Selling @ CEO's

It always boils down to positioning value when selling at C Level anywhere, more so in services sales. Its all about articulation and clear communication of scope that wins you more deals from same customer and also helps you add more customers to your existing portfolio of offerings.It is good to have a one-off great impression sale, the bigger challenge is to foster relationship based selling, which ensures multiple-sells in future.

Positioning yourself as a solutions-provider rather than a product/service vendor certainly helps. Follow an 80:20 rule while interacting with "C" level individuals - 80% listening and 20% talking. It certainly works if you LISTEN to your prospect's problems and then give him the specific information he needs.

Do your research!! Ensure that you have all the facts straight about their current situation, incumbent suppliers, costs, contract renewal dates, satisfaction level of existing services, internal sponsors, etc, etc. Only then will you be able to confidently pitch your services knowing what the C level contact is going to want to hear. If you can tell him/her what he/she needs, rather than asking them to tell you, they'll always be impressed and at least give you some of their time.

The first question you need to answer is, "who really owns the problem you're going to solve, and who owns the decision you want made?". If it is indeed the CFO or CEO, then the feedback others gave regarding forget the tricks and techniques and just call them, and talk to them about something they care about. The first thing you’ll need to figure out, is why would the CEO or CFO care about your product or service. I can guarantee you, the fastest way to ensure a C-level call goes badly, is to start talking about your product or service. What most senior executives care about is solving problems or achieving specific goals.

So the first thing you need to figure out is, what does your product or service do that will help the CEO solve a problem or achieve a goal that they are personally responsible for. For the CEO some examples might be issues that impact Business Continuity, Overall Revenue goals, (especially for public firms), Company Image or Reputation, etc and for the CFO goals or problems around Profitability, Cost Reduction goals, or Cash Flow. Google the CEO or CFO or look on the company web site under Press Releases, see if they've publicly stated any goals in this regard, then align what your solution does with how it would fundamentally impact those goals. This will also give you some context about how they talk about these goals or problems from their perspective.

The most important part of a C-level call, is to first get them to confirm if they have problems or objectives around the issues you want to talk to them about. That can only be accomplished with intelligent questions, not with a “product pitch”.

The interesting thing about C-levels, is that if you really you can help them achieve their goals or solve their problems, initially they won’t really care if you do that by Training, Software or Gerbils in a wheel. They just care about the problem or the goal. That’s why you talk about the Problem or Goal first, and how you help second.

Last piece of advice, keep it short and to the point. Don't build rapport, don't ask them how their day is going, instead, just tell them why you're calling, why you thought that would be important to them, and then ask them if that's important to them and then shut-up and let them answer. If you can indeed align yourself with their C-level goals or problems, you'll be surprised how many will be open to a brief and to the point conversation.

And yes, never forget the golden rule "you need him more than he needs you"