Common Sales Challenges That Prevent Executive-Level Access

Agency Sales,  Aug 2006  by Thull, Jeff

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With the complexity of today's business solutions and their far-reaching effects, more often than not senior-level executives are actively involved in the process of assessing the issues and their options. Yet many companies are finding their best sales and marketing strategies are highly diluted by the time they reach their customers, and their sales professionals are not connecting to the power in the executive suite.

Gaining access and connecting to executive decision makers is one challenge that most sales professionals continue to seek a better solution to. There are several common challenges that sales professionals need to resolve in order to effectively engage the executive suite. Consider the following situations, how often they occur within your team and how you currently are approaching each.

* When was the last time you couldn't connect to the executive's critical business issues and were delegated down to a support level?

Brilliant ideas and valuable products and services fall to indifference if you can't immediately establish credibility and connect to the executive's most pressing issues. Your credibility comes via the relevancy you establish in your introduction by connecting your solutions or capabilities to the business drivers of the executive. By referencing challenges the industry is facing or objectives this company has stated in their public records, the executive will recognize you've thought this through and you couldn't have this conversation with anyone else.

* You realized that your strongest contact in your customer's organization no longer held the power to make the buying decision.

In today's highly competitive and volatile marketplace, globalization, consolidation and centralization are some of the causes of decisions moving to higher levels of power and influence. This movement is forcing even the most experienced sales professionals to expand their expertise and compete at levels not required before. Expecting that a single contact in your customer's organization can and will carry your message effectively is hanging on to thin threads of hope. It is critical that we translate the value we can create at the technical, operational or clinical level to the impact it has on the performance drivers on the executive's dashboard, and have those conversations with each executive. Recognizing the dials they are watching and being able to discuss their current measurements and how your solution will impact those measurements is a conversation most executives will be open to discuss.

* Your competition was in the executive suite, and you weren't.

Can the competition get to the executive suite and take your account while you believe your relationship is strong at the operations level? Absolutely! Let's face it: your competition would have the advantage. People typically spend more time preparing for a prospect visit than they do for a customer visit. Don't let over-familiarity lull you into understanding less about your customer than your competitor would prepare for. Gain advantage and pull ahead of competitive threats by establishing a broad base of relationships that will preempt and neutralize competitive moves.

* You bought into, "I make the final decision," when in fact, political moves and ego games got you hung up with someone who can barely influence the decision.

Don't let diluted messages sabotage your best opportunities. Understand how your solution affects each level of responsibility within your customer's organization. It is only natural that you will interact at all levels to understand the full potential your solution will have, and after the sale to assure that the full value of your solution is being achieved. Building these relationships as you gather information will ensure you are firmly grounded with those who are both impacted and influenced by the decision.

* You finally reached the person who held the checkbook, but you couldn't build the financial case they needed to make the buying decision.

The financial executive plays an increasingly central role in setting the strategy of the organization and how to fund the implementation of the strategy. Do not place the burden on your customers of translating your technical advantages into the financial impact of your solution. Involve them in your calculations; have them collaborate and adjust your assumptions. In the end, the customer must "own" the justification. Be their advisor, not their sales rep. Position your solution as a strategic asset.

* Third-party consultants forced you to compete on price when you knew that the value you would create for the customer was not making it to the executive level in your customer's organization.

Recognize that you and the consultant have the same customer. Build the case for mutual gains with the consultant by asking the questions they have not thought of asking and don't have the answers to. They will recognize the value you add to their position and invite you into the executive suite. Help third-party consultants manage a quality buying process that builds successful outcomes for them, for you and for your customers.