- Senior management never buys this product
- Corporate policy prohibits this
- The executive suite makes those calls
- These decisions come from above
- It’s always been done this way
- That’s just the way it is here
- The man upstairs calls the shots
When you hear one of these phrases do you immediately terminate your sales campaign, or do you try to uncover the “real” objection? What you really want to do is determine whether your prospects are trying to blow you off or they sincerely believe there is no way to change the so-called status quo. While it is certainly easy for a prospect to blow you off by using one of these phrases, there are times when they truly believe they cannot affect change from senior management
For example, in 1983 while representing Telex, I was working on an opportunity to sell personal computers to Noxell Corporation. Noxell is the company that manufactures Noxzema as well as the Cover Girl line of cosmetics. I had worked the account for three years and had a large number of displays and printers installed. Additionally, I had established very strong relationships with Jim, the VP of information technology, and several other folks in the IT department.
Jim was the final decision-maker regarding any IT acquisitions. Noxell was exclusively using IBM personal computers at the time. My mission was to place an evaluation Telex PC at the account that would offer Noxell a less-expensive alternative. The technical contact, as well as the individual who made the recommendation on PCs, was a fellow by the name of Roy. When I met with Roy, he seemed uninterested in taking a look at our PC offerings. There was no real reason, just a lack of interest.
One Thursday evening at the monthly DPMA (Data Processing Management Association) meeting, I noticed that both Jim the VP and Roy the technical evaluator were in the room. They were both engaged in conversations with other folks while enjoying some pre-meeting cocktails. I walked up to Roy and started chatting. After a few minutes, I asked him if he would like to bring in one of our PCs on demo. I said there was absolutely no obligation—he could simply run some applications and see how it performed.
Roy had the response I mentioned above: “Senior management doesn’t approve anything but IBM PCs. ”
I asked Roy to sit tight for a few moments so I could track down Jim. I brought Jim over to Roy and then repeated what Roy had said: that Noxell senior management only approves IBM PCs.
Jim looked amazed and uttered the words I will never forget: “Who the F do you think senior management is? I’m senior management!”
The demo was installed the following week.
The fact of the matter was that Roy sincerely believed that senior management would not approve any new orders for PCs that did not come from IBM. He therefore did not want to waste any of his time evaluating other vendors’ products. I’m confident Jim never specifically told him he would only approve IBM PCs, but it was certainly Roy’s perception based on pure history.
While history can often be a predictor of future purchases, it should not be the only factor we as sales professionals look to before we throw in the towel on our sales campaign.
In my career, for example, I made a living competing against IBM. First with Burroughs, then with Memorex/Telex and, finally, with EMC. In many cases the display terminals, printers, tape drives and data storage arrays were the first non-IBM products many of my clients purchased. If I had focused on accounts that traditionally made non-IBM purchasing decisions, I would have starved to death. And quite frankly, it was very exciting and quite rewarding to be the first vendor to install a non-IBM product in a major IBM installation.
So how do you determine if you are getting blown off by one of these phases? It’s easy.
Deliver your value proposition to senior management or whoever makes the final decision. If you have a solid business proposition, senior management will be interested.
I have always been a big proponent of selling at all levels. In fact, I dedicate an entire chapter to this topic in my book.
The next time your prospect tells you that senior management is not interested in your product or service, ask him to show you the office with the title of “senior management” on the door. I guarantee the response will be very interesting.
UNIVERSAL SALES TRUTH #4
Work Your Land
Proverbs 20:4
A farmer too lazy to plant in the spring
has nothing to harvest in the fall.
Proverbs 28: 19-20
Work your garden—you’ll end up with plenty of food;
play and party—you’ll end up with an empty plate.
Committed and persistent work pays off;
get-rich-quick schemes are rip-offs.