How to Sell at 'C' Level - step by step

If you sell big ticket B2B products and services that need to be approved by the CEO or another "C" level executive then sooner or later you have to engage at "C" level.

Sooner is better. Much, much better.

In sales there's nothing worse than spending months, or even years, working on a huge deal only for the CEO to veto it at the last minute. I know, it's happened to me and it cost me over $200,000 in lost commission.

But that $200k lesson taught me a lot. Now I help my clients get to "C" Level at the beginning of a deal, not at the end. If there's a genuine sales opportunity it makes your chances of winning much better. If there isn't a real opportunity, or if you aren't in with a genuine shot, a quick "No" is much better than a slow, expensive one.

Getting initial access to 'C' Level executives isn't easy - but it is fairly simple.

Once you have a meeting making sure they are well planned will maximise your chances of getting to the next step. That IS easy - if you know what you're doing. But sadly many sales people and sales leaders don't.

That's not me saying it, it's senior executives - when surveyed they say that more than 70% of the sales meetings they take are a waste of their time and the sales person doesn't offer any insights or things of value.

Once you've had a successful meeting you need to follow up effectively and create a pathway back to the senior executive. You're inevitably going to run into roadblocks lower down the organisation and you need access to the top to keep everyone's eyes on the ultimate vision rather than obsessing over tiny details.

This is also easy - if you know what you're doing. But many don't.

These are some of the things I cover in my "How to Sell at 'C' Level" workshop. For your delight and edification here are the segments I cover with a brief explanation:

Overview

Why Sell at "C" level

Many sales people don't start at the top for many reasons. They don't know how, it's too hard, they don't feel confident enough, they think it's easier to get in lower down (it is, but it can lead to a lost of wasted time with companies that are vnever going to buy) and so on.

Before you begin selling at 'C' Level you need to understand why it's important. And when it's important as well.

What is "C" level anyway?

My philosophy is to start at the top and work down. But you need to be proportional. If you're selling a solution that will save Facebook $1 million you're probably not going to interest Mark Zuckerberg that much.

So when I say "sell to the top" what is "the top"? It depends on what you sell and to whom of course. (Clue - it's whoever approves the decision, not whoever makes it)

The Terrifying Truth About Your Prospects

Most sales people, sales leaders and particularly marketers labour under the quaint notion that prospects give a flying fig about them. They don't, but it takes a while to convince most people.

What 'C' level executives care about

If 'C' level executives don't care about you and your products what DO they care about? They care about different things depending on their role (e.g. CEO, CFO, CMO, CIO, etc.), their industry, their company, their political and regulatory environment and their current situation.

How do you combine these to understand their top priorities? That's what this segment is about.

Who does what

Have you ever had a sales call from someone who is obviously reading from a script or who is trying to sell you something you really, really don't care about? of course you have, we all have. Annoying isn't it?

So what makes us think a CEO or other senior executive wants to be contacted by our junior SDR who can't talk to them at their level and who's role is is "qualify" them?

On the other hand there's a fair bit of research that can be delegated to less senior people. Selling at 'C' level is a team sport and it's important to make sure the right players are assigned to the right tasks.

Developing credibility

I don't know about you, but when a sales person approaches me the first thing I do is check out their LinkedIn profile and web site.

(Actually that's the second thing. In most cases the pitch isn't compelling enough to get me to do that)

So how credible do you look? If your profile reads like a resume or says "I crush my quota" is that the message you want your prospects to see?

Planning & strategy

Define your step by step objectives

What is your initial objective when you approach a senior executive? It's not to sell, it's not branding, it's not awareness. It's not even getting a meeting (that's number 2).

There are many small, definable steps you need to take and if you know what they are it prevents overreach, premature elaboration and dramatically increases your success rates.

Define your targets - organisations

This morning I spoke to the CEO of a SaaS company in the USA who bemoaned the fact a prospect in Israel had gone quiet. I asked how many potential customers there were in the USA. The answer was tens of thousands.

I asked how many new customers he'd like to win this year. The answer was in the tens. I asked how many prospects they could sell to at any one time. He said perhaps 50.

So why, I asked, are you trying to sell to someone halfway across the world when there are many more targets on your doorstep you could focus on.

Poor targeting is the number one cause of failing to meet sales targets.

Poor targeting is the number one cause of failing to meet sales targets.

It's far better to target 100 carefully selected prospects and do it very well than try to target thousands and mess it up.

In other words - define the characteristics of your ideal customer.

Define your targets - niches

The more specific you are about the problems or opportunities the prospect faces (that you can help with) the better. The more credibility you have the better. Focusing on selected nches helps with both of these.

A few years ago a digital agency asked me to help them get in to more 'C' level executives. When I asked who they sold to they said "anyone". That's not helpful when you're looking to create a targeted message so I asked where they had customers and credibility. They said retailers. We did a campaign focused on a specific problem retailers were facing and they secured 'C' level meetings with 40% of the 100 large retailers we targeted.

Define your hierarchy of target executive roles

If you could speak with anyone in your targeted accounts who would it be?

(When I ask this question a depressing number of people nominate a low level person without influence. The correct answer is "the CEO or other relevant senior executive)

If, for whatever reason, you are referred on by the CEO (or whoever your target is) who do you want to be referred to? Then who. For example, I have a client that sells outsourced data centres. Their number one target is the CEO, followed by the COO, CFO, CIO then Head of Infrastructure - in that order.

Create your core message

The initial message you end up with (the one that gets you the initial meeting) will depend on a number of factors - the problems you solve, the industry, the company and even the individual.

But you need a generic core message you can modify t for each industry/company/person.

Create stories

People love stories. They don't have to be long - there are a few short ones in this article - but they illustrate a point and create credibility much more than bare statements or, worse still, statistics.

When you have a few stories (true ones of course) you can use at different points of the sales journey it makes a big difference. This is what Mike Adams calls a story library.

Identify your Top “n” target organisations

There are probably hundreds of companies you "could" sell to. But we all have limited resources. That's why we've defined what your ideal prospect looks like - size, geography, industry, etc.. So you can focus your efforts on the highest probability prospects.

Now we need to get specific. I reckon 50 is a good number to start with for one sales person. So - list the top 50 target companies - by name.

Identify specific executives in each target

We're still getting specific. For each target company list the specific people in the hierarchy of roles you've chosen. For example:

XYZ corporation, CEO is Sally Fields, COO is Bill Barney, CIO is Mary Uppenheimer.

Prepare customisable templates

When you approach a prospect for the first time there are only a limited number of ways. These include (but aren't limited to) initial email, follow up email, LinkedIn message, phone conversation with the targeted executive, phone conversation with an EA, voice mail.

As the scouts say "be prepared". If you have templates for each of these you can customise and personalise them but the core message will be consistent.

Develop Referral matrix

The absolute best way to get an initial meeting is via a referral - but not the traditional "who do you know who could use our stuff" referral. The approach is "I want to get to this executive. Who do I know who knows them and can introduce me?"

Or "Who in my company knows someone that can introduce us?"

For each target executive (e.g. 50 companies x 3 to 4 executives) try to identify a referral pathway. This is quite a big section.

Plan CRM strategy

Make sure everyone knows how you're going to keep track of activity, etc.

Plan follow up sequence and strategy

You're going to get meetings. You're going to find sales opportunities. What's your strategy for following them up? Who does what, who is involved, etc.?

Scheduling Meetings

Your initial objective is to get meetings with senior executives in target accounts. These are high profile individuals and you can't just use a cookie cutter approach. So, for each target executive

Identify people who can introduce you wherever possible

These don't have to be customers and they don't have to know all about your offering. You just need someone who trusts you not to waste their connections' time. They can be a friend, a customer, a consultant, even a work colleague.

BUT they not only have to trust you - they have to be trusted by the person they are introducing you to.

Identify relevant corporate priorities

You know your offering, you know what a typical company in their industry (for example) cares about - but what are the priorities for this specific company? What do they say in their Annual Report, public announcements, interviews, web site, LinkedIn etc.. What's most important to them right now (that you can link your offering to)?

Identify relevant individual priorities

OK, you know what the company's priorities are - what are the priorities of that specific senior executive? What do they really care about right now?

Modify templates with customised message

Now you incorporate your research into your templates to personalise them to the company, industry and/or person as relevant.

Determine connection strategy

You have your personalised message. Now, what's your strategy to get them to a) receive it and b) pay attention to it? We've discussed them generically (email, phone, etc.) but what's the best way for this specific person?

The simplest way - one I find effective in around 40% of cases - is very simple. IF they have an Executive Assistant (or Gatekeeper - they aren't all this scary).

Call and ask for help. Say " I'd like to schedule a meeting, what's the best way?" Have a simple answer to "W hat's it about?" and ask " Would it help if I send an email with more details?" Nine times out of ten the answer is "yes".

Call back in 20 minutes to confirm they received the email. Say " I know <executive is very busy>, when do you think she'll get a chance to look at it?"

That pretty much guarantees the executive, or at a minimum the EA, will read it. Whether it gets you a meeting depends on the quality and relevance of your message.

Decide on meeting type (face to face, phone, etc.)

Do you want to meet face to face or schedule a phone call. We discuss the pros and cons of each.

Schedule meetings

Once you get agreement to a meeting there are certain scheduling and follow up activities that need to be decided upon and followed.

Meeting Preparation

OK, you've scheduled a meeting with the CEO of a key target. How do we make sure you have the best possible chance of moving to the next step? And for that matter, what is the next step?

Identify objectives

YOURS.

It helps a lot in achieving your objectives if you know what they are. So, if the meeting goes 100% to plan what do you want the result to be? It's not to sell, the chances of the CEO springing off his chair, jumping exuberantly in the air, shaking hands and signing a contract are fairly slim.

It could be an introduction to the person doing an evaluation, a second meeting, many things. Just make sure you know what you want. Otherwise anything will do.

THEIRS.

Just as important - what is THEIR objective? They've taken the meeting for a reason. You want them to leave thinking "that was great" and be happy to take the next step. So how can you do this?

Research

In a first meeting you aren't there to sell. And you aren't there to do "discovery". At least, not entirely. The discovery goes both ways - they are discovering if you know your stuff, if you've done your research, if you have insights or experiences that can help them.

So you're not their to discover their pain points. You're there to validate (or invalidate) the assumptions and ideas you've uncovered based on your experience and your research. You need to speak to them about their issues in their terminology and show you understand their perspective.

Identify relevant stories

Stories are great - but then need to be relevant and have a specific purpose. The right story depends on the audience, the stage of the process and much more.

Develop intelligent questions

What intelligent questions - questions that confirm your hypotheses and that show you know what you're talking about - can you ask.

When I sold publishing software I knew that Returns was a massive issue. If I'd said "are Returns an issue?" or "Tell me how Returns work" I'd look ignorant and show I didn't really understand publishing.

When I asked "Are your trade returns what, around 20%? And about 15% for academic?" I'd show I knew a bit and I could build from there. If they said more than 20% I could say "well we can certainly help get them right down" and move on. If they said less than 20% I could say "that's great" and build rapport. And then dig deeper into the issue.

Very unintelligent questions would be "List your top 5 problems" or "what keeps you awake at night?". To which the correct answer would be "If you don't even know what my biggest problems are you haven't done your research - the door's over there."

Anticipate their questions

When you manage to engage their attention they are going to ask you questions. What are they likely to be? How will you answer them? (Hint - the truth is always the best way)

Logistics

Think of the logistics. What will the agenda be, confirm who will be attending on both sides, double confirm meeting times, dates, etc. if it's a phone or video conference test everything.

This sounds obvious. It is - but I've seen so many disasters....

Holding Meetings

Logistics

I have some hard and fast rules. With very few exceptions for fact to face meetings:

• Turn your phone off
• Do not take a laptop or pad in unless it's the only way you can take note.
• Ideally, take a pen and a pad - paper, not electronic, to take notes
• Never, ever try to do a demonstration unless you're demonstrating a machine gun in the middle of a battle.

Intro, agree timeframes, set agenda

It's always good to confirm how long you have an if there are any hard stops. It's equally good to propose an agenda, both for clarity and to show professionalism.

• Sample Agenda
• Agree objectives on both sides
• Ask permission to take notes
• If possible, start with a brief story
• Get them to tell their story
• Ask intelligent questions
• be curious - make an effort to really, really understand, dig deep and don't be afraid to ask them to explain in more detail. Take comprehensive notes - it helps you remember, it helps you think and it shows them you're really interested
• Tell them you can help solve their issues (assuming you really can) and give examples, ideally by telling relevant stories
• Ask "if we could help you when would you want to start getting these results?" (in other words establish a timeframe)
• Agree the next steps
• Future pace potential challenges during any buying process and establish a way back to the senior executive to update them on progress and problems

Meeting follow up

Here I cover next steps. They include but aren't limited to ways to re-establish contact while building rapport and adding value

• Write up detailed record of meeting
• Send it to them and ask them to review it to make sure a) you got it right and b) you didn't miss anything
• Include agreed next steps
• Call to confirm they received it
• Follow up as quickly as possible
• Over achieve on all commitments

Article Summary

These are some, by no means all, of the topics I cover in my workshop. I hope you've found them useful. There's obviously a lot of work involved in planning the strategy for each Client. This depends on many things - the size of the Client, what they sell, who they sell it to, where they sell it and so on.

That's why I usually incorporate coaching as a key component. I'm in the process of turning this into an interactive self study program but the normal delivery method is as follows:

Preparation

I interview each participant and learn about their prospects, their challenges, what they've tried, etc. I also interview the sales leaders and educate myself on the market and the challenges that market faces.

I ask each participant to bring details of at least one target prospect that they would like to get in to. I also send supporting materials (webinars, articles, etc.) for them to review in advance.

Initial Workshop

The first day is an all day workshop covering all the above topics within the context of the Client's own customers, prospects, products and services.

Coaching

Each attendee goes away with a series of tasks to use in the field as well as additional reading and webinars, etc.. I provide scheduled weekly coaching sessions to assist and answer questions (and on demand access if and when needed.

Follow up Workshop

The follow up workshop takes from half a day to a day (depending on the number of participants). We refresh the training, discuss what's happened in the filed and workshop what's worked well, what hasn't worked as well and how we can make improvements.

Ongoing coaching

At this stage I normally find the participants are more confident dealing at executive level, can schedule more meetings and can prepare for them and handle them much better. After a recent workshop in Melbourne the company closed three $300,000 deals that had been stuck (they had buy-in at operational level but weren't getting action at executive level) and created a much fuller high quality pipeline.

I then offer optional on-going coaching and refreshment.

Special treatment

I love all my clients but I give special preference to those that offer me beer. More seriously, I enjoy seeing my clients succeed and I pull out all the stops to help them.

Maybe one day I can help you.

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It's pretty obvious (if you've read this far) that this is essentially an advertisement for my "How to Sell at 'C' Level" Workshop. I'd like to think it also gives you some useful information and valuable insights on the topic and that it has made you think.

If you sell high value products & services (if the lifetime value of a new customer is $200k+) & you want to sell more with less effort you have to be able to sell at a high level. If you think I can help contact me for more details.

Steve Hall is Managing Director of Executive Sales Coaching Australia. He helps his clients sell more effectively at "C" level and also to craft stories that sell.

He is a member of Sales Masterminds APAC and the Sales Expert Panel and is based in Sydney, Australia.

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