Selling dialogues in the C-Suite are all about business outcomes. C-Level executives are interested first and foremost in what the salesperson can do for their business, expressed in strategic and financial terms. They want to understand this first, before they get into the specifics of the salesperson's offering.
They expect salespeople to come to them fully prepared, with a point of view about their business - and when there is urgency, with specific recommendations in hand. They are intolerant of attempts by salespeople to use them as resources to learn more about the business and business priorities.
A Mindset Shift Must Precede Skills Development.
The emphasis on business outcomes as the first priority in discussion, and the demand for answers and numbers in the earliest of meetings, represent a sea change for most salespeople, who are accustomed to leading with conventional descriptions of their offerings, and to a progressive process of learning about their customers' business needs. Salespeople are also fearful of representing the financial benefits that they can provide, particularly early in the sales dialogue when facts are thin.
Our experience is that the C-Level shift is so fundamental that salespeople can not move directly to C-Suite competency development. They must first shift their mindset to understand and adopt a different paradigm about what is expected of them.
Why Most C-Level Sales Programs Fail.
Most C-Level sales development programs fail because they ignore the primacy of the mindset shift, and move directly to re-skilling activities. Salespeople can not deal with these effectively while they are still "trapped" in a conventional selling paradigm.
SGA's programs are different:
They are designed around the principle that a mindset shift must precede competency development.
They utilize learning approaches that are effective in powerfully generating a mindset shift.