Why Aren’t Any Executives Taking My Calls?

The popular thinking in sales these days is to call high. In other words, when you call into a company, call at the highest level you can reach with the aim of getting “in” with a top executive who will then pave your way to a big sale. It’s a good theory, but in practice this is no piece of cake. For starters, the likelihood of a high-level executive accepting a sales call is roughly nil. And for that one-in-a-gazillion chance that an executive does pick up the phone, it’s the rare rep who is prepared to have the right kind of conversation with that executive.

Clearly, “calling high” involves much more than dialing into the executive suite instead of the purchasing department. So how do you do it? What kinds of conversations should you be having? How do you get an executive to take your call? And do you really need to be calling on executives in the first place? Sales Performance International (SPI) explored these issues in a recent Webinar, “Sales Problem #4: Unable to Access Buying Power and Sell Effectively.” Here are some of the points they made:

Catch ‘em early. Before the traditional buying cycle kicks in, there’s a Phase 0 – a kind of pre-cycle examination of the business issues – that occurs at most companies. It is in this early phase where executives tend to play and where you need to catch them. That’s because by the time they’re determining their needs in Phase I, executives have already handed things off to lower managers. “Sellers are very good about responding to active opportunities,” points out Robert Kear, SPI’s CMO. “But at that stage, executives are really no longer involved.”

Getting through. You’ve identified a Phase 0 opportunity, but how do you get an executive to take your call now? Not surprisingly, SPI’s research reveals that cold calling gives you the worst odds. More effective is getting a referral from an executive’s friend or equal outside the company. Your best chance, however, is an internal recommendation from a trusted source. To find these sources, says Kear, you must ask a lot of questions: Who inside this organization does the executive listen to? Is there a former college buddy in his inner circle? Is there a consultant he’s tight with that he turns to when he has a big decision? Who has influence? If you can “sell” your value proposition to this person first, the executive is very likely to take your call.

Know what to say. There are three things an executive will be looking for in the first few minutes of your conversation: (1) Does this person understand my business and our strategic direction? (2) Can this person bring something to the table to solve a major problem? (3) Does this person have the power within his own company to leverage the resources to get things done? Think of this as a checklist as you plan your initial dialogue with each executive. Above all, think: value. You must show a quantifiable benefit, a demonstration of value and accountability you can articulate in terms that are meaningful to that executive, whether it’s the CFO, CIO, or CEO.

Write it down. At the end of your call, write out a summary and path forward that you will then send to the executive. In essence, ‘It sounds like we could help you on project B and project D and here’s a plan for how we could proceed.’ Lay out a way forward and follow up on it.

Sound like an awful lot of work for one call to one executive? It is. And that’s one reason executive-level selling isn’t for everyone. “People always tell us that it’s a lot of work on the front end just to try to get a foot in the door,” says Kear. “Yeah, it is a lot of work. And this is just what you have to do to have a chance. If you don’t do this much, you don’t have a chance.” But he adds that as you establish processes for accessing and communicating with executives, you’ll find you get into a rhythm and that this daunting task gets easier.

For more information or to access the archived Webinar, visit www.spisales.com.