Greetings!
All the gurus teach you to start your sales outreach at the top of an organization, and then work your way down. “C-Level Selling”. Yet when I look at all the Million $$ accounts my team opened, none of them started at the top.
Is prevailing wisdom wrong, or is there more to the story?
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Here are some generally accepted truths in the sales world:
- Start at the Top
- Focus on the Customer
- Sell Desired Outcomes, not Features
- Anchor your Price High before Discounting
- Cold Calling is Dead (and so is Direct Mail)
- Don’t Give Your Price Until You’ve “Earned the Right”
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In my years as a sales coach and trainer, I’ve preached every one of these ideas as a sacred truth. Yet, as I interact and learn from hundreds of sales organizations, I see many examples of salespeople violating these rules and still seeing incredible success. How can this be? |
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Start at the Top
Years ago. I did a study of Million Dollar accounts my sales team had opened. The Million Dollars happened over time, not in one transaction in most cases. How big was the first sale? How long did it take to become a high producing account? The answers: on average, the first transaction was $18,000, and it usually took several years before the big sales started rolling in. Not one started with a C-Level contact.
Let’s examine the two opposing ideas, "Team VITO" vs. "Team Land & Expand":
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“Top down selling” preaches that you should think big. The best known proponent of this is Anthony Parinello and his book “Selling to VITO (The Very Important Top Officer” I’ve gifted this book many times and the message makes perfect sense.
Parinello teaches what to say and what to do to gain high level appointments. These top executives can cut through red tape, find budget money, and accelerate your sales process. Why wouldn’t you want to sell this way?
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Team "Land & Expand"
The opposite approach preaches that you start small. Do anything you can to break the ice, gain a foothold in an account, and start upselling. Once you are set up as a vendor and have done some billing, start building relationships and identify new opportunities.
“Land & Expand” says no sale is too small, no project too tactical. I used to call this the “Dumpster Fire” strategy, where you take your customer’s worst problem, become the hero by fixing it, and then earn the right to take on bigger projects. I used the Dumpster Fire strategy with a low-level IT Manager in an account that turned into my biggest customer ever. It has billed over $100 Million since we opened it in 1998. The first sale? $14,000.
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So many salespeople are “Quote Jockeys” who spew out pricing before they have learned anything about the customer needs, pain points and desired outcomes. These people are glorified McDonalds Counter Clerks. Yet, I see fabulously successful salespeople who give a price who lay the approximate price within five minutes of talking to a customer. Who’s right? |
Still Confused, but on a Higher Level
If this is thoroughly confusing to you, join the club. Just when you think you have things figured out, somebody comes along and succeeds by doing the opposite.
Ten years ago, fat in your diet was bad. Now, fat is considered good.
For those of us engaged in growing our IT business, what do we do?
- Start at the top or start at the bottom?
- Give your price early, or wait?
- Focus on your customer or your core competency?
- Anchor your price high or start low and build?
- Should you be a specialist or a generalist?
I firmly believe the answer to all these questions is "YES!"
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Mike Schmidtmann coaches business owners and sales leaders across the USA. He works to drive results in sales recruiting, new business development, and profitability.
Mike led sales for Inacom Communications for ten years. then founded and built a $30 Million business unit for SPS.
Mike produces the award-winning Trans4mers webinar series on IT sales and management subjects. He is a frequent public speaker on business topics.
He lives on a farm in Northern Virginia with his family and assorted horses, alpacas, goats and dogs.
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Hosted by Mike Schmidtmann
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Sunny's Silver Linings Podcast
In this week’s podcast, Mike Schmidtmann, founder of Trans4mers, talks with Sunny Kaila, CEO, IT By Design, about how an owner can be an MSP’s biggest asset and also it’s biggest obstacle when it comes to growing an MSP business to the next level.
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Mike Schmidtmann
(703) 408 - 9103
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