Buying Levels within Our Accounts
There are many different people within our accounts that have a control over our sales results. At a minimum they can have a degree of approval in the decision to buy our product or service and even whether to buy it from us or our company. That is why we need to be positively positioned within our accounts with all of these levels of buyers. The larger, more complex the sales opportunity, the more critical this statement becomes.
In each of our accounts, no matter the size, there are always three levels of buyers. The top level is called the CEO Level – often described as the C-Level. Every C-Level officer within an account falls into this group, from CEO or owner of the company, to CFO, to CTO, to CIO. (These are Chief Executive, Financial, Technology and Information Officers.) We don’t need to be on an extremely intimate level with these people, but we do need to know who they are and what they do within the account. They also need to know us, who we represent and what we can do for their organizations. When the time comes to bring them into the selling process, if needed, then we need to have already come in contact with them prior to this point in our sales process. Otherwise, any competitor who is selling the account from the Top – Down, has a definite advantage over us.
The C-Level of management is dealing with three primary concerns. They are constantly thinking about and living with the need to accomplish the following:
1. Increase revenues,
2. Increase productivity, and
3. Decrease net operating expenses.
To increase revenues, manufacturing operations must produce more widgets to sell to more customers. Educational accounts need to find ways to put more students in more seats within their institutions. Health care accounts must find way to attract more patients to their clinics to increase their daily census. Competition is strong in every factor of our economy and it is a major concern for everybody in the C-Level. Larger institutions are finding way to purchase smaller competitors and even the other way around, in order to gain more market share. The CEO Level is charged with finding new approaches to cutting costs in their operations, as well as gaining a competitive advantage over others in their industry.
The next level down in our accounts is called the Core Level. The department heads that we will be calling on in our accounts are found in this level. These departments consist of manufacturing, plant operations, environmental services, security, food service and sales, to name a few. These managers have to accomplish the goals pushed down from the C-Level above, especially in the areas of increasing productivity and decreasing expenses. They constantly hear that they must “get more done with less.”
Core Level manager concerns are solving problems in their operations NOW! They must find new ways to become more productive, yet stay within their operating budgets, which often can be severely cut depending upon the results of the company. They look to their suppliers to find new ways to improve their overall operation. Innovation is important to them. “If you have a way to help me get more done with less, then I need to speak with you.”
The last level in our accounts is called the Support Level. This level consists of departments such as Safety, Legal, Accounting and Purchasing. People working in this level are reacting to the requests of Core Level management who have the budgets available to accomplish the goals of business. For example, someone in Purchasing is not going to call a supplier to order a new phone system because they think the company needs one. In fact, that kind of request comes from above Support Level personnel. The Support Level people take action to accomplish the goals of the Core Levels and higher within the company. While the request for the new phone system comes from above, we still must be positively positioned with this Support Level in the company as well.
In the case of the Safety department, I have found it a good idea to make a short presentation of my proposed product before bringing any ideas to my Core Level manager. I need to find out how my product is going to be received by this department. If there is something that the Safety department will not approve about my product, I need to get that issue addressed or else change my product recommendation, or I am not going to sell that product within this account. In this case, since Safety would ultimately have to approve my ideas, I need to get that approval first and make my sales presentation last. Too often sales people, including myself, have given a sales presentation, conducted a lengthy demonstration of a product, only to find that something about the product will not get approval by the Safety committee. This causes a lot of wasted sales time.
Next time, I will cover the many buying roles within our accounts and how they affect our selling success.
There are many different people within our accounts that have a control over our sales results. At a minimum they can have a degree of approval in the decision to buy our product or service and even whether to buy it from us or our company. That is why we need to be positively positioned within our accounts with all of these levels of buyers. The larger, more complex the sales opportunity, the more critical this statement becomes.
In each of our accounts, no matter the size, there are always three levels of buyers. The top level is called the CEO Level – often described as the C-Level. Every C-Level officer within an account falls into this group, from CEO or owner of the company, to CFO, to CTO, to CIO. (These are Chief Executive, Financial, Technology and Information Officers.) We don’t need to be on an extremely intimate level with these people, but we do need to know who they are and what they do within the account. They also need to know us, who we represent and what we can do for their organizations. When the time comes to bring them into the selling process, if needed, then we need to have already come in contact with them prior to this point in our sales process. Otherwise, any competitor who is selling the account from the Top – Down, has a definite advantage over us.
The C-Level of management is dealing with three primary concerns. They are constantly thinking about and living with the need to accomplish the following:
1. Increase revenues,
2. Increase productivity, and
3. Decrease net operating expenses.
To increase revenues, manufacturing operations must produce more widgets to sell to more customers. Educational accounts need to find ways to put more students in more seats within their institutions. Health care accounts must find way to attract more patients to their clinics to increase their daily census. Competition is strong in every factor of our economy and it is a major concern for everybody in the C-Level. Larger institutions are finding way to purchase smaller competitors and even the other way around, in order to gain more market share. The CEO Level is charged with finding new approaches to cutting costs in their operations, as well as gaining a competitive advantage over others in their industry.
The next level down in our accounts is called the Core Level. The department heads that we will be calling on in our accounts are found in this level. These departments consist of manufacturing, plant operations, environmental services, security, food service and sales, to name a few. These managers have to accomplish the goals pushed down from the C-Level above, especially in the areas of increasing productivity and decreasing expenses. They constantly hear that they must “get more done with less.”
Core Level manager concerns are solving problems in their operations NOW! They must find new ways to become more productive, yet stay within their operating budgets, which often can be severely cut depending upon the results of the company. They look to their suppliers to find new ways to improve their overall operation. Innovation is important to them. “If you have a way to help me get more done with less, then I need to speak with you.”
The last level in our accounts is called the Support Level. This level consists of departments such as Safety, Legal, Accounting and Purchasing. People working in this level are reacting to the requests of Core Level management who have the budgets available to accomplish the goals of business. For example, someone in Purchasing is not going to call a supplier to order a new phone system because they think the company needs one. In fact, that kind of request comes from above Support Level personnel. The Support Level people take action to accomplish the goals of the Core Levels and higher within the company. While the request for the new phone system comes from above, we still must be positively positioned with this Support Level in the company as well.
In the case of the Safety department, I have found it a good idea to make a short presentation of my proposed product before bringing any ideas to my Core Level manager. I need to find out how my product is going to be received by this department. If there is something that the Safety department will not approve about my product, I need to get that issue addressed or else change my product recommendation, or I am not going to sell that product within this account. In this case, since Safety would ultimately have to approve my ideas, I need to get that approval first and make my sales presentation last. Too often sales people, including myself, have given a sales presentation, conducted a lengthy demonstration of a product, only to find that something about the product will not get approval by the Safety committee. This causes a lot of wasted sales time.
Next time, I will cover the many buying roles within our accounts and how they affect our selling success.
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