Selling to the C-Suite: Why Executives Disengage

How many times have you watched your sales team enthusiastically present to a room of executives only to have your proposal fall flat?

Or perhaps you’re an executive yourself and you’ve seen earnest sales presentations that fail to address your strategic goals.

I’ve seen my team do it. And to be honest, I’ve also blown a few C-suite calls myself. Not the kind of blowing it where you walk out with your head hanging in shame. More like the thank you very much but nothing happens afterwards kind of blowing it.

Most sales teams want to get into the C-suite. But getting there is only half the battle. Presenting to an executive audience requires an entirely different approach than presenting to someone at a lower level.

In her new book, DataStory: Explain Data And Inspire Action Through Story, Nancy Duarte identifies the key performance levers that resonate with executives. Duarte – known at the storyteller of Silicon Valley – writes, “Executives are under incredible pressure to perform. No single job description covers the responsibilities of every executive at all organizations, but performance is almost universally assessed according to six measures:

• Drive up revenue and profit
• Drive down expenses
• Drive up market share
• Drive down time to market
• Drive up retention
• Drive down risk

The list may seem obvious, yet in coaching over a hundred sales teams, I consistently observe sellers failing to address these core issues. When sellers emphasize technical features or make only vague reference to executive metrics – “Our solution will help you grow market share” – and fail to provide the specificity about how it will happen, their recommendations don’t capture executive interest.

C-suite buyers disengage quickly when proposals fail to move at least one of these metrics forward. And mid-level buyers are less likely to forward recommendations not framed in their boss’ language.

Duarte drew upon her own experience as a CEO to identify what does and what doesn’t get executive attention. Like most CEOs, Duarte’s team approaches her when they want support and sign off for major initiatives. After analyzing how she evaluates initiatives, she ran her model by CEO clients and friends. The result is a clear playbook for anyone who wants to engage executives.

If you want your sales team to be more effective in the C-suite, look at the above list and compare it to your recent proposals. Do your proposals speak directly to any of the six metrics? If not, they’re unlikely to resonate with an executive.

Time-challenged executives make headway on major initiatives by delegating things down. If your recommendation is framed using language and measures that relate to a function below them, an exec will quickly send your team down a rung.

These six simple measures are game changers for a sales team who understands and embraces them. For example in our field, sales effectiveness, when my sales team focuses on how to drive revenue and market share for our clients, they’re speaking executive language. If they start talking about sales skills and pipeline management, they’re going to be sent down a level.

Language matters. A lot. In addition to addressing the right metrics, DataStory also provides word choice lists. Duarte combed through thousands of presentations to create word lists for presenters to craft their actions with the best strategic insights. It’s a treasure trove of compelling language for anyone who writes presentations or proposals.

We live in a world where it’s increasingly harder to gain executive attention. If you want your team to be successful in the C-suite, make sure they’re speaking the right language.