Why Sales Teams Struggle to Reach Senior Decision Makers (And What to Do About It)

Guest: If your sales team finds it difficult to engage senior decision makers, it's very easy to consume. It's a confidence issue, maybe it's an access issue. If you're hearing stuff like, oh, they're hard to reach, they don't have time, we can't get in front of them. But in many cases, that's not actually the problem.

Fred Kobestaker: You're listening to the Sales Today podcast and I'm your host, Fred Kobestaker. On this podcast, we explore how sales professionals can develop a modern approach to winning business. The application of virtual selling techniques, how to create meaningful business relationships and much more.

Guest: Why not take our free collaborative selling

Fred Kobestaker: scorecard to see how your sales approach suits today's environment? You'll find a link in the show notes.

Guest: Senior stakeholders are engaged all, all the time. They're having conversations, they're making decisions, they're exploring ideas. That's what they do, it's what they're there for. People are better decision makers, that's why they're there. So the question isn't, are they available? It's are we relevant to them? That's a very different question. Most sales conversations in engineering businesses naturally sit at an operational level. They focus on how something works, how it improves efficiency, how it reduces cost. Great. All valid, all useful, but they are operational in nature and, um, so that determines who engages with them. Senior decision makers think differently. They're focused on different stuff. They're focused on direction of the organization, risk, opportunities for the company, outcomes. They're asking questions like, is this the right thing to do? Does this align with where we're going? What impact will this have? If the conversation doesn't connect in those areas, it's very easy for them to step back from it. They're busy people, they are going to protect their time. So what often happens is this. Then sales teams are, uh, having a conversation at one level while senior stakeholders are thinking at another. There is a gap. Um, and, uh, it's not because the solution isn't relevant, but because the way it's being discussed doesn't align with how they're thinking. So the conversation, it stays lower down the organisation, it stays that operation level. It's with the people who are focused on the delivery, not the people who are focused on the direction. And what's interesting is if you go back to where the need started, it's often at the more senior level, something triggered it. A strategic concern, a market shift, uh, a company performance issue. That's where the initiative begins. It gets passed down the organization to be explored and defined. And, um, of course that's where lots of sales conversations will happen. But by then, you're already one step removed from where the thinking began. So if your team is finding it difficult to reach out to more senior stakeholders, it's worth asking, are we talking at the right level for the people we're trying to engage? Because when the conversation aligns, uh, to how they think, when we're talking about the stuff that they actually care about that they're there for, access to them becomes a lot less of a barrier. Now, if this feels familiar, it's often useful to look at, uh, how your conversations are occurring and the sales process that you're using to get them. There's a simple collaborative selling scorecard in the Show Notes below. Access that. Take it about five minutes. It will give you some insights into how you are managing the way in which you're approaching your opportunities. Hope, uh, you find it useful.

Fred Kobestaker: Thank you for listening to the Sale Today podcast with me, your host, Fred Koepstake. I hope you've enjoyed what you heard today. If you did, please get in touch and hit subscribe. And remember, you can take the Collaborative Selling scorecard for free to check out how your sales approach works in today's environment. You'll find it in the Show Notes.