This post is the fourth in a seven-part series on sales tips and best practices by Steve Lippock, Summa's Vice President of Salesforce Sales. Steve has over 25 years of sales-management and executive experience across various industries, with both direct and indirect sales models. In other words, he's our go-to guide for finding success in the wide world of sales. Today, Steve's showing you how to get in touch with those coveted senior executives. Read on!
One of the most challenging training topics is teaching salespeople how to become comfortable calling directly on C-level executives and successfully securing that first meeting with a decision-maker. Taking a top-down approach to prospecting is a no-brainer, but it’s easier said than done. The following approach systematizes a process that all salespeople can easily execute against.
Like any other aspect of sales, gaining access to executives involves both art and science. The “art” component is how well you execute – your personal selling style and the confidence with which you deliver your message. The “science” component is the system you use, or the combination of the process and the tools that are at your disposal.
4 Steps to reaching the C-level
Here is a process for gaining access to decision-makers that you can apply your artistic talents to:
1. Pre-approach the targeted senior executive with a letter.
Write a letter or email to introduce yourself, talk about how you've helped other businesses improve or overcome challenges in critical areas and commit to calling at a specific time to schedule a meeting. If you've ever read Selling to VITO, there are some good letter or email templates and approaches in that book. We called these our “VITO Letters”.
2. Pre-approach the executive assistant with a phone call.
The goal here is to begin building a relationship with the senior executive’s gate-keeper and pre-condition the executive administrator (EA) to help you. Let the EA know that the executive will receive a letter or email from you and that you wanted him/her to be aware that it was being sent so that it “makes it to the executive’s inbox” and doesn’t get “filed”. You will mention that you expect the executive may defer the meeting request to someone else on the management team who handles the business issues that you address and that when you follow up with a phone call, you would be happy to be referred to the appropriate person if that’s what makes the most sense. You are now conditioning the EA to help you get referred to your “real” targeted decision-maker by the senior executive.
3. Follow-up phone call to the senior executive.
The executive assistant will likely answer the phone. At this point, this is your third “touch” to the executive assistant (first a phone call, then a letter or email and now a follow-up call). You are beginning to build a relationship. Ask the EA if the executive is interested in meeting with you. If not, ask the EA to help “point you in the right direction”. Ask to be transferred to the most senior member of the management team who handles the issues you address. Now you are being transferred internally to your “real” target from the office of the senior executive. This is an internal call transfer that your true target is likely to pick up!
4. Secure the meeting.
Have the conversation with your targeted decision-maker, and secure the meeting!
How Salesforce.com can help
- Use Salesforce.com’s Mail Merge feature to create a VITO Letter template. Doing so will make generating your pre-approach letters and emails fast and easy.
- Also, Salesforce.com has an Extended Mail Merge option.It is available by request at no cost and can be enabled by Salesforce.com. Your System Administrator can activate/deactivate Extended Mail Merge by using: Setup | Customize | User Interface: "Activate Extended Mail Merge" check box. This check box is only displayed if the XMM feature has been enabled by Salesforce.com.
- Create tasks for yourself to schedule a regimen of pre-approach letters and emails. Decide how many you want to send each week, then research the target companies and create the senior executive contact records that you will need to generate the Mail Merge pre-approach letters and emails.
Good selling, everyone!
