Team Building

Bad Assumption #7: Executives Are Interested in Offerings

Bad Assumption #7: Executives Are Interested in Offerings

bad assumption field executivesThis is the seventh post of a seven-part blog series on "Bad Assumptions" that salespeople make in the sales process.

Companies that don’t provide messaging guidance on how to make calls on executives do a disservice with the significant amount of product training they provide. In today’s buyer environment, it seems sellers have limited opportunities to share that knowledge because most mid-level and below staff prefer to get their product knowledge via the website. The primary reason for this is they are leery of sellers who they believe will try to influence their requirements (try to sell them).

While lower level staff’s interest is primarily in learning about products/offerings, executives have neither the time nor inclination to become knowledgeable about products. Early attempts to educate them will usually result in being delegated to lower levels (a bad outcome) or worse yet, for a premature end to the meeting.

Executives are concerned and interested in improving business results. They want the “Cliff Notes” version about offerings. By that I mean they’d like a seller to uncover their business issues, help them realize why they can’t be achieved without the seller’s offering, and then at a high level have an understanding of what capabilities are needed to achieve the desired outcome.

Key takeaway: Executive calls are all about business outcomes and having them learn how offerings can be used (usually by lower levels in the organization) to achieve them.

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John Holland

John Holland is Co-founder & Chief Content Officer for CustomerCentric Selling®. John is also co-author of CustomerCentric Selling® Second Edition and Rethinking the Sales Cycle, both published by McGraw-Hill. He has personally helped thousands of organizations worldwide improve sales performance through implementing a buyer-oriented methodology that is the cornerstone of CustomerCentric Selling®.

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