How well did you Sell your Boss Today ?

HOW WELL DID YOU SELL YOUR BOSS TODAY ?

Sales in direct sales industry is of complex nature and requires a lot of strategizing to win the battle of wits with the client. As I interact with more and more direct sales professionals I observe a common trend – Most of the successful Sales Guys have good working relationships with their bosses.

This correlation could be because a performer is likely to have a better relationship with his/her boss; however, the other possibility is that somebody who enjoys a good enough rapport with his/her boss [that enables them to freely talk about their clients and strategize together] becomes a performer.

You need not have a great relationship with your boss, it doesn’t matter if you never went out on lunch or dinner with your boss but if you understand his/her working style then you can use your boss as an efficient tool for selling.

Selling your boss to a client is one of the most important parts of a sales pitch in joint meetings. In fact, all that one should be selling in a meeting is one's boss and leave the product selling to the boss.

In my every sales call with my bosses I always ensure that I find an opportunity to inform the client about how big a team/region my boss controls, how long he/she has been in the industry/company and which all big clients (relevant to the client) does he/she interacts with. All this information helps the client to understand the authority of my boss and act accordingly. More importantly, I end up selling my boss to a level where the client usually don’t start a discussion with the product but with a general discussion to gain something out of my boss’s experience.

Once an Insurance sales rep got an opportunity to meet President Kennedy to sell an insurance policy to him and he wanted it to be the best ever deal of his career so he requested his Director to accompany for this meeting. They just had 30 minutes… 30 minutes to introduce themselves, detail the insurance policy and convince the president. The rep initiated the meeting by introducing his Boss to the president. He went on and utilized 1o valuable minutes of the meeting to inform Mr. President about the recognition of his boss as an expert on, not only insurance matters, but also on the financial services industry in the country.

What all newspapers approach his boss for his articles on the government policies and their affect on the industry by large and how many times he has been there on the Television for panel discussions. Needless to say that President Kennedy was pleased to meet the Director. So the next 15 minutes they talked about economic affairs and how can Kennedy Govt. ensure higher growth in services. Towards the end of meeting the Director suggested President Kennedy to go for a certain policy, to which he happily agreed.

Moral of the story: Nobody sold the product here. The rep sold his boss. The boss sold his personality and knowledge and the President bought the Idea of listening to a learned man’s advice.

I always tell my team members to devote at least 2-3 minutes in the first meeting (of their boss) with the client to devote on creating a perfect launch pad for their bosses. Once a credibility is established by the team members, it is easier for one to pitch for bigger products, counter competition or negate the demand for excessive discounts from the clients.

There are a few things that, if told to clients, will help you increase the level of your boss vis-à-vis the client.

a) His/her industry experience and how he/she will be in a better position to suggest the most appropriate solution for the client organization.
b) His/her educational brackground, past organizations etc.
c) His/her authority to close a deal, offer discounts, build creative combinations etc.

However, one must be cautious while selling bosses. What is the Downside of selling your boss???

Be very careful while selling your boss to clients who only (and always) look for additional benefits /discounts. If you are selling your boss well to such clients, then you need to keep some scope for them in terms of values adds, discounts, etc. Exhausting all the possibilities before your boss meets the client may actually result in negative results and after increasing the expectations of your client, your bosses will not be able to offer them what they want to close the deal.

Avoid too much of praise as this might irritate the client. Your boss’s background/experience might not always be helpful in taking decisions for the client’s industry, therefore, don’t try to make a point just for the heck of it.

In the end, this is what I tell my team.

“I am your tool and how innovatively you use this tool will decide How good or how Bad you’ll find me…”
Cheers... Keep Selling! Keep selling your Boss !