It’s all too common for salespeople to get caught in conversational limbo while the “gatekeepers” of a prospective company relay messages to and from the actual decision-maker. This form of selling is inefficient and stifles your revenue momentum.
If you need your salespeople to get higher in their prospect organizations, then provide them with the ability to articulate value and differentiation in a way that demonstrates their acumen with C-level business issues. Here are five areas to focus on:
1. Uncover Business Pain
Salespeople need the ability to consistently uncover the issues with the greatest business impact. Without taking this pivotal step in the prospect organization, you will never be able to reach a buyer with the purchasing power to make a large business investment. The only way to elevate your conversation to the C-Suite is to be able to uncover a business problem that has a big enough impact on the business to warrant action.
2. Position Value
Once you uncover pain, you need the ability to position value in a way that demonstrates how it alleviates that negative impact on the business. How does the value you provide map back to the problem? Does the value you provide warrant C-level involvement? Position it in your conversations so it demands that high-level decision-makers get involved.
3. Strong Customer Testimonials
Future customers want to know of your success with past customers. Research continually shows that C-level executives see testimonials as a primary decision factor. Be sure you are using customer testimonials at the right time in the sales process and leverage case studies your marketing department has created.
4. Talk the Talk
Remember as a seller you get delegated to whom you sound like. If you want to have high-level conversations in your prospect organization, you need to speak in terms of C-level problems. Focus your conversations on technical problems and you’ll never get away from those that care about features and functions.
5. Build Your Social Network
IDC reports that 84% of CEOs/VPs urely on social media to make purchasing decisions, specifically using the networks to find references and mutual connections. Remember, as a salesperson your Linkedin network speaks directly to your relevancy. Consider this scenario - your prospect is researching you and your competitor. Your competitor’s profile is filled with recommendations from customers and yours simply states your job history. Which vendor do you think is going to get the first call?
