In Selling to the C-Suite Nicolas Read and Stephen Bistritz (page 84) provides some fantastic data that gets to some of the realities of what it now takes to get to the Senior Decision Maker. Below is what they found (detailed in the table), our strategic insight and how we approach the challenge of how to get a meeting with an executive.
Question – “When would you take a sales meeting?”
Answers:
Point #1
Strategic Take Away – You have an 80% shot of getting to the Decision Maker with an internal champion. You are almost guaranteed (4 out of 5 is as close to a guarantee as you will ever get in sales) a meeting if you can gain the trust and confidence of the technical buyer whose job it is to screen for the DM.
Action Item – Focus on creating content and a pitch that addresses the needs of the technical buyer first.
Point #2
Strategic Take Away – An outside referral works about 50% of the time.
Action Item – Success stories and on-record clients need to be part of your content and pitch mix. This also takes the pressure off of your technical buyer being out there solo recommending you especially if the recommendation is from the equivalent of a peer of the Decision Maker at a comparable company.
Point #3
Strategic Take Away – Just Cold Calling Senior Executive no longer works.
Action Item – A home run for Gabriel Sales has been getting very pointed video testimonials from Decision Makers. This allows your technical buyer to easily share them with the Senior Decision Maker.
We hope this blog has been helpful in understanding how to get a meeting with an executive. For more information, please contact us.
