executive

In this episode, I talked with Caryn Kopp AKA The Chief Door Opener at Kopp Consulting, an Inc 5000 winner, recognized for the Door Opener® Service where they get their clients meetings with high level decision makers in almost every major company. If you want to know how to open doors at the executive level, this is the interview for you!

We covered these questions during my conversation with Caryn:

Getting in the door with executive level prospects is one of the most difficult part of the sales process, bar none. I asked Caryn how her team, known for getting executive level meetings for your clients, does it. She shared her success secrets for prior open those doors when other companies and salespeople struggle.

Caryn will tell you how to figure out what to say to pique the interest of busy, high-level prospects when they get so many calls and emails from competitors.

Personalization is a big buzz word now. Caryn shares her opinions on what works and doesn’t work when it comes to crafting messages that open doors to your targeted prospects.

You will learn about the two important elements that have to do with sales that most business leaders get wrong.

We also discussed tips on how to hire the right Door Openers for your company.

Finally, we talked about a question that comes up all the time…at what point do you just give up on a prospect? Listen to the interview to hear what Caryn has to say about that important question.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

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About Caryn:

Caryn Kopp is the Chief Door Opener^® at Kopp Consulting, an Inc 5000 winner, recognized for the Door Opener^® Service where they get their clients meetings with high level decision makers in almost every major company. A best-selling author, speaker and an expert in Business Development, Caryn can be seen in Inc., Forbes, Newsweek and is a faculty member of Verne Harnish’s Gazelles Growth Institute. Caryn is also the co-author of the best seller Biz Dev Done Right.

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Anyone who knows me also knows that I am NOT a fan of cold calling. Perhaps it had its place in sales history, but I wonder. Was it ever truly successful? No one likes the process really. Not the sales people being told by management to do it, or the unsuspecting prospects who are receiving the call. Frankly, I just don’t get why there is still such a large contingent of sales people out there who insist that cold calling is a viable sales approach. So, all I can figure is that they must be selling a product or service that is largely transactional in nature not requiring a lot of buy-in from senior management.

Calling High in the Organization

In enterprise level selling, which requires you to gain access to the relevant senior executive(s) in the organization, cold calling isn’t a smart strategy. Why? The traditional approach is to use a canned product/feature script that you rattle off to everyone you call. Executives aren’t interested. And, invariably you are coming to the party way too late anyway. Do you even know when the senior level executives get involved in the buying process?

Even if you can get the right executive on the phone at the right time in the process, is your call addressing their needs or yours? I think that most of us can agree that typically sales people are focused on their own agenda – getting that appointment or sale. The reality is that executives don’t buy features and benefits. It isn’t that those things aren’t important, but a senior executive wants to know how what you sell solves their business problems on a much bigger scale. In order to know what problems they are facing, sales people need to do their homework. That’s where social media fits in.

“Executives are increasingly using the Internet to inform their views, but they do not type in the category because early in the process, they’re not educated enough to know where a solution will come from. Instead, they search based on the problem confronting them.” –Selling to the C-Suite.

For the naysayers who believe that social media doesn’t have a place it the world of B2B selling, take note of this quote. Executives ARE using social media to source information about products and services that can solve their problem. Moreover, using tools like LinkedIn can give you incredible leverage during the sales process. Gain competitive advantage by better targeting and qualification, as well as planning for that all important conversation when you connect with the senior executive you have in mind.

To get to the C-Suite, planning and research are key. Have you done yours?

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