3 key questions to answer when selling to the C-Suite

If there’s a highly undervalued skill that many sales professionals need to acquire to achieve a quantum leap in their sales results, it is the ability to sell to the C-suite. As Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce.com once remarked, “When I look at our largest transactions…every transaction was done with the CEO [and] that’s why we’re selling more enterprise software than Oracle or SAP.” Moreover, it was by learning how to sell more effectively to the C-suite that my friend and sales director Ivan Tan was able to help grow a business by 300% in 5 years!

While there are incredible advantages of learning how to sell more effectively to C-level customers, the idea of having to approach and make an appointment with a high level executive can sound like a daunting task to many salespeople. So in this article, I will be sharing with you the 3 critical questions that you would need to first answer before approaching your next C-level contact:

1. Can they foresee how their people are able to work with you and your team? While you may have even better products and services, that alone may not be able to help you clinch the deal. According to an article posted in the Harvard Business Review, a salesperson’s ability to marshal the selling firm’s resources can often be seen as a great selling point to many senior executives. After all, buyers today are likely required to interact with the salesperson’s organization at multiple touchpoints. It is thus important for the salesperson to enjoy widespread support within his/her own organization.

2. Do you possess all the insights and information your C-level customers would need to know how your offering could solve their problems? Interestingly, a study which was done some time ago revealed how most sales reps tend to overrate their own abilities when it comes to their preparation work for selling to their high-profile customers. While many of them gave themselves an aggregate B grade for their meeting preparation, the executive buyers at their accounts gave them only a F grade!

Remember that preparation is the key to success when selling to C-level customers. These are people who highly value their time and you need to do your homework diligently before meeting them. Like what my friend Ivan said, you would need to get straight to the point and show them how you could specifically help them to achieve their goals and solve their business problems.

At the same time, it might be helpful for you to invest time and effort to cultivate the relationship with the other stakeholders in the executive’s organization and educate them on your solution too. While these high level executives may be the deciders or approvers for the business project, they don’t often make unilateral decisions or try to push decisions down the organization. Securing the support of the rest of the buyers in the customer’s buying centre is critical to your success.

3. How could you position yourself more as a strategic partner to them instead of being perceived as just another salesperson?

You see, there are generally 3 kinds of buyers- logistic buyers, the user influencers and the executive buyers. And they value different things.

In the case of C-level buyers, they typically prefer to think long-term and value a financial solution you can offer them, not just an operational or logistics solution. Thus it is important for you to learn how to position yourself as a business partner when communicating with them, illustrating to them how you can help them to achieve their long-term goals and plans. For instance, you could say something like “Mr Customer, the outcome of our business partnership is…” before you start touching on a financial solution you can offer them to solve their problems. For more tips on how you could improve your ability to connect with high C-level executives, do join me in an exclusive interview with my friend Ivan Tan, as he would be sharing with us some valuable tips on C-level selling.

With close to 13 years of track record in both sales production and management in the Asia Pacific region, Ivan will be disclosing answers to questions such as:

What are some common challenges that sales people tend to face when selling to C-level customers?

How could a salesperson effectively reach out to the C-suite?

What are proven ways to prospect C-level executives?

Till we meet again, here’s wishing you the very best in selling.