Are You A Peer In The Boardroom, Or A Vendor In The Hallway?
Building Relationships Friday, July 17th, 2009
If a book promised to show you how to “become a peer in the boardroom…instead of a vendor waiting in the hallway!”, would you read it? Well, that is exactly what Paul R. DiModica’s ‘VALUE FORWARD SELLING’ does.
Because the main focus of this book is on ‘how to sell to management’, the first step is quite an obvious one: seek out and sell to higher up in the organization.
If you don’t do this, you are inevitably going to lengthen the sales cycle, as well as limit your success in several other ways.
Selling to Senior Management
In order to sell to senior management, you must be able to break free from certain habits and move out of your comfort zone; this in fact requires a whole new approach to the sales process, including a different message and even a different self-concept.
“The salesperson’s job is to bring forward, or tangibilize, the value of his/her solutions…”
At the lower levels, prospects may be concerned with features and the underlying technology, but this is not true at the top. Senior management want more – they want value. That means you need to stop worrying about selling products or services, and start focusing instead on the benefits they promise for customer.
This is where the title of DiModica’s book comes into play – the salesperson’s job is to bring forward, or tangibilize, the value of his/her solutions. The challenge then is to communicate your business value up front, even before you start selling per se.
Bring Forward The Value
How to go about bringing forward the value? Well, the key point here is that value is communicated by firstly identifying buyer problems or challenges, and then communicating how you have helped others to address them. That is an important point about communicating your value: it’s not what you say it is, but what others can attest to.
DiModica suggests that, as salespeople, we need to see ourselves as “pain-management specialists”. To reinforce the notion of value, you have to be seen as a specialistas opposed to a generalist – in terms of both your solution area and vertical sector.
“The salesperson must become an expert in his/her own industry, as well as that of the customer…”
In order to achieve this, the salesperson must first become an expert in his/her own industry, as well as that of the customer. Read about and study it carefully; that way, you will learn to think and speak like your prospects. Then package up your knowledge – even put a phrase on it, creating a new industry concept or term.
When you successfully complete the above, you will feel more comfortable talking to senior management in prospect organizations. Crucially, they will also feel more comfortable talking to you. They will look on you as a business peer, and not just a salesperson.
How to Gain Access:
How to get in the door to senior management in the first place? Well, DiModica uses the term “engagement marketing” to describe a forward-looking approach that surrounds cold calling with warmth-generating activities like direct mail, executive briefings, white papers, networking, etc.
This approach recognises that sales cycles and buying cycles don’t necessarily correspond. As a result, the sales organization must move to engage with the prospect even before the need is clear or a buying process has begun. It must maintain that contact through integrated sales and marketing tactics that touch off the prospect right throughout the sales cycle.
“Selling to senior management is, in many ways, a premeditated contact sport…”
Consistent with the notion of bringing forward value, it should stop sending brochures and start sending a whitepaper, an interesting article, or a book instead. Ensure that you have an interesting perspective, or a proposition of real value, to communicate before you pick up the telephone or meet with a prospect.
As DiModica points out, selling to senior management is, in many ways, a premeditated contact sport. The author places great emphasis on preparation for meetings, including providing the prospect with a valid reason to meet, outlining key discussion points in advance, etc. Incidentally, it is crucial that such preemptive strategies should be tailored to each specific customer or prospect.
Praise for This Book:
This is a book not written by an academic, but by a salesman – that much is clear from the practical nature of the author’s approach. It won’t tell you anything new, but it will remind you of a great deal that you may have forgotten. Some other key lessons and points outlined in the book are as follows:
- Print off the web pages of your key competitors, and try to identify how you are different
- Don’t overlook personal motivations – psychological ROI is every bit as important as financial ROI
- Should you respond to RFPs from organizations with whom you have had no previous contact?
- Are your proposals more about your company than your prospect?
- Just how much preparation is required for sales pitches/presentations?
- How to build credibility in tandem with handling objections?
- The role of executive storytelling in demonstrating credibility
Posted by Ray Collis
on 10:15 am. Filed under Building Relationships.
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