When it comes to sales, selling to a CEO is altogether a different beast. CEOs are incredibly busy, so it’s important to get straight to the point and make the most of their time.
To get a better understanding of what CEOs want from salespeople, we asked Deepak Anchala, VP Product and Growth at 6sense and formerly Founder and CEO at Slintel, a few questions.
Deepak has 10 years of experience in Sales & Business Development roles and shared a few tips for getting the most out of sales conversations with a CEO.
Q: Name three things that AEs should keep in mind before getting on a call with a CEO.
Deepak: Before getting on a call with a CEO, do research on the CEO and their company, get straight to the point, and listen carefully to the CEO’s priorities.
What are three deal-breakers from AEs when pitching to a CEO?
Deepak: CEOs, generally because of their time constraints, appreciate people who are genuine and who are really solving a problem that they have. It would be a deal breaker if someone is prematurely trying to jump to pricing or a sale without establishing value.
People who don’t listen very clearly to what the CEO’s priorities are will not get the sale. This is because CEOs are focused on a few critical things in their organization. So ask those questions, listen very clearly, and position your product accordingly.
The third thing would be to not keep repeating the same message. Constantly sending messages to a CEO doesn’t assure a response from them. Try to get the value out in the very first message.
In your career as a CEO, is there a particular AE who was memorable?
I recall receiving a very effective LinkedIn message accompanying a connection request. Their message included a brief, personalized video explaining how their product could add value to my organization.
Most salespeople optimize for their own time so they send connection requests out to a lot of people and only after seeing who has added them will they move onto personalizing things.
But putting effort in early on pays off when CEOs receive hundreds of messages every day. When they see the one message that stands out, they are much more likely to respond.
