7 Things You Should Know About C-level Decision Makers
The C-level decision makers refers to top management such as Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s), Chief Operating Officers (COO’s), Chief Financial Officers (CFO’s) etc and selling to these high-level decision makers is like having to eat an apple tied on a string without holding it, that’s a real challenge right? However, it can be easier if you understand their typical daily routine.
The first thing you have to know about C-level decision makers is that they are paid to improve business results. This includes increasing sales, market share, customer loyalty; reducing costs, errors, or employee turnover; improving productivity, employee engagement, customer service, etc.
1. On a daily basis C-level decision makers deal with priorities which changes from time to time. Today their top priority maybe Improving customer engagement but tomorrow that executive may be faced with reducing expenditure by P145, 000. That means even-though they may have showed interest on your solution at first, you are bound to get a different story on your follow up call/meeting.
2. C-level decision makers are generally very busy people. The average executive is the first to arrive at the office in the morning and the last to leave the office in the evening. C-level decision makers get dozens of calls every day, they receive too many emails, and they attend too many meetings. This means that you need to maximize every minute you have when you connect with them. This applies to telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings.
3. C-level decision makers rely on their team. Contrary to the popular belief, these high-ranking professionals rarely make decisions on their own. They often consult other people on their team and ask for feedback from peers and/or subordinates. This means you need to involve these people in your conversations and include them in the decision making process.
4. C-level decision makers don’t like to make mistakes. A major mistake can affect an executive’s reputation in their company. This affects the decision-making process which means you need to uncover their risk factor during your conversations.
5 C-level decision makers have big egos. Most executives have a healthy ego which is one of the things that helped them achieve their status in the company. This means that you need to be very confident in your own abilities when selling to these individuals. Don’t back down when you’re challenged. In fact, doing so could cost you the business because C-level execs want to deal with people who believe in what they do.
6. C-level decision makers have at least 40 hours of work on their desk at any given time. Several executives I know have expressed these sentiment, “I will never get caught up” or “Just when I think I can’t get busier, I do.” So you need to give these individual’s an extremely good reason to meet with you or take your call.
7. C-level decision makers receive upwards of 55 emails every day. Many sales people use email as their major form of correspondence and it can be ineffective because most C-level decision makers simply don’t have time to respond to every email. Managing Directors in most cases prefers telephone correspondence because they simply can’t get to every email, even when they want to.
Category: BLOG, LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT, RUNNING A BUSINESS, SALES & MARKETING
