1. Seven Simple Rules for Selling to Senior Executives
As critical as sales is to the success of any company, particularly in the B2B segment where outcomes
are determined by sales and revenue momentum, the quality of the sales function seems to be at an
all-time low. So, in the spirit of decreasing the pain of the prospect and empathizing with the humane
side of the senior corporate executives, and the pain of others who are in the line-of-fire, the following
are seven very simple best practices for selling to senior executives
1- Earn the opportunity to engage – As a B2B sales professional you probably get some credit for
effort: number of emails sent; number of calls made; time on phone, etc. No matter how persistent or
creative you are, you will not rise above the noise unless you establish credibility. There are only two
ways to do this: (1) send valuable data or information that is easy to consume, directly relevant to the
business of the prospect, and reflects your value proposition; or, (2) get an introduction from
someone the prospect knows and who believes that their company would benefit from your product
or service--even better if that person is already your customer. Do this, and you are likely to get a
meeting.
2- Communicate the agenda in Advance - If you get a call or meeting, it is on you to make sure that it
is productive. At least two days before, send an agenda and an email summarizing the value
proposition of your product or service for the prospect’s company, how it's differentiated and better
than other offerings, and a general idea of what it would cost. If you can get a head start on helping
your prospect understand those things, you can have a real conversation. Your email should be short,
customized for their business, and should include a copy of your presentation.
3- Get to the point--and focus on the value proposition of your product or service in context of their
business. Once the meeting is scheduled, arrive early to set up your presentation. If you're meeting on
the phone, make sure you are on the bridge before your prospect and have your presentation ready
to go. Please don't bother with small talk-- no need to "connect" with them on something you learned
about them on LinkedIn.
Briefly introduce yourself and your company, and then clearly explain to them why they and their
organization can't live without your product or service. This is a very high bar.
Any new relationship, especially if there are integration requirements, requires resources and creates
overhead inside an organization. Before they agree to divert resources to you, they must believe that
they can't live without what you're selling, i.e., that your product or service can help them
generate materially more revenue, save significant costs, or much more effectively compete in their
market. As a senior executive, those three things--plus how they use time and how their company
deploys its resources-- are the things is the real ice breaker.

2. 4- Do your research. You will instantly lose any credibility you earned to land the meeting if you
demonstrate that you have not done your research. If the answer to your "qualifying question" is
available through a little simple research, you're done. If you're selling a recruiting tool and you don't
know how many jobs the company have open in their public career site, you're done. Show that, you
care about more than just taking them through your process-- and have invested the time to
understand their business and think about how your product or service meets my needs.
5- Know your product or service. The only thing worse than not doing your research about a
prospect’s business is not understanding your product or service inside-out. You should be able to
answer any question that can be asked, whether technical or related to your business, competition
or market. If you don't know your stuff--and refer to sales engineers and account managers--what
value are you adding to the conversation?
6- Less talking, more listening. It is very easy to "swing into gear" once the meeting starts--fire up
your PowerPoint and the canned spiel. Getting into this comfort zone might help you get through the
meeting, but you won't get any closer to a sale. Don't build the meeting around your presentation
and sales script. Build it around what you know about their business and your thesis for why you can
help--and listen for clues. Every question they ask is a reveal, an invitation to steer the discussion
towards them. Shame on you if you miss it
7- STOP SELLING!! Your biggest challenge is to convince them that you are not a salesman. In other
words, even though you are an advocate, or even better, an evangelist, for your product or service,
you understand that salesmanship is about conveying value, not just taking it. Educate them by
providing data and insights about my business. Show me how your product or service
can materially help. But please don't sell; instead, help them understand the value and make the
decision to buy from you.
Note – This article is adapted from James Beriker’s (President & CEO Simply Hired) article
published by him on LinkedIn and is a classic example of how to win Complex Selling at C-Level.