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Section II - Getting Past the Obstacles
Chapter 1:
Leaders Make Decisions- Subordinates Do The
Legwork
Leaders decide whether there will be any
purchases or investments. They decide what level of spending they will make
depending on the returns- not the price.
They decide whom they will buy from. They base their decisions on what it will
do for them professionally and personally. They commission their subordinates to
do all the investigations, bidding, and jawboning.
Executives talk with each other and get the concurrence from each other.
Subordinates can be and are often dismissed.
Action Steps
● Ask the person you're working with who
she will share your discussion with.
● Ask the person you're working with how
come they are working with you, are they pursuing an initiative,
looking for a quote, interested in your offering, etc.
Chapter 2: The Sale - A Beginning, An End, and What’s
In-Between
Sales begin where ever you get in, but always end with the power executives
saying yes or no. What happens in between is a lot of due diligence work with
subordinates and administrators.
Even though there are many obstacles your focus
should always be the high influence executives.
Action Steps
● Your attitude has to always be get to the
leaders.
● Whenever you approach an opportunity keep
asking who
else will be involved and who do those people report to.
● Never say - never think it's not important.
● You must believe that you can and will
interview those leaders-then it will happen.
Chapter 3:
Marketing, Selling and Executive Relationships – What You Didn’t Learn in
College
Most corporate
training for salespeople comes from marketing which
sends the message that your mission is to show and tell, convince people to buy,
and discuss why you are superior to the competition.
Effective selling is a process of winning the votes of high power people. To do
that you must establish professional relationships with all these executives who
are impacted by your products and services.
Action Steps
· Stop pushing what
you have to offer. It’s annoying.
· Interview to find
out what each impacted person wants and why s/he wants it. It’s rewarding.
· Never assume to
know what someone wants – especially a senior executive. It’s stupid.
Chapter 4: Professional Relationships, Social
Relationships
A relationship
will be established when each party feels the benefit for himself or herself.
Executives are primarily interested in business benefits you can deliver that
serve their interests.
You can
control the delivery and the implementation of your products and services and
thus the potential benefits. Success to the recipient will create the
relationship. Social relationships may or may not follow and may not be in your
control.
Action Steps
-
Don’t assume to know the benefit of your target, high level executive
(THLE). His benefit can be realized from any alternative
that’s competitive to you. So ask him, “What would someone in (your
field) have to do or provide to make you feel great?” Then dig
deeper and ask, “How come this is so important to you?”
-
Set
targets that are meaningful with your THLE. Then, every time you hit a
milestone or complete a task or phase that’s important to your THLE, make a
point to let her know – in person; by letter, card, note, email; phone call,
voicemail; lunch, golf, etc.
-
Continue to ask how your THLE feels about your accomplishments. If
good, let him/her know it took effort to make it happen. If not good,
ask for his/her suggestion to make it better. Don’t offer suggestions.
Don’t argue or try to justify. Then tell
him/her you will see what you can do and get back.
Section II: Getting Past All Barriers
This section shows how
to overcome all the obstacles (in smooth professional manner) encountered while
trying to access Senior Managers. There are 8 obstacles that we’ll discuss.
Chapter 5: Obstacle 1 – Identifying the Powerful
Executives
Actions:
- Check
signing authorities. Be careful. This is the person who can give final
approval without going to anyone else above either for approval or to
advise. Signing authorities are also contingent on projects with
approved capital authorizations or approved budgets. What category is your
sale?
- Ask
yourself, “Will the person I feel is the final authority discuss this
project with anyone above her before she gives her approval to buy?” If so,
that higher person is involved.
- There is
no such thing as a rubber stamp.
- Will the
very top person be impacted? For example, a change in health benefits
impacts everyone, including the top exec’s. Therefore, they will get
involved even though it’s the responsibility of the HR, person.
- Will your
sale or this contract be discussed at a staff meeting – even just as a point
of information? If it’s before the final signing, the staff will be
involved and will be influential in the decision.
- Ask other
vendors who finally approved their purchases of equal magnitude and impact.
Talk to your contacts, your Golden Network people, your service people,
their admins and functional people about who got involved in similar
projects.
- Who will
be impacted? A change in office suppliers won’t go high because the leaders
are shielded by many who absorb the change. However, a cafeteria change
affects the top directly – and not just financially. Their desires will be
heard and hopefully by you the sales person or service provider.
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What others have said about Sam:
"Before working with Sam 30% of my
people made President's Club. After Sam's training and coaching 70% of my people
went to President's Club."
Deborah Surrette, EVP Sales
WorldCom
"Sam put in a process that helped
reduce bid and proposal cost 30%, increased win rates from 33% to 83% and
doubled sales in one year."
Dan Ozley, VP Satellite Systems
Lockheed Martin
Telecommunications
"Using what Sam taught us,
increased our hit ratio from 38% to 68%."
Bill Bowden, Sales Training
Manager, Fisher Rosemount Division of
Emerson.
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