C-level for Dummies

(This is the basis of the Selling at C-level methodology I'll be expanding on in the carousels I mentioned. It gives a good overview of What to do; the carousels will give more details and the course Fred & I have created goes in to How to do it in a lot more depth.)

Contents

1.       What is C-Level anyway

2. Why sell at C-level?

3.       Targeting the right companies

4.       Targeting the right people

5.       Knowing your objectives

6.       Understanding your prospects’ Priorities

7. Creating a compelling message

8.       Delivering your message

9.       Grabbing their attention

10.     Securing your first meeting

11.   Planning your first meeting

12. Conducting your first meeting

13.   Following up your first meeting

14.   Next steps

What is C-level anyway?

Before we start I should define what I mean by C-level. Traditionally it means people with "Chief" in their title. The "big 4" are CEO, CFO, CMO & CIO but there are more and more C-level roles these days - Chief Security Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Sales Officer (or Director of Sales), Chief Technology Officer, Chief HR officer and so on.

The point is, they're at the top of the tree and it's (usually) better to start at the top and be referred down than to start at the bottom & try to work your way up.

BUT - it depends.

It depends on what you sell, how much it costs, who you sell it to and a lot more. If you're selling something to Amazon that costs $1 million you wouldn't approach Jeff Bezoz. He probably spends that on lunch.

But if you're selling something that costs $250,000 to a company with $20 million revenue you sure as hell want to start at the top - even if the top person's title is Owner, Founder, Managing Director or whatever.

So in this article, "C-level" means the highest level person (or people) who will be involved in making and/or approving a decision to buy from you & who are affected by whatever issue your product or service addresses.

Why sell at C-level

According to multiple win/loss reviews performed by Trinity Perspectives' Cian Mcloughlin one of the biggest reasons for lost sales is lack of engagement at C-level (from now on by "C-level" I mean senior decision makers).

That's one reason. In fact there are many.

• Poor “C” Level access is a major cause of lost deals

If you aren't talking to the people who make the final decision you have little or no opportunity to influence them directly.

• They can kill a deal at a whim

I once lost a $US3.3 million deal when the CEO of a Fortune 100 company cancelled all spending for the year on 18th December becuse they discovered a totally separate division had lost $50 million.

Because I had no relationship with him - I was working throught the CIO of the international division - I had no way to appeal. The CIO wasn't going to risk his career by advocating on my behalf.

If they don't know you they don't care about you. They can just say "No" and you're screwed.

• They can change suppliers based on a single line in a spreadsheet

The same applies when you're dealing with an existing customer. If a C-level executive doesn't understand the value you offer they can just look at a spreadsheet or P&L and say "what's this for? - cancel it".

• A great relationship at operational level doesn’t always play at “C” level

The people you work with every day - end users, managers, even department heads - might think you're the best thing since sliced bread. (Although I prefer unsliced bread.)

But if their boss' boss tells them to replace you for whatever reason, because they neither know nor case what you do for them) those close relationships and glowing case studies mean nowt.

• You don’t want  a 3rd party making your case for you

You know your offering inside out. Hopefully you know how it can help your prospects, exactly why they're looking for whatever you sell, the benefits of changing and disadvantages & consequences of choosing another path.

If you rely on someone else to present this to the ultimate decision maker and/or approver there's no way they're going to be as convincing as you.

• Birds of a feather flock together

If you're known as the person who deals with senior executives you get a lot more kudos & respect. It's also much easier to get referred to other senior decision makers in the same company.

If people see you as working mainly at operational or management level you'll be taken a lot less seriously. You'll be seen as someone selling a product, not as a potential strategic advisor.

• They set strategy & determine needs

If you know their strategy & how your offering advances it you're a step ahead. If you know what they need - not your product, but the results it gives them from their perspective - and why you can address those issues directly in their terms.

• They set budgets, timeframes, they set and change priorities

BANT is dead - but your prospect still needs a budget to buy what you sell. If a C-level executive wants it badly enough (or wants the result you get help them get) they'll find a budget.

• They sign off on deals

If they don't appreciate what they'll get from you they won't sign off on it.

• You can qualify out faster

Sometimes you have no chance. There's no need, they just bought from a competitor or they're buying it from their brother-in-law's company. If this is the case the sooner you find out the better.

• You'll win more new business

The higher you sell the more you win - and the more money they spend.

• You can reduce churn in existing customers

It's much harder to find new customers than it is to keep existing ones - but only as long as the people who make the decisions appreciate what you bring to the table.

Targeting the Right Companies

Most salespeople's funnels are full of rubbish (partly due to the fallacious "you must have x times your quota in your pipeline" which rewards filling it with crap).

If you waste time targeting companies that are never going to buy from you or that are a long shot you ave much less chance of winning deals with companies who are an ideal fit.

You need to know what your Ideal Customer Profile is.

AND you need to know whoch companies in your territory/region/area fit that profile.

Targeting the right people

You also need to know which roles (or Personas) to target - it may be the CFO, COO & Operations Director or whatever. That's a start.

But personas aren't people. And roles/titles vary from company to company.

For each target company/organisation you need to know the name and title of the individuals you're targeting, noy just a generic persona.

Knowing your objectives

Your ultimate objective is to deliver value to your customer as a result of making a sale. An intermediate objective might be to get a first meeting.

But you need to know what your speficic objective is right now every time you send any communication by any channel - and this will vary depending on many factors.

Understanding your prospects’ Priorities

Understanding Needs is important. But understanding Priorities is much more important. I NEED a lot of things - but right now my Prority is to get this newsletter finished & I'm going to ignore everything else until I do.

For example almost every company wants to reduce expenses, but if they're in expansion mode that may be a much lesser priority that increasing sales.

If you can match what you offer to their current Priorities then you have a much better chance of winning a deal - and much sooner - than if you can't. Which means, of course, you need to know what their priorities are.

Creating a compelling message

Your first message needs to be compelling. Short, sharp, to the point & all about them and their priorities.

Sounds easy. It isn't. But we'll cover how to make it compelling when we get to this topic.

Delivering your message

Maybe you have the perfect message for the person you're targeting. You just know if they read/see/hear it they will bite your hand off to learn more.

But you still have to get it to them - and get their attention when they have a f hundred other thing and people competing for their attention.

We'll cover this in more depth in the newsletter on this topic.

Grabbing their attention

You might have discovered the ideal target. You might know exactly who you need to talk to. You might know exactly what they need right now & what their top priority is.

You may even get your message in front of them.

But if you can't grab their attention all of that is wasted. If you can't get them to see/hear/read your message AND pay attention to it you're screwed.

Securing your first meeting

First question - what is a "meeting"? A half hour presentation of your solution? (Clue - NO IT IS NOT THIS). A 30 minute video call? A five minute phone call?

It depends on the situation. But your very first meeting needs to be a period of time where you have their undivided attention long enough to pique their interest and make them curious/interested enough to want to know more.

Which means talking to them about their priorities in their terminology. If you can do that in 2 minutes you'll get a longer meeting. If you need 30 minutes to do it fully you'd better be prepared to make the first two minutes compelling enough for them to give you the next 28 minutes.

So your first task it to secure that 2, or 20 minutes of undivided attention.

Planning your first (longer) meeting

Once they've committed to a longer meeting - 30 minutes or more - you need to make it count. If you're dealing with one or more C-level or senior executives that's a big commitment on their part. Their time is very valuable.

You don't get such opportunities that often so it's important not to screw it up.

But according to Forester, senior decision makers say 85% of first sales meetings offer little or no value. Which means no second meerings and no sale.

So it's critical to plan thoroughly for the meeting. For this meeting with these specific executives in this specific company at this time. In other words, customised, not just your bog standard sales presentation

Conducting your first meeting

My friend JACQUES SCIAMMAS - President of Selling to Executives (Paris & Boston), tells a story of a CEO he worked with. Jacques held very senior C-level positions with several multi-billion dollar companies.

This CEO would regularly see sales executives. He would always tell his EA to come in after 2 minutes to say he had another appointment.

If he believed the meeting was going to be worthwhile (based on the first 2 minutes) he'd tell his EA to cancel the other "appointment". But most of the time he apologised, showed the sales rep out and never saw them again.

You have very little time to make that first impression and how you conduct that meeting makes a massive difference.

Following up your first meeting

You've secured a meeting. You've made it a success. You've uncovered a current opportunity, or a future opportunity, or received permission to dig deeper.

How do you follow up? How do you make sure she or he doesn't forget you and how you move to the next steps?

That will be covered the penultimate chapter of this series.

Next steps

Finally, what happens next? This depends on many factors that we'll discuss in the final chapter.

Summary

They're the key chapters/topics. We'll cover a lot more in each chapter/newsletter so I hopw you hang around

At each stage I'm happy to answer any questions you have about any relevant topic and if possible relate it to your specific situation.

Exciting Announcement

Well, it's exciting to me. I hope you find it at least interesting and useful.

In case you didn't know, I specialise in helping senior sales executives & sales leaders sell more effectively (and sell more) to C-level executives and other senior decision makers.

There are four ways you can work with me.

1. I self-published a book, "How to Sell at C-Level - the transcripts". It isn't pretty - it's just a PDF I edited myself with screens & pictures I (mainly) made myself. It consists of the transcripts and slides from 20 podcasts, keynotes and webinars featuring me (with some of the world's leading sales experts'podcasts/webinars), and/or Jacques Sciammas, who graciously gave me access to his brilliant material, with one featuring another friend, Martin E. Stevens - one of the world's top cold-callers to senior executives - in a podcast. It's 367 pages long, is packed with (if I say so myself) brilliant insights into Selling at C-Level. You can only get it directly from me and it costs US$75. If it helps you get one C-level meeting (which it will) you'll get a 1000% plus RoI right off the bat. Contact me for more details.
2. Fred Copestake & I have developed a modular "How to Sell at C-Level" video course. It covers everything I've mentioned here in depth and also atlks about HOW to do it as well as WHAT to do. (When you subscribe you'll also get a free copy of my book.) We will be increasing the price, this price is currently only available to people Fred & I tell about it and of course that includes YOU. I'll put the link in the next newsletter - for now contact me for details.
3. If you'd like me to conduct a customised two day workshop (one full day, a break to put the ideas into practice then a follow up day) customised for your company, your customers, your prospects and your offerings, contact me. It can be done for up to 8 people (perhaps more at a squeak - more by discussion) and it can be conducted on-line (North America & Europe) or in person (Sydney only). The price is US$12,000.
4. I'm putting together an exclusive* Sales Leaders Mastermind Group. It will meet fortnightly for 60 to 90 minutes & cover the above topics and other topics to be agreed. Contact me for more details.

* I say it's exclusive because a) it's limited to 6 members (not including me) and b) it's only open to non-competing sales leaders (sales managers, sales directors or CEOs) based in North America or Australia. That isn't discrimination against anywhere else, it's purely a factor of time zones & my reluctance to work unreasonable hours.

Finally

I'm not going to promise when the next editions will come out - they'll be ready when I've finished them. I'm aiming for weekly but it may well be longer. So keep a lookout.

I do appreciate you, my subscribers & I'm always happy to talk, answer questions (and have a bit of fun). So please, do comment on this article & i promise to answer. And please look at it on LinkedIn and Like it (perhaps even share it) so others can see it too (not your competitors of course).

Cheers, Steve