Selling to the C-Suite

If you are in sales, getAbstract thinks you’ll like this book by Nicholas A.C. Read and Stephen J. Bistritz, who offer solid advice on how to sell to senior-level executives. They start by helping you identify and gain access to the “C-Suite” denizen – that is, the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer or other chiefs – you want to approach. The authors base their suggestions on hard data: the results of surveys conducted by Target Marketing Systems, Hewlett-Packard, the business school at the University of North Carolina and other institutions. Hundreds of senior-level executives answered survey questions about how they work with the “buying cycle” and with sales professionals. The authors derive useful lessons from this research to help salespeople transform themselves from “Commodity Suppliers” to “Trusted Advisers.” They explain the best tactics for getting to know executives, establishing credibility and making sales as an insider who has earned the boss’s confidence. The question is whether you can get upstairs the way they advise – by cultivating mid-level managers who can make that crucial suggestion to the top boss: “I know a salesperson you should meet.”