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May 20, 2006
When to Bring an Executive Along on a Sales Call
by Sridhar Ramanathan
This week one of my client’s Sales VP’s said to me “don’t sales reps know how best to use me in a sales situation?” Well, I’m sorry to say that there’s very little guidance most reps get when it comes to using their executives most effectively in a sales pursuit. Yet we’ve seen that high performing reps seem to have a knack for engaging executives at the right time. Here are three reasons that great reps cite for bringing an exec into their deal.
Get visibility and show commitment
Many cases, the sales rep’s point of contact is fairly low in the customer’s management hierarchy. That means this person probably does not have much exposure to factors that can dramatically affect the purchase at hand—factors such as financial performance which may cause the project to be axed, organizational shifts affecting the project sponsorship, changing business priorities which may cause the project to be shelved, etc. Sales reps can request that their customer contact setup a meeting with a higher up by saying that his management chain is interested in ensuring executive level alignment in terms of the project objectives, timeline, budget, priority, etc. The customer’s win in this is to quiz the vendor’s executive on their long term commitment level.
Play good cop, bad cop
Reps can also use a Sales VP to help them negotiate a better contract for the company. How? Reps can say they are authorized to discount only up to a certain amount after which they need executive approval. The rep can show his contact how he’s fighting for the best deal but that his executive has some objections. This is where the negotiations start. You can horse trade many variables beyond price—payment/financing terms, functionality, services & support, publicity, etc. It’s an old trick that you’ve seen yourself at the car dealership where the rep says she needs to check with the manager for approval.
Build good will
The best time to introduce an executive to the customer is in the pre-sales phase. Hot site escalations post-sale are the worst time to bring in an executive because the customer may be irate, and there may be far less the executive can do at this point. It’s better to orchestrate executive level contacts throughout the sales process and post implementation. Better yet, a quarterly review meeting is always a good practice. The idea here is to keep a communications pipeline open at all times so that the rep is helping build goodwill on both sides. Then when something breaks both sides are focused on solving the problem and not pointing fingers.
© Sridhar Ramanathan Pacifica Group
Posted May 20, 2006 | Permalink
Posted to Sales Effectiveness