It's the goal of every salesperson: getting access to senior client executives--the C-Level decision makers responsible for approving top-dollar deals. Selling to the C-Suite is the first book that reveals how to land those career-making sales in the words of CEOs themselves!
With 60 years of combined experience selling to corporations around the world, Nicholas A.C. Read and Stephen J. Bistritz, Ed.D., conducted in-depth interviews with executive- level decision makers of more than 500 organizations. One thing they learned might surprise you: leaders at the highest corporate levels don't avoid sales pitches; in fact, they welcome them--provided the salesperson approaches them the right way. Inside this invaluable book, CEOs reveal exactly which sales techniques they find most effective, as well as those you should avoid.
Selling to the C-Suite provides all the insight you need to:
Gain access to executives Establish trust and credibility Leverage relationships Create value at the executive level It also reveals when executives personally enter the buying process and sheds light on what role they play.
Selling to the C-Suite provides field-tested techniques to put you well ahead of thecompetition when it comes to making those multimillion-dollar sales you never thought possible.
This book is specifically targeted to sell to the C-Suite. It is very focus on the topic and it identify some of the factors that are crucial for them and when do they actually participate in the sales cycle. For example, C-Suite people are highly strategic and future driven people and in the book you can learn how to position your value to them. If you are entirely new to selling to the C-Suite, this book is bound to provide you insights. It has a lot of actionable resources in there too. This book is definitely not perfect but it answer and provides a framework to selling to the C-Suite.
If you liked Spin Selling you will like this book too. Though the only drawback is it tends to be too 'research' language and abstract and tends to get boring a little while later.
First few chapters are a gem. They will also end up teaching you advanced marketing lessons.
Value-based guidance on selling to senior executives
If you are in sales, getAbstract thinks you’ll like this book by Nicholas A.C. Read and Stephen J. Bistritz, who offer solid advice on how to sell to senior-level executives. They start by helping you identify and gain access to the “C-Suite” denizen – that is, the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer or other chiefs – you want to approach. The authors base their suggestions on hard data: the results of surveys conducted by Target Marketing Systems, Hewlett-Packard, the business school at the University of North Carolina and other institutions. Hundreds of senior-level executives answered survey questions about how they work with the “buying cycle” and with sales professionals. The authors derive useful lessons from this research to help salespeople transform themselves from “Commodity Suppliers” to “Trusted Advisers.” They explain the best tactics for getting to know executives, establishing credibility and making sales as an insider who has earned the boss’s confidence. The question is whether you can get upstairs the way they advise – by cultivating mid-level managers who can make that crucial suggestion to the top boss: “I know a salesperson you should meet.”
One of the few sales books to be based on that rare blend of actual research into what works today, and the authors' experience of having led actual sales teams so the theory is tempered by street smarts. Read (joined by Bistritz in this book) has delivered a masterwork that is easily accessible, entertaining and pragmatic. As last generation's sales guru Neil Rackham put it: "this book is worth its weight in commission checks".
Read's next book, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13..., expands the research to the other side of the table. Where "Selling to the C-Suite" shares what executive buyers say works best when selling to them, "Target Opportunity Selling" shares what top sellers around the world do to stay in the top 20%. Both books serve as essential reading in any professional's sales library.
Very practical, fact based approach to defining what works in building a trusted advisor relationship with C-suite persons. Usable in both a selling and operational role, when building trust with a senior executive.
So far so good. I am a chapter in and it's obvious that this is another "sales system". It's a methodically researched piece that provides case based examples of how one should approach selling to larger organizations.
Great book-highly recommend for anyone involved in complex selling. Lots a good ideas and will be used as a reference. I found the templates very useful.
Great strategy for getting through gatekeepers and into the room with the C level. How to prepare, how to react to objections and what is truly going to help get the “papal blessing” and win.