by Geoffrey James
Executives are busy people. So once you've gotten onto the calendar, make the most of the opportunity.
Congratulations! You've finally landed a one-on-one meeting with a
top exec, a powerful player inside your customer's firm. It's a great
opportunity, but you've got to be certain to take advantage of it.
Make sure you follow these simple steps.
1. Do your research.
Before the meeting, research and review the exec's "business
agenda"--what he or she needs to accomplish organizationally. Then use
your contacts in the firm and your own business acumen to understand the
exec's "personal agenda"--likely career goals, the job that he or she
is angling for, and so forth.
2. Don't assume the exec knows who you are.
Busy execs are often unaware (or can't remember) why a particular
meeting is on their agenda. Introduce yourself and explain why you're
there, tying the subject matter to both the business agenda and, more
subtly, the personal agenda of the executive in question. For example:
"I'm John Doe from Acme and I'm here to discuss how to increase
profitability through improvements in quality control."
3. Establish credibility immediately.
Within the first few minutes, demonstrate that you've done your
homework and understand the company, its challenges and its place in its
industry. Focus on business issues that the executive faces--never the
specific bells and whistles on your product. Execs don't care about
features and functions; they want to know how you're going to change the
bottom line.
4. Ask intelligent questions.
Frame everything according to the drivers that affect the business
and the metrics that this exec uses to evaluate activities. For
example, if you're talking to a CFO, you might ask questions about the
ROI expectations that the firm uses to make purchasing decisions. If
you're talking to a chief technology officer, you might ask questions
about the how the rest of the company measures IT performance.
5. Listen more than you talk.
Once you've asked a question, hear what the exec has to say. A productive conversation with a customer is one in which the customer
does most of the talking. Your job is to guide the conversation so
that you discover what you need to know in order to be of service to
that customer. You need to fully understand a company's problem before
proposing a solution.
6. Add value to the conversation.
Resist the temptation to present your solution right then and there.
Anything resembling a sales pitch will make it seem as if your haven't
been listening or (worse) don't care about what the exec just told you.
Instead, bring additional value to the conversation by introducing a
different business perspective and your experience dealing with similar
problems.
7. Close on a next step.
Involve the exec directly in planning any subsequent actions
concerning your offering. In most cases, this will involve an
opportunity for you to present some kind of customized solution to the
problems you've been discussing. However, take the exec's lead on how to
go about this. Ideally, you want the executive to make some kind of
public commitment to the project, even if it's just to schedule a group
meeting to discuss the idea further.
The above is based on several sources, but draws heavily on a
conversation with Dr. Steve Bistritz and Nicholas A.C. Read, authors of
the bestselling book Selling to the C-Suite.
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