Part 1: A Dialog for a First Call with the Top Officer Whenever you’re calling on a Very Important Top Officer, make sure you accomplish the following first-call objective. First, use a statement of fact; then, ask the question. It could sound something like this: “Mr. Benefito, five other CEOs...  More »

Market Penetration and Customer Loyalty Are VITOs Keys The keywords of “market penetration” and building “customer loyalty” will instantly earn you ‘top-of-mind’ status with every selling and buying organization’s leader. First, let’s focus on market penetration. Market penetration provides VITOs with an opportunity to acquire new revenue from a new...  More »

Attention Grabbing Sales Techniques! The following is true story… sharpen your sales techniques and telephone sales skills before picking up that 3,000 pound phone to make a sales call on any member of the ‘C’ Suite including the CEO. Read and remember this story! “Recently, one of my salespeople had...  More »

Whenever you’re making an initial phone call to a Very Important Top Officer (VITO), totally avoid sounding like everyone else! In other words, totally avoid saying anything close to, 1) How are you today?, 2) The purpose of my call is, 3) Is this a good time? Instead, I want you to get...  More »

First, Let the Top Officer Know What You Can Do! When you make your first telephone call to a Very Important Top Officer, you’ll need to say your name and your company’s name at the right time! If you say it too soon, it will cause prejudgment and a premature...  More »

Of the four different categories of individuals (top officers, decision-makers, influencers, recommenders) in every account you want to do business with, each has a different level of influence over your ability to make the sale. Influencers are the facts and figures people — the verifiers, the problem-solvers of the organization....  More »

There are four different categories of individuals in every account you want to do business with. Each category has a different level of influence over your ability to make the sale. At the very top of the organization, you’ll find VITO, the Very Important Top Officer … the person with...  More »

Negotiation Skills with Results One of the most popular chapters in my Wall Street Journal Best-selling book Think and Sell Like a CEO (Entrepreneur Press) is on the topic of business Negotiation Skills. I think it might be a good idea to share with you some of the most advanced negotiation...  More »

A while back, I had the opportunity after a speech to spend a few minutes with the senior vice president of sales for a major computer manufacturing company. When I asked whether his VITO made a habit of making sales calls, my new acquaintance’s response surprised me.  “Yeah, he does...  More »

There are four different categories of individuals in every account you want to do business with. Each category has a different level of influence over your ability to make the sale. At the bottom of just about every organization you sell to is a group of individuals we’ll call Recommenders...  More »