The prevailing philosophy in sales is that you must call high. Get to the highest level person in the organization you can. While on the surface this makes sense, think about it from the point of view of your customer. Let’s say your company specializes in IT consulting services. The natural tendency is to call on the CIO, right? After all, he or she is at the top of the pyramid for your services. I’ve actually been in a sales situation, partnered with another organization, where the other sales person told the CIO that they had to meet with him, it was the only way their company did business.
When that’s your approach what’s the unspoken message being delivered to that leader? How about, “I have to talk to you because your direct reports aren’t smart enough to understand what we sell.” That means you’re telling that leader that they did a crappy job of picking their team. The first time that concept was shared with me I just blew it off. Then a few years later I was a leader and heard a version of “I can only sell to you” from a sales rep calling on me. My reaction was very different, I was offended that they felt no one on my team (albeit a small one) was capable of making a decision. I certainly thought I had surrounded myself with quality people.
So, rather than just blindly calling high, what’s more important is to do some research about your target company. With surprisingly little effort you can find great nuggets of information about your prospect (company) and the possible players that will value your solution. You can learn what’s important to both the company and them. Armed with that information, you can target what we call Power. Power is a placeholder name for someone who can make, or drive, a purchase decision even when there is no budget. It is title agnostic and could be different people in the same company for different projects. Of course, that means you have to come to the party with a solid business case, not some vague statements about improving productivity, or some platitudes about how great your product is and how smart your people are. You need examples where you created real value; and the metrics to back it up.
Please note that I am not advocating that you only sell to Power. CEB and others have done extensive research that shows there are multiple buying influences in any complex B2B sale. So in addition to figuring out who Power is for a particular opportunity, understand that you also have to figure out who the other key influencers are and make sure you’re delivering your message to them in terms that are important to their priorities.
Sound complicated? It is. Easy? It’s not. Already doing it? Great, congratulations. Not there yet? That’s okay too. Let’s talk.
