Do you know what the executives care about in your largest accounts? Progress, hard results, personal goals or company priorities?
If you want to stand out then one thing is clear, regardless of your sales process, it's critical to know the answer to the question and even more important to have a strategy to communicate the alignment of your product or services with executive expectations on a regular basis.
One Option
One powerful, proactive sales tool to communicate the outcomes and impact associated with your solutions to busy executives is the Executive Briefing Letter. An Executive Briefing Letter summarizes accomplishments and progress for a specific customer. It's a custom letter, never generic. A well-crafted Executive Briefing Letter can serve many purposes and be used multiple times throughout the year.
Immediate Benefits
The immediate benefits of adopting this approach include:
- Raise level of awareness for past successes and future initiatives
- Pave the road for executive access
- Provide recognition, as appropriate, for day to day contacts
- Articulate alignment (vision, goals, culture) between your organization and your customer's organization
- Solid documentation of accomplishments
- A great vehicle to bring a new contact up to speed on prior activities and outcomes
- Differentiate you and your company
In Summary
If you're ‘sold' on the benefits of incorporating Executive Letters into your sales process, I can tell you that they take a lot of time and care to create. The best letters are a result of the entire team associated with a particular customer collaborating together. However, like most differentiation strategies, it's well worth the effort. Executives will appreciate your labors to keep them informed and up to date; especially in such a succinct manner. If you're consistent, they'll remember you and be more than willing to give you some of their valuable time when you need it.
Learn More about Executive Engagement:
The TOP Seller Advantage: Powerful Strategies to Build Long-Term Executive Relationships by Lisa D. Magnuson includes proven strategies to ensure sellers develop long lasting executive access. Chapter Eight discusses the Executive Briefing Letter in more detail and also includes an example. The C-suite executive perspectives at the end of each chapter reveal exactly how senior leaders view sales encounters and what would cause them to keep the door open for follow up meetings. Check it out on Amazon.com. http://amzn.to/2hdas8J
Lisa Magnuson is an expert in corporate strategic sales and TOP Line Account™ revenue building. As a respected sales consultant and author, Lisa works with clients to build successful strategic sales programs that drive revenue from large new accounts and enable growth from existing high value customers. Learn more at www.toplinesales.com.
