eMarket2 Blogs

Hello again.

Now where did I leave off? Ah, yes, we were talking about the number one IT sales and marketing challenge when selling to C-level executives – which is not to come across as a salesperson! Instead you become a trusted advisor.

Your role is to help, not to sell, at least not overtly. Instead your challenge is to present the features and benefits of your product obliquely, and to the point where it seems like the natural next step for the prospect to select your product over the competition. Key to success here is your ability to get the prospect to share their business development strategy and objectives, while in the process supplying valuable insights and relating this to your product in an honest and knowledgeable way.  How is this achieved?

Technology marketing – putting in the legwork

Many B2B sales and marketing people find themselves out of their depth in C-level conversations, especially when discussing wider issues such as strategy, industry direction and so on.  The solution to this problem is to communicate with your prospects on a peer level. You achieve this by doing your research in advance; by learning to think and act like your prospects; by empathising with their

problems and challenges.

Prior to a meeting or phone call, go online and learn everything you can about that technology company and where it sits within its sector. Identify the potential decision makers at every level. Find out the names of the CEO, CFO, CTO, etc, as appropriate and gather as many details as you can.

Then, and only then, do you make contact with your prospect. C-level directors tend to be punctilious by nature. If you demonstrate an eye for detail by having done your homework on their company, your prospect will lean forward and take notice. In short, you’ll gain credibility – which, of course, is half the battle won!

Our UK business to business marketing research demonstrates that an individual who is dedicated full-time to making contact with senior managers via the telephone can expect to talk to a CEO, CTO, COO, etc, every 1.6 to 2.8 days. The exact number will depend on factors such as:

• The attractiveness of your proposition

• How well the proposition is communicated

• The effectiveness of supporting collateral – letters, emails, brochures, etc

• Brand recognition and reputation

• Quality and relevance of the target list

• And, of course, the professionalism and personality of the person making the contact

With this in mind, you can calculate the number of days required to contact the first 10 or 20 senior managers from your target list. You are then able to calculate the proportion of those managers spoken to who displayed an interest, (10%? 20%?) and from this develop a telemarketing performance target benchmark.

Now it’s important at this stage to understand that establishing contact and building relationships at C-level requires a significant commitment of time and resources. But for those who take the plunge the investment will pay handsomely.

That’s it for the moment. I’ll conclude in part 4.

Thanks for reading.

And always to a higher response!

Norman

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