C-level sales is an art.
While the sales process is likely to move faster - you’re talking to the key decision-maker after all - the conversation requires a level of maturity.
Many MSPs can build strong rapport talking from one business owner to another. But it’s not always that simple. When selling at the CEO or CIO level, you need to speak the language of leadership.
Because no matter how much they might like you, these high profile sales targets want to hear one thing: how you can deliver business outcomes and manage their risks.
Let us show you how.
The language of business, especially for C-level, is numbers, not words. So always ask yourself: How does this benefit drop to their bottom line or improve their balance sheet?
The reality is that you only have 20-40 seconds to create the right impression and hook the interest of the person with whom you are seeking to engage. To succeed, you must focus on why a conversation matters rather than lead with what you do and how you do it. The what and how are irrelevant until they first know why they should invest time in talking with you.
By focusing on why a conversation matters, we overcome the worst competitor – the option of merely doing nothing.
Every seller needs to do these three things:
But remember, it still comes back to numbers.Talking about numbers is the essence of leading with WHY the conversation matters, and it focuses on the business outcomes they care about. That’s really what leaders want. They can feel confident moving forward with you.
If you can also learn to speak the language of numbers, then you can start to become a trusted adviser. You may be predicting outcomes they haven’t even had time to think about.
This allows you to work with your client in partnership, rather than being perceived as someone who’s merely attempting to sell. That’s when you become indispensable.
Adapted from: MSP Sales Playbook by Jamie Williams. Jamie has been in the Channel for over 20 years. She has worked with companies such as MSP University to create boot camps, training IT companies moving from break/fix to being an MSP. She also worked for CharTec helping it grow 230% and create MSP sales training programs. She’s been a consultant with YSE for the last 8 years and has worked with over 40 MSPs.