How to NOT Get a Meeting With a Senior Executive
Getting a face-to-face meeting with a top executive is one of the competencies of a sales superstar. Very few reps are aware of the skills and tools required to successfully locate, research, schedule, communicate, meet with and follow up with a senior executive.
In this month's TTS newsletter we will discuss how you are guaranteed to be unsuccessful landing a meeting with a senior executive.
This topic was prompted by a Wall Street Journal Article which appeared this week. The focus of the article was to highlight the antics employed by technology companies and their sales representatives as they attempted to negotiate meetings with Chief Information Officers.
Here are some conditional enticements:
- Rep sent a remote-control car, but without the remote control unit.
- Rep bought tickets to the Star Wars premiere.
- Rep sent a shot glass with the promise to bring a full bottle to a meeting.
- Rep sent a single walkie-talkie without the accompanying handset.
- Rep sent a single running shoe.
- Rep sent three gallons of maple syrup.
- Rep sent a drone without the remote control and inner workings.
- Rep sent a remote controlled helicopter without the remote control.
- Rep impersonated a competing vendor. Upon discovery he tried to buy his way in with an electronic gift.
Let me add a few more approaches that I have heard other sales consultants and sales trainers promote.
- Call the executive's office after 5:00p.m. The executive's assistant will have gone home and the executive will pick up the phone.
- Call the executive's assistant and lie by tell him/her that you are returning the call of the executive or that someone in the executive's organization has asked you to call.
WOW! I was shocked after reading the article that reps were using these manipulative approaches and worse, that companies would resort to approving these tactics. No surprise, NONE of them worked.
Don't get me wrong, I love creativity! I think that creative approaches are fun and effective. But approaches like the ones above that attempt to buy your way in to meet with a key executive are a waste of time, money and contribute to the negative stereotypes of the sales profession. It is also possible that there are illegalities to some of these practices.
Here are a few "novel" ideas for anyone who wants to earn the right to meet with a senior executive:
- Get a job with a company that is trustworthy, delivers on its promises and offers outstanding customer support.
- Exceed the expectations that you promise to your customers.
- RESEARCH! Do your homework. Spend the time and effort to know more about your client's business, challenges, and opportunities than they know about themselves. Invest the time to get to know your client and their business & personal agenda.
- Customize everything for your client based upon your research.
- Practice "The Modified Golden Rule". Do unto others as THEY would like to be treated.
- Don't Talk Like A Vendor. Realize that the language that you use when speaking with a senior executive is vastly different than the language you use at lower levels in the organization. Senior executives are obsessed with driving value for the organization. How can we become more effective and efficient? How can we improve our profits, sales, employee engagement, asset utilization and customer experience? Each executive has "metrics" that they track like a hawk to insure that they are driving toward their goals. Know those metrics and how you may be able to help them "move the needle."
- Consult, Educate, Teach and Challenge. Provide unique and valuable perspectives on the market. Talk about new issues and technology trends with an emphasis on education. Help your customer see what's hot and what's not.
- Help your client quantify the potential financial impact of your offering.
- Show your client how you can help her to better understand her customer.
- Benchmark. Help your customer benchmark her performance versus her local competition, along with leaders in and outside the industry.
- Prevent and cure headaches -- help your customer avoid landmines.
- Give away ideas / samples / without the expectation of anything in return.
- Situational fluency -- testimonials. Show your client how you have you have been able to assist other clients with comparable problems and challenges.
My experience tells me that in the long run, you will be vastly more successful in your efforts to consult with senior executives using my approaches rather than giving away drones without remotes!
All the best,
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