The Key to the C-Suite: What You Need to Know to Sell Successfully to Top Executives: What You Need to Know to Sell Successfully to Top Executives

With budgets more stringent than ever, important purchasing decisions have moved up the ladder to the C-suite. These days, it is crucial for sales professionals to understand the financial metrics senior level executives use to make strategic buying decisions and be able to communicate the positive effect their products or services will have on a company’s financial statements. This book shows readers how to build a convincing business case and present it to C-level executives. Readers will discover how to: Find key financial information on a prospect Determine a corporation’s financial stability Clearly define the value of the product or service they are selling Calculate the value impact of their offerings in financial metrics Clarifying how sales packages fit into metrics such as return on asset, return on equity, operating costs, net profit, and earnings, this book reveals how readers can determine their product’s value as perceived by an organization’s ultimate decision makers, and unlock the door to greater sales.

Table of Contents:
C O N T E N T S Foreword by Jill Konrath, xi Acknowledgments, xiii Introduction, 1 C H A P T E R 1 The C-Suite Effect, 3 Major C-Suite Metrics The Value of Metrics in Selling to the C-Suite Summary C H A P T E R 2 Building Your Value Inventory, 11 The Uses of a Value Inventory Creating a Value Inventory Matrix C-Suite Impact Summary C H A P T E R 3 Identifying Your Prospect’s Threshold for Pain, 29 Using Your Value Inventory to Create Discovery Questions Creating Your Pain-Discovery Questions Determining the Prospect’s Threshold for Pain Estimating Your Value to the Prospect Summary C H A P T E R 4 Determining Your Value to the C-Suite, 45 How Strategic Buying Decisions Are Made Identifying Your Impact Using Financial Reports Financial Reports and the C-Suite Researching Your Prospect’s Financial Information The Financial Manager’s Responsibilities in an Organization Summary C H A P T E R 5 Collecting Information During Your Sales Process, 61 The Stages of the Sales Process 1. Qualify 2. Discovery 3. Present Solution 4. Due Diligence 5. Close Summary C H A P T E R 6 Creating a Financial Dashboard, 85 Building a Comprehensive Financial Dashboard Dashboard Components Summary C H A P T E R 7 Presenting Your C-Suite Findings, 111 Objectivity of Interpretation Credibility of the Data Collected Accuracy Graphics Educational Content Both Value and Costs Presented Creative Output C-Suite Effect Summary C H A P T E R 8 Building Your Business Case, 135 Business Case Summary Results C-Suite Effect Expected Value Delivered Each Year (Impact) Current Cost and Extrapolated Cost over a Three- to Seven-Year Period Estimated ROI, NPV, IRR, and Payback Period Cost of Decision Delay and Cost of No Decision Cash Flow Analysis and Impact Contents ix American Management Association • www.amanet.org Comparison of Financial Metrics to Industry Norms Investment Breakdown Summary C H A P T E R 9 What They Don’t Teach You in Sales Training, 155 Sales Professionals . . . Do We Really Need Them? Get Buy-In from All the Key Players—Not Just the Executives What Do I Do When I Am in a Sales Slump? Nobody Cares About Your Product, Service, or Solution It’s Possible to Enter the Buyer’s Journey Earlier You Cannot Teach Rapport Buyers Are Liars, But Then Again, Liars Are Buyers, Too How Do You Get to the Meeting at the Level That Counts? Learn from the Best Learn How to Think Like a Champion Call Higher or Die Slowly It’s Not About You Target Marketing Is a Necessity for Sales! You Have Two Ears and One Mouth . . . Use Them in That Proportion Summary C H A P T E R 1 0 Assembling the Pieces, 175 Roadmap to the C-Suite Index, 179

About the Author :
Michael J. Nick, (Milwaukee, WI) president and founder of ROI4Sales, Inc., has taught selling tech niques, developed sales tools, and implemented sales processes at companies throughout the world, including Hewlett Packard, Microsoft Great Plains, NEC, Emerson, and Oracle. He is the author of ROI Selling and Why Johnny Can’t Sell.