Sales & Marketing Management - January/Februry 2008 - (Page 10) SALES STRATEGY Raising the Conversation In many instances, use of the CEO in the average sales process is inappropriate and can even raise a red flag. “In our case, we really can’t bring a CEO along,” says the sales VP of a systems company. “We sell to a lowerlevel manager, and if we brought the CEO along they would be intimidated, or think something was wrong.” According to one financial services representative, “The client exec told me that if the CEO had to go on every sales call, we must be poorly run or desperate for business, and that made him nervous. Even a small company’s CEO shouldn’t be going on every sales call.” Antidote: Use the CEO strategically at critical junctures. One CEO, whose inflated ego made him unpredictable (and disastrous) in sales situations, turned out to be brilliant in the role of host and industry expert at the podium of sales conferences. One salesperson at a hardware manufacturer of data centers reported great success using the CEO to help get a meeting with senior decision makers at an existing account. For months, he had been trying to leverage his excellent relationship with the director of IT to try to meet with the customer CTO about a new product his company was introducing, with nothing to show for his efforts. Every time, the meeting got pushed off or cancelled at the last minute due to another priority. Finally, the salesperson announced to the director that the CEO/founder would accompany him on his next sales call, and requested he set up several “check-in” meetings with the account’s senior management. It worked! During the visit, the CEO’s presence established the connection and allowed the salesperson to raise the level of conversation to include potential needs targeted by the new product. —R.S. and J.M.C. Do they give their staff the freedom to be creative? If the answer to one or more of those questions is no, it spells potential trouble. The key to effective use of the CEO lies in the discipline of call planning. This can be time-consuming and the CEO might need to be educated about it, but the payoff is huge. A checklist for a good call plan looks something like this: Objective. A primary and secondary objective. Make it measurable: How will you PERCENTAGE OF BUSINESSES THAT know when you’ve ARE PLANNING TO reached it? INCREASE THEIR Exploration. What USE OF E-MAIL do we need to learn on FOR SALES AND MARKETING IN THE this call, and how will YEAR AHEAD. we gain this information? Make a list SOURCE: SALESTREAM SOFTWARE SURVEY OF 1,829 of both content and SALES AND MARKETING EXECUTIVES process questions. Content. What exactly are we offering to them? How will we present? Sales call process. Who will open? How will the team advance the conversation? Whose job is it to keep the pace, and to conclude? Resources and roles. Who will go or be on the phone? What media will be utilized? What travel, hospitality, etc. will be involved? What strategic and tactical s [THE PULSE] roles will each of the participants play? Close. How will you close on your objective? Follow-up. How will you report on the call to your colleagues? And how are you planning to follow up with the prospect? In all instances, the CEO’s presence should be used strategically to push the prospect closer to a positive buying decision. Consider the previous example in which the CEO did the demo; in reality, sales staff can and should perform this role. A higher-value and more appropriate role for that CEO would have been to sell vision, strategy, ideas and relationship, not specific features and functions. In addition to being a visible industry leader, the CEO should be a visible participant in the company’s sales processes and management. Provided it’s utilized intelligently, their involvement will motivate the sales staff and demonstrate to others the importance of the sales function. Remember, CEOs can drive the sale to a close and strengthen relationships or they can drive the prospect away. But so long as there’s an honest understanding of his or her sales skills, along with disciplined planning and focus on the strategic sales role CEOs should play, they can become an invaluable tool in your company’s sales efforts. Rick Simpson is an associate partner and J. Mark Carr is a partner at CMG Partners, a strategic sales and marketing consulting firm. For more info, visit www.cmgpartners.com. 83.8 10 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 www.salesandmarketing.com www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com http://www.cmgpartners.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com
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