Phil Lauterjung

Photo - Flickr (Kattni)

I have often found it amusing how many sales managers insist that their salespeople must sell to CEOs.  I mean, think about it.  How many salespeople are there compared to the actual number of CEOs?  If all of those salespeople were successful, when would those CEOs get anything done?  They’d spend all their time meeting with you and me.  Hmmm, maybe that’s why it’s so hard to get an appointment with a CEO?

There are, however, times when involving the CEO is necessary for a successful sale; and that’s what this post will address.  There are basically three hurdles a sales rep needs to overcome.  First, there is the obvious challenge of access.  Most CEOs would rather endure questioning by Jack Bauer at gun point than talk to a salesperson.  Second, there’s the challenge of what to say.  Quite honestly, most salespeople don’t really have a clue what to say to a CEO once they get access.  Third, there’s the issue of personality.  You need to think and act like a CEO.  Feeling pretty confident about your chances right about now aren’t you?

ACCESS

This is considered to be the hardest part of selling to a CEO.  There are basically three ways to gain access, and none are easy.  All three will require you to spend time doing your homework and learning about the company and their competitors.  Here are the 3 avenues:

1. Cold/Warm Calling.  Read my previous post on tactics for cold/ warm calls, but basically it involves knowing as much as possible about a potential need their company may have that would be a current concern of the CEO.
2. Networking.  Also known as ‘referral’ selling, where you develop contacts outside the target company that could get you an introduction to the CEO you wish to meet.
3. Laddering.  This would involve networking within the organization to gain an introduction to the CEO from an underling.  This is tricky because the underling typically wants to maintain control until sure you have a viable solution; and, even then, they are often reluctant to stick their necks out for you.  For this one to work you will need to be very good at the next 2 challenges – what to say and personality.

WHAT TO SAY

Your message must be of interest to a CEO.  What they are most concerned about is what will increase the value of their company.  They really don’t care about product features, save that for the detail folks that work for the CEO.  They really don’t care about ROI either, they would rather leave that to their CFO.  They’re looking for something that will either increase the value of their company or make it easier to manage the company.  You better address one of those two or start looking for the door before the CEO shows it to you.

PERSONALITY

If you can’t think of yourself being an equal to the CEO you’re dead meat before you even get started.  You need to have the attitude that what you have to offer will help his company and that you are the most important person he will meet to make that happen.  Then you need to adopt the speech patterns and body language to match that belief.  If you can’t do that, don’t even bother.  The CEO will figure you out before you can even get started and give you a one-way ticket downstairs.

Selling to CEOs is not easy, otherwise everyone would be successful doing it.  There is more to it than what I’ve outlined above, but if you can’t do this as the bare minimum then you’ll just be wasting your time.  Let me know what other thoughts, opinions, and ideas you might have in the comment section below.

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