How Well Do You Understand the “C” Level?

Consultants, trainers, and authors earn a nice living pontificating about how to sell to the “C” level. If you have spent any time in sales you have heard how only “C” level employees have the ability to weigh the business impact of your product or service; you have also heard that the CFO is the person you want to speak to about saving money.

I believe there are few simple and unilateral solutions to complex problems. Unless your target market is small entrepreneurial companies, the belief that only a handful of employees truly understand how to evaluate business impact is misplaced. It may border on naïve and could be insulting to the people that actually make the decision regarding your product or service.

Saving money is not the sole purview of the CFO. Any business manager with control of a budget wants to find better value where they currently spend money so that they can fund other projects. Maybe you can save them money in their imaging and printing fleet that they can spend on a virtualization project?

If you sell a product or service that can have strategic impact or significant risk for a company then the decision will be made in the “C” suite. Trying to convince a company to adopt a six sigma initiative? Better call on the CEO. It is extremely expensive in the near term with the payback being long term, culture changing at every level of the organization, and has a high rate of failure. The CEO’s job could be on the line if it fails.

The key is to identify the person that has the budget responsibility for what you are selling. If you are selling training you will want to speak to the director of training and development. If you are selling office supplies you will be talking to purchasing. If you are selling liability insurance you will want to speak to the company’s risk manager. If only the “C” suite could make these decisions then it would not be logical to have these other employees; would it?

You can raise your entry point but only if you change your value proposition. MPS has changed the value proposition for purchasing printers, copiers, supplies, services, and some software. Prior to MPS these items were most frequently purchased by low level IT or purchasing. As part of an MPS agreement you can raise the value proposition to the level of middle management: Most frequently the director of IT. But it is not a highly strategic or risky endeavor so the “C” suite, except in the smallest of companies that would qualify for an MPS agreement, will not probably not be involved.

I realize it is human nature to look for exceptions so I will state up front you will find them. In a law firm you will need to be on the “business side” of the decision process so you will probably be calling on a COO or CFO. Then there are the “C” suite executives that have developmental opportunities in the delegation area and who will want to be involved in many tactical decisions. But for the most part if you identify the person that controls the budget, and your value proposition does not have an impact on the company’s strategy or involve high risk, you are at the correct level.