Sell Low

Sell Low: Actual Decision-Makers and When NOT to Sell to the C-Suite

Thedrumbeat from the sales experts has always been the same: Sell High.

Alwayssell to the decision-maker. Don’t waste your time with anyone else. Talk to theCEO and tell her that you want to create a “partnership” between your twocompanies. Make her understand how strategically important your products are toher company.

However,most of what you’ve read on this topic is just wrong. In order to maximize yoursales productivity you need to do the opposite and focus your sales efforts onthe lowest responsible level within your customer’s organization.

Theuniverse of writing about sales extols the requirement to penetrate the C-suiteto successfully sell a product or service.

Definition: The C-suite is theinclusive label for the CEO and everyone else at the vice-president level.

However--andthis is very important--for the vast majority of products and services beingsold, this assumption will just waste your valuable selling time. And, possiblyannoy the customer.

Here’swhy in most cases your product is not strategic enough to the customer towarrant the type of partner relationship so often touted in sales trainingvenues.

Whata customer wants is not a partner, but a great vendor: one who will beabsolutely responsive to their questions and requests, and who will provideunconditional support at every given opportunity. So in selling your product,you need to target the person most qualified to ask those questions. Ratherthan selling high, you need to sell low.

Sellinglow means selling your product to the lowest-level responsible person(s) withinyour customer’s organization: the person who will actually make the decision ofwhich specific product or service to purchase. Selling low is a technical stepthat requires some careful, brutally honest self-assessment to implementsuccessfully.

The cold hard truth is that well over90% of all products and services sold in a B2B environment do not requireC-level approval for purchase.

Let’stake a small manufacturing company that produces $50 million a year in revenue.How many purchases does this company make every year? It will easily number inthe thousands of transactions. Consider everything they need to keep theirbusiness running, from paper clips to janitorial service to phones to softwareto raw materials, and much more. What percentage of those purchase decisionswill be made by the CEO? Or by one of the executives? Very few will be worthspending their valuable time on.

The Actual Decision-Makers

Inmost companies, the people who typically decide whether to buy your product orservice are the functional employees who will use it on a regular basis. Theyare the individuals or team who create the specifications or requirements forthe products they use. They often are the people who take your product out ofits box, plug it in, power it up, and call you if it doesn’t work. These arethe people whom the higher-ups depend on to do product research, evaluate thealternatives, and make the decision to buy either your product or yourcompetitor’s. These are your Actual Decision-Makers. (Let’s call them theADMs). They are the people you want to sell to.

Internal Advocate

Whyfocus on the ADMs?

First,it is much easier and quicker to get to this person.

Second,the ADM will respond to being poked by the sharp end of the stick. They don’twant to waste time with someone who can’t answer questions and provideinformation in Zero Time. The customer will want to accomplish the task of purchasingyour product or service as urgently as you want to get the order. Third, therelationship with the ADM will be built on performance and support. If theydon’t like your product, your company, or you, then you won’t get the order.

Thereare two places to start looking for the ADM. First, who contacted your companyabout your product and service? Who in their organization made the phone callor sent the first email? If the sales opportunity came about through anin-bound lead, then the chances are reasonably good that the person whocontacted you is the ADM.

Second,who is the actual user or consumer of your products and services within thepurchasing organization? The person who will be using your product day in andday out will carry the most raw weight when decisions are made. Is that personalso the Actual Decision-Maker? This will require a little investigation byyour salesperson.

The Boss

TheBoss is the lowest-level person in your prospect’s organization who canauthorize the purchase of your product or service. This could be the ADM, or afunctional manager in your ADM’s department, or it could be someone inpurchasing with the authority to bind the company. Or it could be the CEO of anSMB.

TheBoss is the highest level that your team should sell to within the customerorganization. After all, why go any higher? Why should your sales team spendtheir limited time chasing after the boss of the boss of the guy who is signingthe PO? In most organizations the Boss will defer to the judgment of those whowork for him or her.

Ofcourse, they care that the company is buying the right product at a good price.But at the end of the day, they usually don’t care whether the ADM choseCompany A or Company B, as long as the customer company has an approved vendorlist and both Company A and Company B are on it. If the customer doesn’t havesuch procedures in place, then the Boss may need some attention and assurancefrom you that your local firm, Widgets & Things, sells a good product.Otherwise, don't worry about the Boss. Just focus on the ADM.

Avoid The Gap

Ifa seller attempts to oversell a product, going to a C-suite executive, theywill fall into the gap: a time-wasting disconnect between the executive and theADM. When you do this, you add unnecessary risk to your sales efforts.

First,you get the executive involved with a decision he doesn’t have to make. Whileyou’re trying to get his attention, your competitor is selling straight to theADM and locking down a deal. Second, if you succeed in getting the executive’sattention, then instead of putting the decision in the hands of the ADM, you'vepushed it up the ladder to an executive who may not view your product asfavorably as the ADM.

Ifyou've been working with the ADM and have secured his commitment to make thepurchase from you, then you need to take a deep breath and do nothing. It isalways a stressful time for the seller, when the ADM says that he has submittedthe purchase requisition to the Boss for approval. You need to resist thetemptation, or the urging of your management, to jump in and check with theBoss on the status of your PO. If you do this, you risk falling into the gap.

Thereis a time gap between levels of management, just as there is between the ADMand the Boss. If the ADM says the PO will issue in five days, schedule afollow-up in your CRM system to call him in three days. Keep in mind that theADM, having made a decision and passed it up the chain for sign-off, is atleast as eager as you are to be done with the whole sell/buy process and getback to important work.

Thetime gap between each level of management should be presumed to be at least aweek. It could be longer. If there are two levels of management between the ADMand the Boss, then you risk injecting another two weeks into the buying cycleif you attempt to involve the Boss in a decision that she was content to leaveto her staff. This creates time for your competition to get back into the deal.Falling into the gap puts the brakes on Zero-Time Selling and injects anelement of risk into the sales situation that didn’t exist before.

Thegap swallows up too many sellers. They try to jump over it, in order toinfluence the actions of the Boss. What they fail to keep in mind is that theBoss is usually just being asked to sign a piece of paper that authorizes adecision, not to make the decision herself. If you try to deal with the Boss asa decision-maker, you’ll only open the door to questions you’ve alreadyanswered, or that didn’t need to be asked. This will defeat the momentum ofZero Time and risk opening up the buying process again.Effective Zero-Time Selling requires you to berealistic about the perceived value of the product you are selling to yourcustomer. Not every product a company buys merits a partnership with theseller. Sometimes a vendor is just that. This doesn’t mean the customer doesn’tvalue his relationship with your company or that he doesn’t appreciate thegreat customer service you provide without asking. Sell a great product withgreat support, and you will be rewarded with orders. Just don’t waste timeselling to people who don’t have the time to care.