How to Reach More CEOs (and other senior executives)

I have a good friend who was frustrated at his lack of success when he was cold calling CEOs.  It didn’t seem to matter how many calls he made, he just wasn’t having success getting them on the phone.  He asked me for some advice, so I was happy to oblige. I shared one idea with him, and within a week he had spoken with more CEOs than all of his colleagues combined. 

If you have a product or service that can only be sold to the CEO (like my friend), then this idea can work for you too.  It’s so simple that I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do it. 

It’s all about when you call them.  CEOs often come to work early and leave late. After I passed along this advice to my friend, he started cold-calling at 7:00am, and ended the day by spending an extra hour in the office and making calls after 5:00pm.  Every single one of the CEOs that he reached picked-up their phone when he called before and after hours. 

Here’s why:   At the close of the business day, the receptionist puts the phone system on night-ring.  With night-ring activated there is a very high likelihood that the voice mail system will provide an automated greeting with an option to reach an individual by dialing their first or last name.  Punch in the CEO’s name and presto!  Your call is connected to his/her desk.   No gatekeepers involved!

If the prospect’s phone system doesn’t have a dial-by-name option, save that call for normal business hours.

This advice is effective for reaching CEOs and just about any senior business executive. They are often the first to show up for work and among the last to leave.   And, these folks often spend Saturday morning at the office.  Try spending a quiet Saturday morning calling CEOs.  You might be surprised how many you reach.  Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

If you like this blog, then be sure to check out my books!  You can find out more on the right-hand side of the page.  Happy selling!

I'm Going on a Sales Call and I Don't Know What to Carry

Update: A poll accompanied the original post of this blog that asked the reader to answer one or two of the following questions:

1. I carry a backpack: 33%
2. I carry a briefcase: 43%
3. Backpacks are unprofessional: 43%
4. It doesn't matter: 20%

During our national sales meeting earlier this year, one of the younger reps shared with me that he had been chastised by a very seasoned sales leader for carrying a backpack to a customer meeting. He was told that he looked like a student, not like a sales professional. This hit home for me because about ten years ago I started carrying a backpack after years of being a briefcase guy. Carrying a backpack made a ton of sense once I moved from Dallas to Chicago where I had a train commute followed by a long walk to the office. The backpack was very practical since I was almost always carrying my laptop. It was much more comfortable than a briefcase and didn’t cause any fatigue. Now I’m a home based worker without a commute. Carrying my backpack is now relegated for business travel that is frequently centered on visiting a customer.

Shortly after the sales meeting I was on the road with a rep and caught a full-length glimpse of myself in a large window with my backpack on my shoulder. Having just recently heard the “you look like a student” story, I took a fresh look at my appearance. I was wearing a nice sports coat and slacks. The backpack was slung over one shoulder and was doing real number on my coat. My jacket was all bunched up around my neck and the backpack was sagging even though it is considered top-of-the line. It was big and fairly heavy – and that’s exactly what it looked like. Since I’m too old to be mistaken for a student, I wondered what this look was doing for my brand.

Blog continued below . . .

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

If you have ever had a prospect “go dark” this book is for you. It has proven email techniques to “wake up” your prospect. While unconventional, these emails are authentic and professional, and almost always work. And , for only $3.99 you can put them to work for you today.

Also included are email techniques for following up on leads (these emails typically get a 20% response rate!) and for planning your next prospect meeting. Proven through years of use and honed for you, these emails will help you stand apart from the crowd.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

What are you waiting for? Those deals won’t wake up on their own!

When I got back home, I wanted to hear some other perspectives on the topic, so I posed a question on LinkedIn and got some very interesting responses from around the world that I’d like to share with you. The LinkedIn group is the “Sales Management Association.” The question that I posed was, “Do you carry a backpack or a computer-bag/briefcase? Is one more professional? Does it matter?” Here are some of the responses:

“I cover a very large area, so utility is much more important to me. I carry a backpack that has several pockets and has the capability to charge my laptop without it leaving the backpack if needed. I also have several areas of document storage for my other needs. I think in America we have moved beyond some of the traditional norms for sales managers to have to carry a briefcase, but in some areas I see it as still the standard.”

“Briefcase looks more professional but when I need my laptop I carry it in my backpack.”

“The way things 'look' accounts for 55% of our human perception and 'back-packs' look crumpled and slack. A trainer we employed always turned up at client premises on a bike with helmet and backpack. He had to go...customers in the London financial district (City and Docklands) didn't like the unprofessional look of it. I notice when selling in the Wall St area of NY smart suits and briefcases are the norm for my clients and by default therefore for me too.”

Then I posed another question, “So what would you carry in to a conference room in a B2B selling situation if you needed your computer?” Here’s how the same group of people responded.

"A laptop in a good cover. Leave everything else non-essential in the car. The more you carry in the less important you appear and the more threatening you look.”

“Computers and laptops should be the exception in sales meetings. Most customers are simply not interested in seeing or hearing about all our 'stuff'. Customers in general want instead to tell us at length about all their problems in areas where we (the sellers) may have a solution. The current research shows that the longer customers are allowed to do this the more likely a sale will result. This approach is so rare that over 80% of prospective customers say that they would pay for each hour with a sales executive who knows how to ask questions and create value without resorting to the dreaded presentation especially in the early stages of the sales process.”

“From a lady's perspective; guys who carry briefcase are more presentable and give an impression of someone who is more organized. Generally the dressing still count towards the overall impression. However, this impression give way to your skills in listening and asking the "right" questions once the meeting started."

So what are the common-sense-sales takeaways on this topic? First, whether you carry a backpack or a briefcase, you should always look sharp and professional; and second, whenever possible, less is best.

If you don’t need your computer, why carry a bag in to a customer meeting? What about a portfolio, pen and some business cards? Even if your sales role requires you to carry samples, you should observe the less is best philosophy. (Pharma reps read and heed – doctor offices are tight, do you really need all that stuff other than the samples?)

If you need your computer for the meeting, make sure to utilize the least bulky and “crumpled” bag that you have. You probably don’t need all those extra accessories that serve to take up room and create a jumbled mess when you are just searching for a pen. When I’m on the road, my backpack is full of travel-related items that have zero use on a sales call. Consequently, I have stopped taking my bag in to sales calls and only take in a notebook. Just last week I was on a call with a rep and this topic was top of mind. I wanted to see how successful the meeting would be if we didn’t have all of our “stuff”, so neither of us carried in a bag of any kind. We had a few file folders and notebooks but that was it. The meeting went just fine.

Ultimately, our visual clutter is a very important part of the impression we create in the minds of our prospects and customers. As the LinkedIn messages confirm, appearance counts. How you dress along with what and how much "stuff" you carry with you matters. If you are trying to give the appearance of being busy and important by carrying big bags with lots of stuff, you are throwing off the exact opposite impression. Clean out your bags, take only the essentials, and leave the rest in the car.

For now I’ll still carry my backpack, but for customer calls I’ll shed it and only take in the bare minimum. I’m still pondering a briefcase for those times that I need my computer . . . I just can’t seem to get over the site of me carrying that big thing over my shoulder while trying to look my best.

(PUTDP) Pick Up the Damn Phone!

I love email. I love it so much that I even wrote a book about three go-to emails that have had a dramatic impact on my personal production. The problem is we tend to rely too much on email and over time it has become a crutch.

Several years ago I was an inside sales rep at a small software company. One day I was commiserating with a colleague who also happened to be the company’s top rep. My frustration de jour regarded a prospect who would not return my emails. I don’t remember the exact conversation, but I do recall telling him that I had sent them yet another email. He asked me when I had spoken to them last. I told him that we had been communicating via email over the last couple of weeks and it had been at least that long since we had last spoken. He was a little surprised that it had been so long and frankly, he didn’t get it. His style was all about building personal relationships over the phone. Email was not his primary mode of communicating with his prospects and his advice was to PUTDP. I followed his advice and got the sale very soon after that.

Blog continued below . . .

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

If you have ever had a prospect “go dark” this book is for you. It has proven email techniques to “wake up” your prospect. While unconventional, these emails are authentic and professional, and almost always work. And , for only $3.99 you can put them to work for you today.

Also included are email techniques for following up on leads (these emails typically get a 20% response rate!) and for planning your next prospect meeting. Proven through years of use and honed for you, these emails will help you stand apart from the crowd.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

What are you waiting for? Those deals won’t wake up on their own!

That was a very valuable lesson that often surfaces when I find myself coaching sellers about the prudent use of email. I’ve become very sensitive when I see an over reliance on email. Email is a poor substitute for the phone and in-person meetings when it comes to building relationships. It’s not a bad thing to send emails, but it is a bad thing if it is your primary mode of communicating with prospects. Why?

• It lacks your innate ability to charm the prospect.
• Too often emails can “tailspin” because of an incorrect reading of tone and mood.
• It can’t laugh.
  
• It is absolutely unforgiving when it comes to your ability to write effectively.
• Rarely can you pull off creating real emphasis with email like you can in a live conversation.
  
• They are permanent and can be used against you.
  
• And on and on.

Even if email is your prospect/customer’s preferred method of communicating, pitfalls still await. I was an executive working with a very large customer and our project manager was assigned to the account full-time. Unfortunately, a problematic issue arose that required our president’s involvement. I showed her an email thread that demonstrated the escalation of the problem and how were handling it. Since the project manager had become very comfortable with her contact at the customer, her emails had become very informal, almost like text messages. When the president looked at the email thread, where do you think her immediate response was centered? On the problem? Nope, she lost her temper on the unprofessional and casual approach our project manager had been using with this very important customer. It was a very costly mistake.

The other issue with email is the typos and misspellings that curse an otherwise great message. Many of you wonderful sellers are horrible writers and your grammar is atrocious. Think I’m kidding? Here are some real gems from actual emails that are in my Inbox:

“I hope you took the Jeffery’s advice…”

“We could focus on the roll play…”

“…move forward with gather info on what…”

“…currently using a company that is allow them to…”

What a mess! As I typed this blog entry in MS Word, I noticed that it only caught the last example. Most email editors aren’t nearly as powerful, so don’t trust them. And spell-check has its own limitations. How is your grammar when it comes to the correct usage of your/you’re and their/there/they’re? Do you know the rules around who/whom? What about the correct use of which/that? When it comes to an important discussion with a prospect, why leave it to chance? PUTDP and have a conversation.

The issue of over relying on email is especially true when corresponding internally. “I sent her three emails yesterday and two today and she still has not responded!” says an exasperated seller. “Without her getting involved, my customer…” he continues. While his issue is valid – it is common courtesy to respond to emails – his approach leaves much to be desired. PUTDP I tell him. And you know what? It almost always works. As an effective sales professional, one of your most endearing gifts of is your ability to charm people and get your way. How effective are you doing that in email? Not nearly as effective as you could be on the phone. If your colleagues are not responding to your onslaught of urgent emails, PUTDP. It is amazing how far you can get and how quickly you can get there.

Don’t get me wrong. Tomorrow, Outlook is the first application that I’ll open and it will be the last one standing when I shut down my computer. That’s the way we work. But ask yourself if you’ve come to rely on email too much. If so, PUTDP!