There’s a simple axiom in sales. The more senior the person you’re dealing with, the LESS DETAIL you should go into.
Senior people are interested in strategy. How they’ll get from where they are to where they want to go. They’re looking for an overall roadmap. They’re not concerned about every pothole!
Which is where I see salespeople go horribly wrong.
Ditch the Power Point slides! Leave your laptop in the car.
On a piece of paper you should be able to simply articulate where your buyer is now, the overall outcome they want and your map for how you’ll get them there.
Then ask them what additional detail they want and only drill down into these.
But keep bringing it back to their ultimate outcome.
Assume they’ll get their outcome. Ask how they’ll know they’ve achieved it? What evidence will they have? See, hear, feel? Tangible as well as intangible results.
Think on their behalf. It proves that you know what you’re doing.
And keep looking for agreement.
You’ve got their outcome and evidence criteria.
Be bold. “If we could guarantee we can get this outcome for you do we have a deal?”
This will bring out objections which you can now start to handle.
Your goal is to get everything out on the table where you can handle it.
Which is exactly the strategy a new client used to significantly expand an engagement with a major multinational.
About to meet with the regional director flying in from Asia, we told them to ditch the Power Point and focus only on the outcomes he wanted.
Draw it up on a whiteboard. Talk in terms of outcomes for the next 5 years. What was important for him? Not having any headaches or calls from irate clients due to work our client had done.
Then following the same strategy with his direct reports. What did they want? How would they know they’d made the right choice in extending the contract?
Here’s what our client said…
“The meeting went well. We used the same structure as we discussed and it was successful”.
I love it when a plan comes together!
My final thoughts are we tend to overcomplicate sales. Often through our own insecurities we “vomit” all over our prospects with stuff they have no interest in. And talk ourselves out of success.
Rashid & Barbara.
P.S. Have you got a good sales opportunity in the pipeline? We can help you strategize your approach and give you the tactics you’ll need to close the deal.
