In the current economic climate, many salespeople face difficulties pitching to the usual points of contact within a business. Understandably, upper management is often keen to tighten belts and offers lower-level employees less autonomy in the decision-making process, preferring to take a more hands-on approach with expenditure.
For organisations that aren’t used to selling directly to C-Level, this poses new challenges. A typical scripted sales pitch is very unlikely to garner interest from top-level executives, and an ill-judged pitch can create an irrevocably negative view of your business.
We’ve prepared some valuable tips for selling to C-Level.
Personalise Your Pitch
C-Level Executives aren’t interested in listening to the pitch you’ve reeled off a hundred times before. They want to know what you can do for their business, and consequently, you need to research and understand their business in detail.
Focusing on broader business value propositions, and demonstrating an understanding of market conditions, competitors, USPs, and pain points will be more likely to resonate with executives than a generic pitch you could give to a dozen other prospects without changing a word.
Target the Right Executive
While researching the prospect, you must ensure that you have identified the right executive to target with your pitch. Multiple executives are likely to have decision-making responsibilities, and you’ll want to pitch to the person most closely involved with the area of their business your offer is likely to benefit.
Take the time to understand the corporate structure, the history of the business, and notable past decisions. Reach out to contacts you may have in the prospect already and try and get an insider’s perspective. If you have contacts in the business already, then you may also be able to ask for a referral which may carry a little more weight than a cold call.
Their Time is Money
C-Level decision-makers are busy people, and they’re not afraid to cut a pitch short if they’re failing to see the value. While an overly rehearsed pitch is a red flag to an executive, so too is a pitch that fails to concisely communicate the value in your offer.
You need to identify the key points and be able to build a compelling case for your offering in as little time as possible and, ideally, considerably less time than they’ve scheduled for your meeting. Even if you don’t win the business that day, demonstrating respect for their time and schedule may earn you a level of goodwill that will make future sales opportunities easier to come by.
Save the Small Talk for the Walk to the Elevator
Typical sales pitches begin with small talk, but C-Level often prefer that you get straight to the point. To build rapport with C-Level, focus more on their business. You can ask them about their company and any recent developments and use this as an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding and interest in their perspective.
Have a Call to Action
We’ve all been in a situation where we think we’ve locked down the sale, only for radio silence to follow. This doesn’t always mean that the other party isn’t interested, but it does mean that they’re not excited about the opportunity. Assessing the interest levels of a prospect based on a single meeting can be very difficult, and salespeople are often reluctant to pursue so as not to seem pushy.
To truly gauge the interest of a C-Level executive, it is best to have a call-to-action prepared; something specific the executive should do to move things forward. If they do it, and quickly, then you know they’re very interested, but if not, then you know that their interest levels aren’t particularly high. This isn’t a sign that you should quit, but it is something to keep in mind when strategising how best to follow up.
Build Support Within the Organisation
If you have contacts within the prospect organisation already, then you potentially have champions within the organisation who can speak up on your behalf. The majority of sales decisions are made when the salesperson isn’t in the room, so garnering support at various levels of the organisation can be a significant boon and help tip the scales in your favour.
