The Five Stages to Win Business in a C-Level Exec Meeting

In today’s marketplace, most high value deals start with a powerful consultative sales meeting with a C-Level executive.

For many sales people this can be a daunting experience, while others will approach it without enough structure to make the meeting really worthwhile.

So how can sales people effectively (and systematically) engage at the C-Level to rapidly develop new, high value sales opportunities?

Well, it’s all about knowing how the C-Level’s mind works…

C-Level executives typically (whether it be consciously or sub-consciously) compartmentalise their world into the following 5 areas:

1. The external pressures that he or she cannot change (or avoid), e.g. economic uncertainty, competitive pressure and consumer trends.

2. The internal pain-points that these external pressures cause, e.g. uncertain profits, revenue erosion and rising costs.

3. The strategic desires (or objectives) that counter these pain-points, e.g. increased revenue per customer, improved customer retention and increased customer loyalty.

4. How he or she can achieve these strategic desires.

5. The specific inputs required to make the strategic desires a reality, e.g. partnerships, products, services and tasks.

Life really can be this simple - or complex - for the C-level exec.

On the one hand, it can be simple because it’s simply a sequence of 5 stages of analysis, planning and execution. On the other hand, it can be complex because there are so many variables or possibilities at each stage.

The great thing is that a sales person can engage in high value conversations with an exec without knowing all the details at each stage. But the best sales conversations do follow this sequence of stages from 1-5, staying at stages 1-3 for at least 50% of the conversation time.

This consultative approach is what C-Level execs expect from their partners. It transforms the conversation because it clearly positions the conversation around the exec’s world rather than the sales person’s world.

Only when you have probed stages 1-3 properly and have clearly understood the exec’s thinking should you attempt to offer suggestions or discuss stages 4-5.

This is very similar to performance coaching. Coaches have to truly understand their subject’s world (i.e. the pressures they face, the problems these cause and what improvements the subject wants to achieve) to realise a shift in performance.

An effective solution sales person probes and understands the client’s world before suggesting solutions. Even if you have pre-analysed stages 1-3, you can ask leading questions relating to stage 1, but you must let the exec tell you stages 2 and 3.

If you suggest the pain-points or objectives, you risk implying that you are telling the exec how to do his or her job. Be calm and be prepared to listen and you will reap the rewards in today’s selling world.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase