TOP Level Selling
TOP Level Selling
David A. Peoples brings an interesting example to this in his Book "Selling to the Top":
After an important loss the top manager arranged a meeting with the top decider. Nobody in his enterprise has ever this person during the sales conversations met or called at him. The top manager said to the decision maker: "We would like to understand, why you selected the rival product despite of the unique advantages of our product and listed these advantages. To what the decision maker replied: "I wished somebody had this told to me 30 days ago."
Before you look for an appointment, you must answer the following question without hesitating:
What is the target for this conversation?
Mostly, who doesn't have any good answer here already fails with the secretary ("what are the concrete reasons to have an appointment with....")
So about what would you talk to the top decider?
Top managers of IBM customers said in an interview that they expect first excellent knowledge of their enterprise, their line of business and the surroundings in which they make business. Only secondly they expect a sales person to understand his products and services.
So this primarily indicates preparation, preparation, and again preparation. If the first conversation should become a flop you never will get a second chance! At first so you must intensively ask about the enterprise of your potential customer: Business reports, web pages, image brochures, press publications, but ideally you win a person out of the surroundings of the top manager as a mentor who supports you. This can be absolutely from a lower hierarchical level since the access usually is found easier here. And now you should be prepared to ask the right questions, primarily according to the "Critical success factors".
Critical success factors are those few things which must run absolutely correctly in an enterprise if it shall have success and prosper. You can count out the critical success factors at the fingers of one hand in most enterprises. If these look good, the enterprise will prosper; if not, it will go down. All other things might be average.
The following functions are ascribed to critical success factors:
- They provide a management main emphasis.
- They serve as a catalyst for management activities.
- They define the threats and chances for the enterprise.
- They make it possible for an enterprise to assess his strengths and weaknesses.
- They provide an orientation of the resources possible with the plans.
- They define the information desire of the enterprise.
One the next page you will find some examples of questions to managers of different areas:
General Management
- Goals and
objectives
- Strategies
- Focus
- Opinions of customers (the opinions of customers are always an important issue)
Production and logistics
- Inventory
- Stock turn
- Trash rate
- Delayed Deliveries
Finance & administration
- Profit margins
- Price-/Earning relation
- Cash flow
- Deprecation of claims
- Tax regulations
Research and development
- Development cycle
- Innovation
- Marketing Focus
- Quality
Marketing and sales
- Competitive situation
- Sales cycle
- Market share
- Product differentiation
- Price elasticity
- Customer service
- Administrative work
Human resources
- Fluctuation
- Rate of absenteeism
- Labor market
- Moral of the workers
- Wage settlements
TOP Level Selling - To learn more about this author, visit Hans-Peter Holzwarth's Website.
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Selling strategically means not only convincing one contact person with the customer particularly at greater projects but the enterprise as a whole. At this it is necessary to overcome hierarchy levels and to get in there where the decision actually makes. This must not be the much lectured "Top Down Selling" during the seventies. At the team orientation spread today often in the enterprises "Bottom up" is necessary as well to include the later users in the decision-making process. It is, however, fact that many sales persons are afraid of it to look the contact high. On the other hand many sales persons don't believe that particularly top decider need unfiltered information to decide correctly.
David A. Peoples brings an interesting example to this in his Book "Selling to the Top":
After an important loss the top manager arranged a meeting with the top decider. Nobody in his enterprise has ever this person during the sales conversations met or called at him. The top manager said to the decision maker: "We would like to understand, why you selected the rival product despite of the unique advantages of our product and listed these advantages. To what the decision maker replied: "I wished somebody had this told to me 30 days ago."
Before you look for an appointment, you must answer the following question without hesitating:
What is the target for this conversation?
Mostly, who doesn't have any good answer here already fails with the secretary ("what are the concrete reasons to have an appointment with....")
So about what would you talk to the top decider?
Top managers of IBM customers said in an interview that they expect first excellent knowledge of their enterprise, their line of business and the surroundings in which they make business. Only secondly they expect a sales person to understand his products and services.
So this primarily indicates preparation, preparation, and again preparation. If the first conversation should become a flop you never will get a second chance! At first so you must intensively ask about the enterprise of your potential customer: Business reports, web pages, image brochures, press publications, but ideally you win a person out of the surroundings of the top manager as a mentor who supports you. This can be absolutely from a lower hierarchical level since the access usually is found easier here. And now you should be prepared to ask the right questions, primarily according to the "Critical success factors".
Critical success factors are those few things which must run absolutely correctly in an enterprise if it shall have success and prosper. You can count out the critical success factors at the fingers of one hand in most enterprises. If these look good, the enterprise will prosper; if not, it will go down. All other things might be average.
The following functions are ascribed to critical success factors:
- They provide a management main emphasis.
- They serve as a catalyst for management activities.
- They define the threats and chances for the enterprise.
- They make it possible for an enterprise to assess his strengths and weaknesses.
- They provide an orientation of the resources possible with the plans.
- They define the information desire of the enterprise.
One the next page you will find some examples of questions to managers of different areas:
General Management
- Goals and
objectives
- Strategies
- Focus
- Opinions of customers (the opinions of customers are always an important issue)
Production and logistics
- Inventory
- Stock turn
- Trash rate
- Delayed Deliveries
Finance & administration
- Profit margins
- Price-/Earning relation
- Cash flow
- Deprecation of claims
- Tax regulations
Research and development
- Development cycle
- Innovation
- Marketing Focus
- Quality
Marketing and sales
- Competitive situation
- Sales cycle
- Market share
- Product differentiation
- Price elasticity
- Customer service
- Administrative work
Human resources
- Fluctuation
- Rate of absenteeism
- Labor market
- Moral of the workers
- Wage settlements
TOP Level Selling - To learn more about this author, visit Hans-Peter Holzwarth's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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 Hans-Peter Holzwarth (Visit Hans-Peter's Website) Hans-Peter Holzwarth is without any doubt one of the most successful sales trainer in Germany. Before the foundation of his enterprise SCI Hans-Peter Holzwarth was active in several international enterprises from the IT industry 22 years as consultant, salesman and sales executive director. For over 14 years he works independently now as coach, consultant and trainer. His record shows well-known references in several different industry segments. Besides his own training course (all regarding sales issues) he holds all important certificates of OnTarget (former Siebel-Sales Methodology Experts). By his freelance activity his enterprise can fall back upon a network of sale specialists with comparable background so that also bigger enquiries can be corresponded to in a professional manner but on absolute responsibility of SCI. The enterprise SCI is established in Rellingen, a scenically charming municipality in the north of Hamburg. The activity area of SCI extends over the complete German and English-speaking area.
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