Selling at C-level for Dummies - #5/12

There's a bonus in this issue. The first part follows on from edition #4/12 in Selling at C-level for Dummies and covers identifying what's important to your target prospects (that's relevant to what you sell).

The second part discusses a real life application of these principles that I'm currently working on.

Part One - what your prospects care about

In the previous four episodes/newsletters/editions/whatever we covered:

• Why Sell at C-Level? Heaps of reasons if you sell high value stuff, the main one being it's a lot easier, you win bmore deals and you sell higher value deals.
• What is C-level anyway? Whoever has the ultimate decision making authority & sufferes the consequences of their business issue not being resolved.
• Targeting the right companies. Identifying the characteristics of your ideal customers with one or more Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP)
• Identifying the specific companies to target. Getting a list of the companies in your region/territory that fit your Ideal Customer Profile(s).
• Identifying the specific people to target. Discovering the names (and roles) of the people you want to contact in each company/target. Because you don't call/email/connect with a persona, you communicate with a person.

Now we come to discovering what's important to your prospects that you can help with.

One key thing to remember is this.

People have different perspectives - depending on many factors.

To some degree almost everyone (with a few exceptions) cares about the same thing.

Themselves.

Or to be more exact, themselves, their company, their career, their company, their responsibilities, their role, their bonus, the people who work for them and so on. (And of course their personal life.)

But what does that mean specifically? How does that help you, as a sales leader or salesperson, to understand what their key concerns and priorities are - with respect to how whatever you sell can help them?

Some of the things that affect what is most important to them are:

Their KPIs

Senior executives get to the top by being seen to achieve their objectives, which usually means their KPIs. Quite often their remuneration and bonuses are tied to achieving their KPIs.

For example, when I was a Professional Services Manager (with Unisys back in the late 80s) I had a revenue target and as year end approached I was very focused on achieving that target.

If you're selling to the C-suite in a public company the key executives' KPIs and their bonuses are detailed in the Remuneration Report.

In the USA this is a manadtory item in the 10-k, the report all US companies have to file with the SEC. (Or in the 20-f, the equivalent report for foreign companies operating in the USA).

If you show them how what you're offering can help them achieve their KPIs (and therefore their bonus) this gives you significant leverage. Some KPIs are financial but they often cover other areas - customer satisfaction, staff retention, environmental factors, etc..

It's important to you can show you have a great business case with a compelling RoI. But often your competitors have an equally compelling business case and RoI. If you can also show how you help them achieve their other KPIs it will set you apart.

The 10-k or 20-f in the USA and Annual Report in other countries will tell you a lot about a company's strategy, current priorities AND about individual executives' KPIs (and therefore focus).

But what about smaller or private companies? You can often deduce what's important to executives based on their role. The problem is, of course, that your competitors can do this too. But you can get an edge by including other factors.

Their Role

I'm not a massive fan of Personas. Not because they are intrinsically bad but because they are greneralisations.

The do have a role to play (pardon the pun) but they're a bit simplistic.

For example, take a CFO persona. CFOs are typically judged on financial metrics such as:

• Quick Ratio
• Current Ratio
• Working capital
• Operating Cash Flow
• EBITDA & EBITDA Growth
• Return on Equity
• Total-Debt-to-Equity Ratio
• Accounts Payable Turnover
• Cash Conversion Cycle
• Gross Profit Margin
• Earnings per Share
• Compound Average Growth Rate
• Employee Count
• Interest Coverage Ratio

But even CFOs aren't judged entirely on financial metrics. For example, BHP, one of Australia's largest companies, with revenue of A$80 billion, includes the following in their Remuneration Report (because BHP is a foreign company in the USA this is a20-F report, here https://www.bhp.com/-/media/documents/investors/annual-reports/2023/bhpform20f2023.pdf

• HSCE (Health, Safety, Environment & Community) - BHP is a mining company and this is a big issue for them. Part of the executives' remuneration is tied to this, including avoiding fatalities.
• Climate change - BHP's operations contribute significantly to carbon emissions and its investors are focused on reducing these, so emission reduction projects and decarbonisation are both big isses that affect remuneration.
• Indigenous partnerships - there was a huge fuss in Australia when BHP's competitor, Rio Tinto, destroyed historical indigenous sites and this is another non-financial KPI that affects BHP's executives' remuneration.
• DEI - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - including the proportion of female to male workers.

These are examples of industry-specific and/or company-specific KPIs that a normal CFO "Persona" wouldn't pick up. And of course HCSE is less likely to be a major issue for a bank or software developer.

And of course a COO's perspective on what's most important will be different from the CMO's perspective, which will be different from that of the Director of Sales and the Head of Human Resources.

Every senior executive you deal with will have a different perspective on what's most important and what their priorities are based upon - among other things - their role, their KPIs and their experience. Often different executives in the same company have dramatically different ideas abouth what's most important.

So you can't and mustn't assume they all care about the same things.

They don't.

And if a person's role affects what they care about this that also depends on....

Their industry

As shown above, the CFO (or CEO, or COO) of a mining company is likely to different have KPIs and concerns from a telecomms, bank or distribution company.

Each industry has its own concerns and issues and these significantly affect what executives care about.

Their geography

Rules, regulations and operations vary depending on where a company is based and operates. Companies in Ukraine are currently battling to survive in a war zone, Those in the USA are currently occupied, at least in part, with the ramifications of the upcoming Presidential elections.

Companies that operate in Europe are unlikely to have the same issues with indiginous partnerships that those in Australia have.

In addition, it's much easier to work with people who are half an hour away than with people who live in another country. If I live in Sydney (which I do) I'd much rather work with companies in Sydney - it's easier for me and they're more likely to buy from someone local, all else being equal.

This is assuming, of course, there are enough prospects in your region.

When I sold a publishing ERP there were only about 50 publishers in Australia that were big enough to afford our solution. Once I'd been there a few years about 16 of them were our customers - and companies normally change ERPs every 10 years or longer. So we had to go overseas because the local market wasn't big enough.

But if your local market is big enough, start there.

Their size

Australia has four major banks - NAB, ANZ, Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank. It also has a few regional banks and several Credit Unions that are transitioning into banking activities.

The major banks have strikingly different challenges from the much smaller regional banks and credit unions. The large banks are under pressure from the government about their market power and excess profitability.

The smaller ones are struggling to survive and are increasingly looking at mergers and aquisitions. The large banks face government inquiries and likely prohibition if they ttempt any aquisitions.

So the CFO of NAB has very different challenges (and KPIs) from the CFO of QBank.

Their company

Every company has its own individual issues that are unique to its situation - ownership, customers, strategic plans, etc.

Summary

When you're targeting a particular company, or a set of companies, it's a mistake to think they all have the same issues as other companies - and that everyone in the company sees those issues in the same way.

So how can you find out what's most important to them and what their toip priorities are?

One way, of course, is to ask them. But if you don't have a good understanding of what is likely to be important to them in their role in their company in their industry in their country at this momeknt - why should they tell you? Uness you can go to them with some understanding of what's importand AND some ideas about how you can help them you're just another salesperson wasting their time.

If they're in a public company you can read the 10-k, 20-f or Annual Report, but they only cover the top executives specifically. They do give you a good idea of the company's issues and strategy but you need to think about how those affect the role of whoever you're targeting. Otherwise:

• You can ask your customers, if you have customers in similar industries, what their key concerns are right now and if this is likely to apply to your targets
• You can research the individual - senior executives often give interviews, or say what interests them on LinkedIn, or do relevant posts, etc.
• You can research the industry, using consultants reports, AI and other methods.
• You can research the compamy, its press releases, investor briefings and so on.
• You can research their customers.
• Above all, ask yourself "If I was the Sales Director in a SaaS company selling into financial institutions, what would I be most concerned with?"

The bottom line is this.

Every individual executive cares first and foremost about themselves, their company , their role, their KPIs, their targets. They don't care about you and your value proposition - partly because what's "value" to them depends on all the above factors.

If you want to get their attention, stimulate their curiosity, establish credibility and eventually make a sale you have to talk to them about what's important to them in their terminology and show how you can help them achieve their goals.

And you have to do this for every key stakeholder in a complex sales situation.

This may seem daunting. But if you understand your customers, your market, the challenges they face and the consequences of not addressing those challenges this is actually reasonably easy.

As long as you're able to put yourself in their shoes and look at things from their point of view.

Next time

Once you've worked out what's likely to be most important to them you need to encapsulate it in a short, easily understood message to help you get theorugh the door. We'll cover that next issue.

Part two - a simple example

Right now I'm following my own process myself. Here's the situation, what I'm doing and why.

The background

I currently work one day a week - which is as much as I want to work at my advanced age. In recent years I've only ever worked with one or two clients at any one time. This is great for me and for my clients as I can focus on helping them adapt my process to their specific situation (and while I only work a day a week I do make myself available any time for emergencies).

I recently finished a long term assignment with a client and I haven't looked for a replacement because I had a hernia operation not long ago (stupidly I gave it to myself by bench pressing 103kg - a personal best but a daft thing to do without a weight belt).

So, I'm now looking for one, or perhaps two, new clients. I haven't done this for a long time as most of my business has come from referrals in the past few years. And I decided I'd do it using my own recommended approach.

My Ideal Client Profile

I'm a bit over early mornings and late nights so I decided I want to work with clients in Australia, ideally Sydney.

I help people sell more effectively at C-level, specifically I help them to:

• Identify which companies to target
• Identify which people in those companies to target
• Work out what they care about
• Create messages that will make them curious
• Get the messages to the target audience
• Schedule, plan for, conduct and follow up on executive meetings

So my targets are Sales Directors, Sales Managers and CEOs/Founders/Owners.

I don't want to work with big multinational companies because they're a pain in the backside to deal with - far too many hoops to jump through and usually far too traditional in their sales approaches.

I only want to work with companies that have a turnover of at leasy $5 million because they need be able to pay my (very reasonable) retainer - $6,000 per month for two days per month (plus ad hoc comms when needed).

And I'm far too lazy to do lots of marketing and putting together email lists and stuff, nor do I need to because I have a "market" of 14,300 people I can target - my LinkedIn connections and followers.

Or do I?

NO, I DON'T.

In fact that's magical thinking. Only a small proportion of my LinkedIn connections fit my Ideal Client Profile. Many are outside Australia. Rather a lot are hoping to sell me something rather than buying anything from me. Many work for large multinationals, others for two person companies.

Let's run the numbers

I currently have 14,345 Connections/Followers.

But only 10,437 of those are Connections. I plan to message and/or call people once I've identified which people to target and I can't do that with Followers as I don't have their contact details. I could ask them to Connect and I'm sure almost all would but that would take time & effort & why should I? Surely 10,437 prospects is enough.

But if I use Sales Navigator to discover people who are:

• In Australia
• In sales in a senior capacity or are a CEO/Founder/Owner

The number shoots down to 842.

Surely that's enough. I only need 2 clients.

But what I don't want to do is send people messages that aren't relevant. There's far too much spam in LinkedIn these days and I have a reputation to uphold.

So I've gone through those 842 people & looked at them briefly (30 seconds each) and eliminated:

• Everyone that works for a major multinational
• Everyone in an industry that I don't really understand
• All the sales trainers, sales consultants, authors I know - great people but they aren't my target market
• All the one and two person companies.

I now have a list of 306 targets to focus on. I'm now going through each of those in a bit more detail to ask myself "do I want to work with this person, can I offer value, would it be fun?" I'll also look at exactly where they are because it's good to be able to meet people face to face.

Once I'm down to 50 or 100 top prospects I'll send five of them an individualised message (or call them) focusing on their particular situation. It will be a very short, simple message.

If that doesn't bring me in a couple of clients I'll send another five.

My track record doing this is that I normally get three responses from five messages, one of which shows interest and I normally get one client per ten messages.

But I suspect if I sent a single standard message to all 10,437 connections I'd get very few, if any positive responses and I'd have a lot of people thinking I'm a dickhead.

My point is

It's a bit of a pain in the arse doing this work (I could do it a lot quicker with AI or by using Sales Navigator more intelligently). But it doesn't take that long and my strike rate is much, much better than if I foolishly treated all my connections as prospects when most of them aren't.

Last thoughts

I'd appreciate your advice here.

I've been considering putting together a Sales Leader forum for between 4 & 6 sales leaders (sales direcors, sales managers, CEOs, etc.).

It would meet online twice a month (so it's not limited geographically, other than by time zones) and would focus on selling at C-level but would also cover other sales topics, depending on the issues the memebrs wanted to talk about.

Members would be from non-competing companies and the objective would be to help each other as well as to sell more at a higher level.

I'd also source information from my connections on topics that come up and I'd offer one-on-one sessions to each member once every couple of months to discuss adapting my methods to their particular situation.

I'm thinking the membership fee would be US$595 per month (plus appropriate taxes if applicable).

I haven't fleshed out the details yet which is where you come in.

Is this something you would find useful and/or interesting?

If it is please drop me a line on LinkedIn or text me on +61 410 481 960 & we can chat.

Cheers,

Steve