Secrets To Selling To The Top Sales techniques of past generations profusely fail if tried in today’s society. Prospects are intuitive, wary, and quick to dismiss even the implication of a selling technique. Yet people need products and services, and there are many competitors out there selling exactly what C-level executives need in order to progress their companies and maintain competitive advantage. The ultra-dynamic environment of selling today requires an acute understanding of what it will take to partner with target purchasers, rather than just sell to them – nobody likes to be sold to these days. 1. Do Your Homework Today’s salespeople must do more homework than ever before to understand their prospect – all before they enter into the prospects’ building for the first time. In her article “Selling to the C-Suite”, Diane DiResta writes that purchasing making decisions don’t necessarily begin and end with the CEO – there are specific people charged with responsibility in purchasing. It’s the salesperson’s responsibility to establish a relationship with that person. DiResta affirms this by citing Vaxxinate CEO Wayne Pisano, who states ‘I won’t undermine roles and responsibilities o my direct reports. That’s not how I operate’. Just going to the top is a lazy and counterproductive way to get in the door. Creating a partnership with your prospects with the aim to helping them grow their businesses by educating them on you’re your product/service offerings is a long-term proposition. Cutting out the relationship-building phase, however, will almost certainly result in lack of sales. 2. Communicate correctly and efficiently. Everyone today seems to be busy and with more demands on them than time to meet them. However, they need to be aware of deficiencies in their operations as well as your solutions that will help them achieve those problems that are invariably taking up some of their time. If salespeople can communicate how their offerings can aid in their prospects’ growth, and possibly solve problems preventing them from effectively addressing their business’s progress – at the right time (ie: once the relationship is established a mutual trust formed), - then the chances of a good sale (ie: defined as a value-sale, and perceived as valuable to the now purchaser) substantially increase. Prospects, however, require salespeople to respect their time. It’s up to the salesperson to be brief and effective with the prospect’s time. This requires establishing firmly, and quickly, the prospect’s problem (intuitive, so covering known information), your solution, and your value proposition to the prospect. In other words, solve their paid points. Providing hard data of the positive results resulting from the removal of those pain points will go far at the right time. 3. Gain Respect Further, prospects, regardless of where in the hierarchy they are, respect brevity. This is a sure way to gain the respect of the prospect when given the opportunity – at the right time – to provide your sales pitch. A cursory review of the problem. along with a cogent description of how you plan to solve their pain points, is usually enough for your prospect. They will then drive the conversation by asking questions. Important in maintaining the respect of your prospect is to bring the right issues to the table when providing your pitch, which requires a careful understanding of the prospect company’s goals, and how your service/product can help them achieve those goals. Once the goals of the prospect company are well known, then you can find out the obstacles they’re up against that need rectifying, and help remove them. Above all, the right way to sell is to first establish strong, trusting relationships with your prospects. This is done differently with each prospect, requiring a unique approach each time the salesperson walks into a prospect’s building. Fortunately, though, building relationships is better than what we all know as “selling”, and getting the prospect to buy is a natural evolution of a mutually beneficial relationship that should remain intact long after the salespersons career comes to a close. Nicholas Kilpatrick is a partner at the accounting firm of MacKenzie Burgess Kilpatrick. He leads the firm’s consulting and strategy practice and works with companies to enhance their Analytics, Forecasting , and Data Optimization functions. The practice’s focus includes quantitative forecasting, corporate and unit strategy and planning. Please visit our website at mackenzieaccounting or on Facebook at facebook/MacKenzie Burgess Kilpatrick for more information on our firm.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 16:00:03 +0000
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