Selling Above and Below the Line: Convince the C-Suite. Win Over Management. Secure the Sale. - Softcover

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William (Skip) Miller learned the hard way that being unprepared for cold-calling is a surefire way to lose your job when he started his career in sales, quitting after only one day on his first job. He learned from his mistakes and is now President of M3 Learning, a ProActive Sales Management and Sales Training Company and is the sales training leader in Silicon Valley.  Skip has provided training to tens of thousands of sales people and hundreds of companies in over 35 countries. This is his seventh book.

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Are too many of your sales stalling? There’s nothing more frustrating—especially when building relationships and making sales pitches are strengths.

Sales master Skip Miller explains where the problem might lie: You’re selling features and benefits to frontline people who look at budget, features, and functionality. That’s a logical thing to do—but it’s only half your job.

Great salespeople sell to a second set of decision makers in every company: the executives. These people evaluate proposals from an “above the line” perspective, weighing ROI, time saved, risk lowered, and productivity improved. When you bring them into the sales process early and speak the language they need to hear, outcomes dramatically improve.

Selling Above and Below the Line shows you how to appeal to both sets of buyers, and sell the technical and financial fit of any product or service. You’ll move beyond features and benefits, eliminate the budget objection, ask probing questions about your customer’s financial picture, and deliver value propositions that seal the deal.

Advance Praise for Selling Above and Below the Line

“Full of useful advice. The split between above- and below-the-line selling is a particularly interesting idea that should help readers increase their success while shortening their sales cycles.” — Neil Rackham, author of SPIN Selling

“Getting prospects to switch off the status quo is tough. In this book, you’ll discover how to leverage killer value propositions to create momentum and accelerate the sales process.” — Jill Konrath, author of Agile Selling and SNAP Selling

“Skip’s book should not be just read, but followed. It’s a surefire guide to success.” —Steve Schiffman, author of The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople

William “Skip” Miller is president of M3 Learning, a leading sales development firm whose clients include Apple, Google, Cisco, Oracle, Rackspace, Tableau, UGG, and other top companies. He is the author of ProActive Selling and ProActive Sales Management.

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Author's Preface

"How could I have missed it?"

As a sales professional, have you ever spoken these words after a

phone call or a meeting with a prospect that hasn't gone well? The usual

next step is the customer telling you they are going with another solution

or going in another direction. Not good.

More salespeople and sales organizations are trying to increase their

average sales prices (ASP) and shorten their sales cycles. To do this, they

need to call on the executive suite more often. The question is: How have

you and your company prepared the sales organization to call on the executive

suite?

Sales typically uses PowerPoint slides and white papers that Marketing

has meticulously prepared and made everyone memorize. These expertly

executed materials are all about what we do, who we do it for, and

how we can do it for you, Mr. or Ms. Prospect. They work well for the

features and benefits buyers (aka User Buyers), but what about the Executive

Buyers? Do you really think they want to see the same story and

listen to the pitch you made to the User Buyer?

For the past twenty years, we have been training salespeople and sales

organizations to speak a different language when they call on the executive

suite. C-levels speak a different language than their User Buyer counterparts,

and it's amazing how unprepared a sales team can be to call on

executives. I would guess that salespeople, on average, converse in User

Buyer language in about 80 percent of sales calls they make to the executive

suite. When they do get to the C-level buyer, the sales team usually

asks the C-suite buyer "key" questions like:

"What would you like to know about us?"

"Here is an executive overview of what we have been talking to your subordinates

about."

"What can we do so that you will approve and sign off on our deal?"

Then there are the 20 percent of sales calls that talk to the C-suite

about what they want to hear--how the proposed solution can benefit

one of their key goals or objectives.

"This can contribute to lowering your costs up to 20 percent."

"Timing is key to your new product launch, and this solution can help you

save three to four weeks of time."

"Our solution has the potential of lowering the risk of this project by 5 to

10 points."

What's the difference between the two conversations?

TWO DIFFERENT VALUE PROPOSITIONS

There are two different value propositions in most sales. The executive

suite has one idea of what they want and why they need to change what

they are doing today, and the User Buyer is looking for something else.

So what happens?

Salespeople go for the low-hanging fruit--the User Buyer value

proposition--since that is one they have been taught how to sell to and

have had success selling. And, quite frankly, they feel comfortable discussing

their favorite subject, themselves.

A far sounder approach is to sell both above and below the line--to

the User Buyer and to the executive suite. Early in the sales process, a

focus on both value propositions substantiates your proposal's value for

both levels of the organization, speeds up the sales cycle, and increases

your ASP.

THE SUNDAY DINNER

Many families have a formal dinner every so often, perhaps on Sundays.

When the extended family members and a few friends gather, the kids

sit at one table and the adults at another. The kids' table has their own

"language," and the adult table has theirs.

The kids didn't want to sit at the adult table, where they soon get

bored with parent talk. Adults don't want to sit at the kids' table; they've

spent plenty of time with the kids all week and long for some adult conversation.

Above-the-line (ATL) executives and below-the-line (BTL) buyers

sit at different tables, talk about different things, and operate from different

perspectives.

The tools and tactics in this book will have you calling higher, getting

quicker responses, negotiating with more confidence, and speaking the

right language.

Calling high is not the trick. Anyone can do that. The trick is when

you're there, what do you say? How do you keep the executive's attention?

And how do you coordinate that conversation with the pitch you're delivering

below the line?

Welcome to Selling Above and Below the Line.