Becoming a Trusted Advisor | SellXL - Selling at the Executive Level

Selling to Executives: Becoming a Trusted Advisor

Stephen J. Bistritz, Ed.D.
www.sellxl.com

Building credibility when selling to senior-level customer executives is a critical factor in developing lasting business relationships, according to two studies done by OnTarget and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina and the Center for Business and Industrial Marketing at Georgia State University. These two studies focused on the relationships that professional salespeople developed when selling to senior executives, from the perspective of C-level executives. The conclusion of the two studies: That becoming a trusted advisor to these executives should be a major objective for most salespeople involved in high value, complex sales campaigns involving selling to executives.

So how is credibility developed over the long term? Credibility combines the building of trust at a personal level and proving capability in getting the job done at the business level.

People buy from people they like, is an old sales adage. However, that’s not exactly true when selling to executives, considering the way senior executives make buying decisions on major purchases of products and services. The surveys cited above clearly indicate that personal feelings were usually not the deciding factor in the decision-making processes embraced by most senior executives. Instead, buying decisions were based on trust. What an executive feels personally about a salesperson is clearly beside the point. They want to feel that they can trust a salesperson to create value for them, and for their organization as well. That isn’t to suggest that salespeople shouldn’t continue to build relationships with customer executives to whom they are selling, but that they shouldn’t confuse being a friend with being a trusted advisor.

Too often, salespeople focus on either establishing capability or building a relationship based on trust. If salespeople only work to establish their capability for getting the job done, they often position themselves as a “technical expert or an extra pair of hands,” which does not offer much in the way of competitive advantage.

“Let’s pretend I have a problem that needs to be solved,” says one customer executive. “I know two people who have demonstrated expertise in that area: One I trust and respect. The other might actually have more expertise, but I don’t know him or her as well. If I call the one I trust, I’ll begin to act immediately on him advice. If I call the other person, I’ll probably double check and get a second opinion.”

On the other hand, a salesperson who focuses solely on building the personal side of the relationship may end up as a friend of the customer executive, while others who focus on both the personal and business aspects of the relationship will become viewed as trusted advisors, giving them an edge in selling to that executive. Executives examine both the trust and capability components of the relationship as they evaluate a salesperson’s credibility.

According to the executives surveyed, another essential factor in building trust was the salesperson’s candor. Executives can sense when someone selling to them is not giving them all the facts. Trust erodes very quickly when the executive feels that they are only receiving part of the story. Executives stated that salespeople who misled them make them “wonder what other problems weren’t being disclosed” and abhorred “last minute surprises” from solution providers. One executive stated that, ‘”There are always issues surrounding any potential solutions to business problems. I want to get as clear an indication as possible on what those issues are at the beginning of the project.”

Top performing salespeople understand that building credibility at the executive level comes from providing the executive with a sense that they understand the customer’s business, they have the capability and experience to help them solve business problems and their intention is in building lasting, long-term relationships. By operating in this fashion, a salesperson is able to enhance the relationship and become the executive’s trusted advisor. This is critical in selling to executives.