Selling to CROs (or any C-Suite)

The most views I’ve ever had on LinkedIn was a post sharing items sellers should avoid when selling to Chief Revenue Officers.?

Since it’s been a minute, I thought I’d share that post and expand on it based on some of the discussions that took place in the comments.

Here are the things I recommend avoiding when you’re pitching to a CRO (or really any C-suite).

1)?Ditch the deck

I always regret my attention to join a call when I see a sales rep pull up a PowerPoint.?My generally issue with any decks in selling is the info is generally generic (company history, etc), they are way too long and reps generally just read verbatim from them.?Furthermore, data shows decks actually decreases retention of materials you’re showing and trying to get your prospects to retain.

Once my focus is lost it’s hard to get it back.?Decks are singlehandedly the best way to get me to start paying attention to my email and Slack messages.

2)?Quality > Quantity in demos

I think most demos should be 30 minutes, centered around specific use cases.?Too often reps on demos are meandering around the entire platform, sharing features and use cases that are irrelevant to our company.?This also goes back to my point above…once you start showcase irrelevant info, my attention is lost.

3) Negotiating against yourself

If you’re in sales and you’re in the habit of offering discounts, flexible payment terms, or additional features for free before I’ve even asked, stop.

What you’re doing here is devaluing your platform and elongating your sales cycle.?When a rep starts to negotiate against themselves, I always know there is a whole lot more room I can play with.

4)?Unclear ROI

The entire company needs to nail this and its starts with the first touch point with a prospect.?I’m a big fan of social proof and case studies to start.?You tell me you have a few of my competitors already using your platform/product/etc, you’re 100% getting a meeting with me.

Then, showcasing to me how your product can help save me money is good.?Showing me how your product can help grow is even better.

5)?Dishonesty

?

Trust and honesty are supremely important to me.?It becomes even more important as the cost of your product climbs and the support/implementation becomes more critical to our success post sale.

How best to earn my trust?

·?????Show up on time - easy enough

·?????Do some research prior.?I’m good with rapport building in the begin and welcome it.?But, asking me where I’m located when it’s clearly listed on my LinkedIn profile is not a great start.

·?????It’s OK not to know the answer, find out and get back to me.?I’d prefer this to a made up one so you can look knowledgeable.?I’ve had a rep make a blatantly false claim before on a product roadmap item that wasn’t on the roadmap at all.?Sadly, it was my preferred choice, but I couldn’t move forward as I didn’t trust what else was said during the process.

·?????On the implementation/onboarding side of the house, if this is going to be mission critical to our success, invite someone from that team on the call.?From a trust standpoint, I would much prefer hearing about that process from someone on that end doing it day in and day out vs a sales rep telling me what to expect.?This is a big one!