The Key to the C-Suite: What You Need to Know to Sell Successfully to Top Executives - Hardcover

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MICHAEL J. NICK, president and founder of ROI4Sales, Inc., has taught selling techniques, developed sales tools, and implemented sales processes at companies throughout the world, including Hewlett Packard, Microsoft Great Plains, NEC, Emerson, and Oracle.

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“The perfect blend of street-smart advice and MBA intellect for talking it up with anyone in the C-Suite.”— Anthony Parinello, bestselling author of Selling to VITO (The Very Important Top Officer)

“In The Key to the C-Suite, Michael Nick has captured the reality of being a solutions provider. The challenging new environment businesses will be facing in the post-recession economy forces all operating and marketing processes to be financial contributors to the enterprise. Michael’s book is a timely recognition of this fact and valuable roadmap to selling success.” — Morris R. Segall, President, SPG Trend Advisors

“Getting to the C-Suite may sound expensive, but Michael Nick makes a compelling case that not doing so is even more so. And his advice on how to effectively do it is priceless.”— Jim Dickie, Managing Partner, CSO Insights

“Imagine moving to a foreign country to earn a living without knowing the language. Now imagine a book so powerful that in a few short hours it could teach you that language and allow you to live in prosperity. For many in sales, the C-Suite is a foreign country and the language of business is hard to understand. The Key to the C-Suite is a powerful sales translator, teaching you to present your product or service in such a way that C-Suite executives know they have to take action NOW.”— Tom Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar Inc.

“Michael Nick really hits the nail on the head with how to build a successful business case to sell to C-suite executives and how to start speaking their language. The Key to the C-Suite is an absolute must-read for all sales reps looking to change their selling approach and start speaking the language of the C-Suite!”— Lisa Cramer, Co-founder and President, LeadLife Solutions

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As economic realities press ever more forcefully on business, executives will be keenly aware of the specific financial ramifications of every large buying decision. In fact, they’re unlikely to pull the trigger without the direct and detailed involvement of their own finance teams.

In short, the buy will be tied not just to a general sense of strategy but also to individual, targeted components of a budget or forecast. To sales professionals like you, this means understanding how top executives evaluate and prioritize potential purchases, recognizing the challenges they face, and presenting your product or service as a value proposition.

Packed with real financial knowledge, but geared toward the layman, The Key to the C-Suite identifies and defines ten key financial metrics that C-Suite executives use throughout their buying-decision process and shows you how to build your value proposition and business case to complement theirs. The book also guides you in:

• Defining your value and building a value inventory

• Calculating and communicating your potential value impact on a prospect’s C-Suite metrics

• Discovering and analyzing prospects’ financial information so you can tailor your approach to their financial realities

• Forming and asking the questions that will repeatedly lead your prospect back to your value proposition

• Preparing and delivering the formal presentation to C-level executives

The Key to the C-Suite also provides an array of powerful tools to help you not only redesign your general business approach but also tailor it on a prospect-by-prospect, client-by-client basis. In addition to resource information on where to find financial metrics for corporations in 19 major industries, you will have:

• Clear definitions and examples of the financial metrics used in strategic decision making

• A Value Inventory Matrix tool linking your proposition directly to specific client needs

• Step-by-step instructions for creating the value-focused questions you need to ask

• Presentation tools and strategies, with many real-world examples from the author’s own experience and customer base

• Parallels and links with other major sales methodologies to take advantage of familiarity

• And much more

Each chapter concludes with a detailed summary that neatly encapsulates major concepts and lays the groundwork for your next steps.

Perhaps most important, The Key to the C-Suite helps you understand the financial language and realities that inform and drive every major buy­ing decision. And if that language is the key to the buy, shouldn’t it also be the secret of your sales success?

Michael Nick is the author of ROI Selling, as well as president and founder of ROI4Sales, Inc. He has taught selling techniques, developed sales tools, and implemented sales processes at companies throughout the world, including Hewlett Packard, Microsoft Great Plains, NEC, Emerson, Oracle, S1 Corporation, Rockford Automation, Autodesk, 3E Company, Imation, and TSYS.