The following is a summary of key takeaways from Selling to Executives, a good, free, quick (23 min) course from LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda) by Mike Gamson.
Identify your buyer
- Find the target individual – most senior person who cares about what you do and has the authority to buy from you (Hint: They may not be the CEO.)
- Become an expert in what the company does
- Become an expert in what the target individual cares about. Besides public sources, you can learn about him/her from others inside their organization.
Get a meeting
- Strive to get a warm referral to the target individual from (a) someone in their company (b) an executive or colleague in your company (c) a mutual connection
- Write a highly personalized email. If the exec does not respond to the email, write a highly personalized letter and FedEx it to them.
Prepare for the meeting
- Research similarities. For example, same school, same interests, etc.
- Know who works for/with the target individual
- Know the history of the target account and your company’s history of the target individual
- Know your own solution inside an out
Last-minute preparation
- Visualize what you expect to happen at the meeting
- Premeditate objections you expect to encounter (i.e. things that would derail the meeting)
Run the meeting
- Start out with brief small talk (aka rapport)
- Choose a seat where you can make direct eye-contact with the target individual
- Come across as a peer by (a) no laptop on the desk (b) don’t go over the top thanking them for their time
- Set the objective/agenda for the meeting
- Be conversations; do not go overboard on data, information, features/benefits
- Use the whiteboard (where applicable)
- Manage the time
- Close by locking down 1-3 action items, with owners AND ensure buy-in from the target individual to proceed
How to follow up
- Send a note thanking the target individual and summarizing the action plan
- Record notes in your CRM
- Continue to update the target individual on the status of the action plan