When I first starting selling, it was all about getting to the decision maker, so all the sales people would call on the GM, CFO, Owner, etc. We were trained to call on the decision maker and were verbally abused by our bosses if we settled for an influencer. In the last 20 years, a few things have shifted this trend. No one takes appointments anymore because of a change in our customers’ perception of the need they have for sales people (see Monday’s blog, March 7, 2016). Also, most decisions are made in committee, so those “underlings” that you would not have called on before are now at the decision-making table. Naturally, our prospecting activity has now shifted to the mid-level manager or even product end-user. Not only do they influence the decision today, but it’s much easier to schedule an appointment with them that their bosses. Is it? Do you really think it’s easier to get a security manager or network administrator on the phone than the General Manager or CIO? Let’s discuss…
If you’ve read more than two of my posts, you know that I believe that everything we were trained to do 20 years ago is worthless today. Since the internet has changed the way our customers buy, I believe we need to change the way we sell. However, I believe this is one area that my boss in 1995 was right: you need to call on the C-Suite! Here’s why…
If you haven’t been to a party with a bunch of single people lately, check out one in the near future. The stunning, confident woman with the cartoon-like smile is usually talking to her friends or hanging out by herself. The men at the party are either too intimidated to approach her, or they assume she is with someone else. Either way, she would welcome a nice conversation, but usually just gets approached by the obnoxious jerk who thinks it’s his job to bless her with his presence.
It’s become that way with our prospects’ executives because of three dynamics. As mentioned earlier, sales people have shifted to calling on mid and low level management or end users – your competition is not calling on the executives. Second, the executives are more interested in security technology than ever – there are real business drivers associated with what you do today (and some of them just think the technology is cool.) Finally, they have access to your information and have probably dabbled here and there to learn a little bit about it. Ten years ago, they’d hear a briefing by the security manager and either move forward or not. Today, they follow the briefing with videos, articles, etc. They’ve had a taste of your world and might be interested in more.
Idea Tuesday: When penetrating a new account, call on upper management. Find out who IT and Security report to, and pursue an appointment with this person. You’ll have a better chance of getting them on the phone or replying to an email than you will with the department heads or end-users. The worst scenario is they refer you to someone else in the organization.
