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Making A Sales Pitch To Ceo
Posted By: riteshparikh* on 9/3/2004 4:53 PM (CST) 125 Points
I am a Business Dev Manager of a Big IT firm,
If I meet a CEO of prospective client firm, and I have about 1 minute to talk to him...What should be my approach to impress him / get him interested in my firms product..??

Posted by: pkemper* Accepted Answer
9/3/2004 6:55 PM (CST)
Ask one question: what keeps you awake at night?

The ask for the implications.

Then ask if he'd like to discuss some of these items some more with you.

If he asks why? Tell him your company has helped management teams before, who are struggling with his kind of problem. You might be able to give him some insights that help him solve his.

That's about it. So no sales pitch.
 
Posted by: ajay Accepted Answer
9/4/2004 12:38 AM (CST)
Hi

The ideal way to go about is to be in his shoes and think what may interest you at that point in time. A mix of technology, competitive analysis, the edge of your product over the competitor, value proposition, your market reputation, innovative edge, your 'after sales service level' and a bit of humour should work

Cheers!
 
Posted by: norquest* Accepted Answer
9/4/2004 6:20 AM (CST)
Ritesh, what would you tell him if you had one hour or even one week with him?

Figuring that out and articulating it, and then concentrating on polishing it into a one minute pitch is the way to go.

Apart from the generic stuff you’d also touch upon what makes your organisation better equipped to offer solutions, wouldn’t you?

Very often folks inside an organisation can’t see this as clearly as an outsider can. Use a specialist to help you with this.

I like what PKemper has said about focusing on that guy’s key issues, but I fear that if some stranger asked me what kept me up at night, chances are he wouldn’t get a very honest answer from me. Not until I know him well enough to consider confiding my real issues.

Sure hope this is useful.
 
Posted by: Mike Schultz Accepted Answer
9/5/2004 11:27 AM (CST)
Ritesh,

Good points posted so far. I'd add this:

The CEO's specific situation and your specific solution will dictate how to start in your minute.

Imagine this: "Mr. Smith. I've spent the last 2 months analyzing your XYZ systems, your distribution network, your operations systems, and your offices in 43 countries. I've spoken with 51 managers in your company and they've provided me a lot of help.

Here's what our team has come up with. If you had our system in place, you could save about $3.2 million dollars a quarter."

You could do that in about 30 seconds. If you actually had this data and done this analysis, you would get a lot more time than your remaining 30 sections.

The situation may be totally different. For example, you might go in and say, "Ms. CEO, I've spoken with 22 of your managers about your IT provider in the ABC space. What I've heard: They come in, do their thing, do it cleanly, and add no value in terms of strategic thinking or over-and-above service. The reason I'm here is because our technical folks will do just as good a job with the technical specifications, but we think you should be getting more than just coding and wiring from your current provider. I'm here to speak with you about that. First thing I need to know is, does your assessment match that of your team? Tell me about it."

So before you meet with the CEO, come up with the most compelling reason(s) for him to engage you in a real conversation. You may not be able to show him $3.2 million in savings per quarter, but you should be able to come up with something real and compelling that should win you more time with him or her.

Good luck.

Mike
 
Posted by: mbarber Accepted Answer
9/5/2004 11:49 PM (CST)
"I'm wondering if you can help me with a problem and seeing as how you're a CEO I thought you might have some good advice - I've got this company that could lose millons of dollars each day because their IT system could crash any second. How would you go about setting up a meeting with this person?"

'Gidday mate - I'm just wondering how many millions you lose each time your IT system doesn't do what you want it to do?'

"Hi there - if I had just 23 seconds to explain to a CEO like yourself why they should meet with me about securing their IT system, what 3 things should I tell them in that time frame?"
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Accepted Answer
9/6/2004 5:16 AM (CST)
I like the response from Marcus (mbarber) best. The only edit I'd make is his reference to MILLIONS [of dollars].

You didn't specify if you're pitching your services to CEOs of small/young companies or Fortune 100 companies. . .

. . . so I'd change the word MILLIONS to CUSTOMERS. Or to keep it "vague but meaningful," try using a word like kajillions.

- Shelley ;]
 
Posted by: thinkmor Accepted Answer
9/15/2004 8:57 AM (CST)
Hi Ritesh

Ask yourself "Why should this CEO buy from US?"

Agree with some comments above.

Explain in $$$ what benefit your product/service (unit cost saving/revenue per product if applicable) will deliver & PERSONALLY deliver to your buyer. Understand the different the stakeholders involved and their current and potential future concerns.

Not only $$$ think about added value, what else can you deliver that can meet their future needs? You need to do your homework bigtime if you really want the business.

The only thing your CEO cares about is his/her self and their problem. If you know the right questions to ask you can put the right answers together the way want to hear them.

Agree on the anlaysis of their needs to get buy-in on the basis of analysis of the problem & potential solution. If the figures collate, the CEO has to agree with your solution but doesn't have to neccessarily buy from you. You need to think about this too.

Cover all possible Objections.

Offer, if applicable, a trial in say 1 business unit. If this succeeds you have a greater chance to pull-off the Big-One.


Hope this helps.


Zahid Adil
 
Posted by: ASVP/ChrisB Accepted Answer
9/24/2004 11:05 PM (CST)
Where are you meeting a CEO that you can only hold his attention for 30 seconds???

In the elevator, or standing in an airport bathroom?

If you had correctly mapped your customer's buying journey and aligned it with your company's selling journey, you would be progressing through the decision-making process with your prospect company in a way that meant these "accidental meetings" were not a critical part of your selling process.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for having an "elevator pitch" that you or any of your sales people can roll out at any opportunity to start a selling conversational process that gets you on that journey.

But the 30-second pitch MUST NOT be the CSF (Critical Success Factor) in your selling process. Otherwise you are surely headed for certain failure.

Review your processes. You need a better structured approach than reliance upon a 30-second pitch.

Read "The Leaky Funnel" by Hugh Mcfarlane for a quick understanding of proper alignment of the seller's and buyer's processes.

You won't regret it.

Good Luck

ChrisB
 
Posted by: Allan Accepted Answer
9/25/2004 8:20 AM (CST)
You might also check out the work Tom Freese has done in his "Question Based Selling" books and classes. You can learn how QBS works at www.qbsresearch.com. We've used this to get appointments with CEO's for the last few years, and for us it is far more effective than anything else we've done.
 
Posted by: Sharon Moderator Response
9/28/2004 8:24 PM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question. This is standard procedure when the question author gets busy and falls out of the conversation for a while – or doesn’t understand the procedure for closing.

Thanks for participating!
 


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