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Thursday, February 4, 2010
Creating the Confidence Necessary to Win Over C-Level Executives
Confidence is what C-level decision-makers want to see in their selling partners. Yet, it's uncomfortable selling to influential leaders. Big egos come with big titles and these people can be intimidating. Therefore a salesperson's biggest asset is confidence. So how do you build that confidence? Today sales trainer Sam Manfer walks you through the process.
If you're confident you exude credibility. Confidence leads to believability and trust, and credibility, believability and trust, respect and results are key ingredients necessary for selling to powerful and C-level executives. However, do not confuse confidence with arrogance or boasting. Confidence is stealth and very pervasive.
The best way to become confident is to prepare. Here's how. Learn about the situation or the executives before the engagement. Ask anyone you can about the situation and executive for information. If you open your mind, you'll think of a lot of people who can help you. Ask yourself what you want to know. Then prepare questions to get this info. Prepare questions for your contacts and for the executive. Have questions to confirm information and to gather new information. Before meetings call the executive and other participates to learn their expectations of the upcoming meeting. These and other preparations will get you ready and instill a feeling of confidence.
Visualize a positive outcome. Most people are intimidated and feel uncomfortable visiting powerful people. This is called fear in one sense or another. Fear is just the visualization or projection of a negative outcome. Why do you lock your doors? You worry someone will steal your belongings or hurt you. Why do you slow-up when you see a police car? You fear getting a ticket. You're visualizing the worst.
The same is true when thinking about officers of a company involved in the decision making for your sale. This nervousness goes to rationalizations (I really don't need to meet with the top people) and/or uneasiness once you decide it is necessary. It is all negative projection - they don't want to meet with you, or others will block you or feel badly if you go to their bosses, or you worry the meeting will go badly and you'll lose the deal. This is all negative speculation.
You don't know how it will go. You don't know that you'll get robbed if you leave your car unlocked. You don't know if your meeting will go well or badly. However, when you think negatively, you lose confidence and come across as weak and ineffective.
Confident people feel comfortable asking pointed, penetrating questions - ones to learn the executive's real issues, threats and opportunities, and they get the information without interrogating. They feel comfortable following-up with more questions to clear ambiguities and to understand the deeper meaning of words and phrases - often buried issues. Most importantly, they posture themselves to listen intently. These actions make leaders feel confident about the individual so that they can project positively about the upcoming deal.
Since 1995 Sam Manfer has been speaking, consulting, writing and leading seminars in sales and personal development. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader Sam has addressed thousands of new and experienced sales people and managers all over the world in all types of businesses and industries. Learn more at www.sammanfer.com
When you're selling to the CEO, the CFO, or the CMO, there's a lot going on that can make you nervous. After all, this is the person who makes the final decision. They're often tired from overwork, and they see more salespeople then they'd like to each day - so you've got to make it count, every time. Today sales trainer Sam Manfer has five tips for us that will help you build the confidence needed to sell to these power players.
Keep learning your trade. The three areas of continuing education are selling skills, people skills and your product/service skills. As you learn more about any one of the three, you will become more assured of yourself. Prepare for the encounter. Get coaching from someone about the person you will be meeting. To avoid biases, I call the person directly and ask him/her the expectation they have for the meeting saying, "So that I don't bore you with a lot of grizzly details you don't want to hear, what would you like me to be prepared to talk with you about?" It will amaze you how this warms up the other person.
Approach the meeting with a quest to learn. It will take off all the performance pressure. All you have to do is prepare questions. If he already told you in the pre-call, confirm what he told you to be sure. Then dig into the details. Once he tells you the tune he wants to hear, you can sing it with passion. Why worry yourself about what to say when, if you ask and listen, they will tell you what they want to hear?
Prepare yourself. People with the power to say yes or no are intimidating. This is fear. Fear means you are thinking negatively about the upcoming event. Since you don't know the future, project positively. That becomes excitement. What you think the other person will think of you comes through in your walk, your posture, your language, and your tone. So be thinking great results and it will pump up both of you.
Advise yourself as you would your child or a close friend about being confident. If your daughter told you she was nervous about an upcoming interview, what advice would you give her? Well, you are that child and you have the answers to your own power. You just have to ask yourself, "What can I do?" Then listen.
Sam Manfer delivers keynote speeches and in-depth selling workshops for those anxious to increase sales. His hands-on coaching turns individuals and sales organizations into selling whirlwinds. Follow Sam's C-Level Selling Blog for more insights.
Have you been making phone call after phone call, hoping to break into a large account? Today sales trainer Sam Manfer gives us the tips you need to break into these accounts - and tells us what you might be doing that's wasting your time - and not getting you any closer to that account.
"Large Account Management requires knowledge of where the account is going in relationship to its customers, competitors, industry and the economy," says Manfer. This knowledge is housed in the heads of the profit-center leader and his or her staff. So anyone that wants to manage a large account has to get to these leaders on a regular basis and learn issues, concerns, problems or target opportunities these people are thinking about. The only way these leaders are going to let that happen is if the vendor has established relationships with these C-level and senior executives. Here's the guide for large account managers to follow for establishing C-level relationships."
Purpose Successful account managers know there is a real purpose for being positioned at the top. Budgets are allocated there. Funds are released there - with or without a budget. Any changes to operations, systems or procedures are usually initiated there and are always approved there. Committees bring their recommendations for vendor selections there for approval.
Always ask yourself or your account manager, "What would happen to your chances of being the preferred vendor if your competitor gets there and makes a positive impact?" This should eliminate any doubt about purpose.
Focus Getting to the top requires focus. If you set your sights there, you'll figure a way to get there. Caution: Do not ignore the people below on your way to the top. They have to be covered, but realize the job is not finished with subordinates.
Set your scope upward towards senior managers. Target those with P/L responsibility for the division, region, company, etc. where your products/services are used. If you don't, the ruling party will consider you a commodity that can be substituted or replaced, instead of a valuable resource to protect and use.
Confidence Confidence is the belief that you belong with these leaders. Unfortunately, the lack of this self-assurance becomes our worst enemy. The reason for this is that we have been programmed from childhood to fear authority figures. So we gravitate to lower, more comfortable levels and convince ourselves that the decision is made there.
There are also past rejection experiences from meetings with executives that went nowhere and rejection from subordinates saying in so many words, "You're not important enough to go beyond me." All of this conditioning has left many salespeople without the confidence to charge ahead and make contacts and relationships.
The solution to this overwhelming intimidation factor is to prepare for the meeting and prepare yourself. Get help from your information / introduction network. Rehearse what will be said and done in the meeting. Reprogram your thinking that this working person with a title is no different than you. Overcome any self-doubt by realizing you are feeling afraid and fear is just negative projection. Pump yourself up to positively project. Think, "This person wants to see me and our meeting will be great for both of us. If not, it's his/her loss - not mine."
Credibility Credibility is the door opener. If you've got it you can see this person anytime. Credibility means the person respects you, trusts you and believes you will deliver him/her results. Most salespeople develop credibility at lower levels. Establishing credibility at higher corporate levels is far more difficult because access is limited and what needs to be done and said is very different. Slip here with boring, annoying or no-impact selling approaches and you'll ruin any chance of credibility, further access and a relationship.
The key to gaining credibility is to use your Golden Network to transfer their credibility with the higher-level people to you. They need to refer you, introduce you, and help you establish respect. Once you're there, remember that to keep this busy exec's attention you must talk about what's important to him or her.
Performance Finally, performance provides the real basis for attaining access, developing credibility and establishing relationships with senior executives. However, your performance at this level will be judged on what it does for the individual executive. It is now personal. Not only must the company benefit, but the executive must believe his/her career has been enhanced or protected by doing business with you.
Learn what the chief values and structure your proposition in a way that shows that she/he can get it better and with less risk of failure from you. Then deliver it. Measure the results by his or her standards and be sure the executive is satisfied. If so, that's great. Ask for more business. If not, set a course to bring the results to where they need to be.
Sam Manfer delivers keynote speeches and in-depth selling workshops for those anxious to increase sales. His hands-on coaching turns individuals and sales organizations into selling whirlwinds. Follow Sam's C-Level Selling Blog for more insights.
Many people have a hard time with cold calling because they feel like they are intruding on the person they're calling. If you're just picking up the phone and dialing, then that might be the case. If you've done your research and can honestly say you think you can help them, then that's no intrusion - that's help! Today sales trainer Sam Manfer shares a philosophy that will help you right away with your cold calling.
"People don't want to be bothered, and you know that," says Manfer. "They are doing you a favor by talking with you. However, you may be able to return the favor by helping them if they have a problem, concern, dissatisfaction, or unmet opportunity."
So apologize for your intrusion -- "Sorry to bother you." Then say something like one of the following;
"Do you have any issues or concerns about XYZ?" Where XYZ is the general field you serve. In my case XYZ would be sales or revenue generation or salespeople's productivity.
"Are you satisfied with your XYZ?" If they say "Yes", ask them what they like about it. If they say, "No", ask them, "What are some things you don't like about it or are dissatisfied with?"
"Are you missing any opportunities because of XYZ?"
"Are you experiencing any inconveniences because of XYZ?"
Expect an "Everything is fine" because that's the easiest way to get rid of you. However, what you've done with this approach, and these questions, is to be polite and focused on the prospect. This helps to establish a modicum of credibility. Needs and wants, coupled with the salesperson's credibility, are what make sales happen.
You probably should start with an intro - your name and the company you represent - but quickly follow it with a customer focused statement. This, again, is to minimize the all about you effect.
For example, "Hi, my name is Sam Manfer, with Sales Mastery. Sorry to bother you, but you or your company could be experiencing some challenges that we've helped others like you eliminate. Can I ask you a couple questions?"
Putting the second person, you/your, in the front of the sentence, and the first person, I/we, at the end of the sentence makes it more about them, rather than you. This is a subtlety that has a profound, unconscious impact on the listener - it's about them!
Since 1995 Sam Manfer has been speaking, consulting, writing and leading seminars in sales and personal development. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader Sam has addressed thousands of new and experienced sales people and managers all over the world in all types of businesses and industries. Learn more at www.sammanfer.com
Sales trainer Sam Manfer has been doing a series on his blog with specific tips for sales presentations and proposals. While some tips are more general, and some are very specific, this one about handouts struck me as advice we should all follow - but often don't.
"Handouts are usually a distraction during the presentation, but can be a good reminder for after the presentation," says Manfer. "During the presentation you want people focusing on you and what your team has to say. Handouts encourage them to be reading ahead and not listening. If handouts are an integral part of the discussion, then hand them out as they are needed. Highlighting areas you want them to focus on is helpful."
"An agenda is a good handout for the leader to give each person when he starts his schmoozing," continues Manfer. "It's a good excuse for the schmooze and it looks good as you cover everyone. The agenda can also have the names of your team members on it and their role / expertise / position."
"A parting handout loaded with pictures, numbers, names, and details can be valuable. You can also fill it with points of their interest - not yours. Make it sort of a mini summary in living color - sort of a brochure. Remember they already have a written proposal."
Since 1995 Sam Manfer has been speaking, consulting, writing and leading seminars in sales and personal development. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader Sam has addressed thousands of new and experienced sales people and managers all over the world in all types of businesses and industries. Learn more at www.sammanfer.com
The proposal document is an expensive, time-consuming, yet necessary document. Therefore, it better hit the right buttons with the client so it takes you to the shortlist or gets you invited to do a presentation. Sales expert Sam Manfer has some excellent advice to make proposal writing a much less painful process:
The Line Items Every line item in the spec must consider three factors. (1) You must show you understand why that line item is in there and what it means to project success. (2) You must show you can handle/deliver it. (3) You must know who this line item is important to or who is worried about it.
Competitors Everything above is about the voters and getting their desires met. Many salespeople and companies are focused on what the competition will say in their proposals. This is a major mistake, yet competition cannot be ignored. Winning a proposal is not like a sporting event where you have to beat the competition. It is an election where you have to win the votes of the powerful.
Numbers, Names and Details Numbers are believable. They are also easy to visualize and understand. 13 is more powerful than "many times". 21 years' experience is more understandable than "very experienced". Details of how you accomplished a line item for another project are important to the people concerned about that spec item. Names validate you. They provide concurrence and favorable associations.
Red Flags and Strengths For each line item or section of the specification, you must consider your red flags (areas of weaknesses) and your strengths. Now just because your competitor is "better" than you in certain areas doesn't mean it's a weakness for you. That certain area has to be important to one of the powerful voters for it to be a red flag. Many people get hung-up on some capability of the competition that is meaningless to the voters. Remember it's all about the voters. The same applies to your strengths. They have got to be of significance to a voter. Being global is not a strength to someone looking for local service.
The No Contact Clause Since most people are off limits after the spec has been issued, the best after-the-fact way to learn about an individual voter's desires is to use your network of people that know the voters. If you open your mind and do some asking, you'll realize you know people that know these voters. They will help you if you ask. However, you've got make the mental effort and then make the calls. Most people dislike asking for help and come up with every reason not to. You've got to get over it. People will help if asked.
Since 1995 Sam Manfer has been speaking, consulting, writing and leading seminars in sales and personal development. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader Sam has addressed thousands of new and experienced sales people and managers all over the world in all types of businesses and industries. Learn more at www.sammanfer.com
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Name: Editor: Kelly McLean
Location: Carlsbad, CA, United States
SalesDog.com, the internet's number one sales success destination for more than seven years, works with America's leading sales experts to bring practical selling tips and strategies to salespeople, sales managers, business owners and entrepreneurs. Over 30,000 sales professionals rely on its free weekly newsletter to keep them abreast of cutting-edge developments impacting their profession.
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