Selling To The Big Guys - Managing A Sales Call With A Ceo

Many get intimidated upon selling to CEOs

Many get intimidated upon selling to CEOs. Here are some tips to make you stand out from your competition.

1. The first thing you should lay out in your approach is to make it evident that you understand that the CEO, "obviously knows more about this business than you, therefore you are speaking to the best of your ability and knowledge of his or her company and industry."

The absolute last thing you want to do when selling to a CEO of a large corporation is to come across as know-it-all who is going to tell the CEO what exactly their business needs to be successful, how they should properly structure their marketing and PR divisions, what product they need to make their company great, etc. Always remember that a CEO of a multi-million dollar company did not get to where he or she is by being unsavvy or aloof to their industry needs and the overall direction in which to take their company.

By saying these simple words, and staying humble in your approach, you will be able to speak in a more open and consultative way and gives you leeway to be wrong about a particular assumption and not look foolish.

2. Always make it clear about who from the company introduced you and ask whether it is best that you contact the CEO directly or continue direct communication with your original contact. By assuming that one long conversation with the CEO makes him or her your main contact person is simply a poor professional choice for two main reasons: First, it will alienate your strong, original contact within the company, thus preventing you from getting the inside information you might not get from someone in a higher up position. Second, you are making the assumption that the CEO has the time to answer all of your emails directly (in which you run a high risk of becoming an annoyance rather than a solution maker). Therefore, unless you are directly told by the CEO to directly deal with them personally from there on in, assume that your original contact who introduced you, remains your go-to.

3. As a vendor, make the conversation 70% listening and 30% talking. Listening is the best form of communication and talking too much can only get you into trouble. Imagine yourself in the position of the person you are selling to. If they started to tell you all about how to do your job and what you needed to do it and talked non-stop without asking if you were even interested, you would be pretty put off. Choose your words wisely and think about exactly what you want to say to avoid rambling and being redundant.

Before the conversation, have a set agenda of topics to cover. When you feel that it is a good time to ask the pre-thought out questions, simply ask them. This way, you can get everything you need out of the conversation no matter which form it takes.

4. Finally, speak to this person as you would speak to anyone professionally. There is no reason to overly show agreement with everything they say or treat them as a superior. Show basic respect, never use profanity and thank them for their time. Always follow-up with an email to the CEO (and any other people who were on the conference). In this correspondence by no means should you elevate the CEO above any other members within the organization. For example, if you spoke with four people, address the email with their names alphabetically.

Follow these rules and your conversation or interview with a mid to large size firm's CEO, and the conversation should be a breeze.

by: kas ksundheim

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