- Summary of articles
- Leadership is creating a world to which people want to belong
- Do you really know your organisation's world?
- Managing as a creator of Worlds
- Create sales contacts through your breakfasts
- Mergers
- Create a dynamic vision, keystone of your Desired World
- Secrets of CEOs/salespeople out to conquer your Market World!
Secrets of CEOs/salespeople out to conquer your Market World!
Nowadays, all CEOs have to "sell". The era of CEO managers is finished.
But if this principle of "salesperson" is established towards the staff, shareholders and suppliers, why do so many CEOs feel uneasy within sales processes? They limit themselves to the “closing” phase or to “big bosses” meetings, which are often filled with promises that engage only those listening to them.
General Managers delegate their participation in these processes too much.
They readily find very good reasons to disengage themselves from any involvement in sales campaigns. Have they forgotten the importance of selling? Perhaps they think they have gone past this stage, that they are too old for it? Perhaps their vision of selling is to arrive just in time to cut the red ribbon and crack open a bottle of champagne with the new client?
An elite group of results-driven CEOs has developed an excellent understanding of the added value they must bring to their teams in these sales processes.
They know perfectly well that a sale is much more than a “closing”, and that a relationship with a client goes well beyond a drawing room discussion. It can be seen that CEOs who go down the road of complex sales meet with real success. They sell well and in quantity. Here are some of the paths that P-VAL Conseil has identified: it’s up to you, dear CEO, to decide!
Path 1: Stimulate your teams so that they continuously improve their sales approaches
Give them a passion for the ideal. Your sales teams need a role model. Do you know how many sales forces are not anchored in a Market World? Over 57%! Your visible involvement gives a sense of greatness and conquering morale to your sales teams, from the sales manager to the sales assistant. Who can play the role of facilitator better than you?
Path 2: Give a human dimension to your company’s presence on these markets
Make yourself visible through participation in high-stake and high-visibility actions: magazine articles, trade fairs, conferences, … Get directly involved in actions that affect the image, brands, and reputation of your company. As Jack Welch says: "the CEO is the head of advertising".
Path 3: Listen personally for the faint signals of change in your markets
How many times do you take the time to speak with your clients, get to know their perceptions and latent needs? Do you use directly the products and services that your company sells? Don’t leave these tasks to your marketing department, to strategy consultants who will present you with intellectual analyses, which lag behind the market, missing glaring opportunities. With P-Val Conseil, you will regain the desire and time to build your own opinions first-hand!
Path 4: Continually build a loyal network of clients
The CEO of a communication group recently confided to me that "nowadays my usual contacts have taken a back seat with regard to business, my power base is smaller and I have to rebuild links with other people: it’s not easy!" How many personal letters, handwritten notes, telephone calls have you sent or made to your clients in the last month?
Path 5: Pull your company’s sales towards the Summit
Major sales with good profit margins are done via the Summit. You are best placed to guide your company towards the summit of your prospects. You must give ambition in the strategic analyses of your salespeople, advise them about the discourse they must use with the CEO facing them, show them that their technical solution gains all its added value when it responds to a set of business issues of a decision-maker client.
When CEOs sell, two positive consequences ensue:
- More business and better business emerges
- Every employee perceives that selling is an A1 task on his Priority agenda.
How can P-VAL Conseil help you?
- Put in place a Selling Via the Summit (SVS) approach: your actions will be guided, developed by a process that ensures continuity of collective effort around solution selling business. Build a process specific to your offer and your markets, train your colleagues in methods and behaviour, coach key business.
- Coach your first 100 days on the path of complex sales: give you clear sales reference points, train you in key communications, make a clear space in your diary for finding time for action, ensure that your efforts have meaning for the company: link with the company’s vision and values, visibility of your efforts and their results, continuity of your involvement beyond the 100 days.