Selling to VITO the Very Important Top Officer

Get to the Top. Get to the Point. Get to the Sale.

Anthony Parinello

• Publisher: Adams Media
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781440506697
• eBook ISBN: 9781440507342
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Maximize your sales abilities with this easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to boost your sales career. There has never been a sales book that gives you one-on-one, personal help to catapult your sales career and your personal income to a level that will surprise you and shock your sales manager!You'll stop:
-Wasting your precious selling time with "non-decision" makers
-Getting any rejection whatsoever from gatekeepers
-Working your keester off for itsy, bitsy sales
-Losing sales that you thought you were going to win
-Not making your sales quotaYou'll start:
-Making sales that are up to 65 percent bigger
-Cutting your sales cycle in half
-Getting as much as 120 percent more add-on business from your existing customers
-Getting VITO to VITO referrals worth pure gold
-Making the income that you really deserveTake your sales career to the next level with these tips and tricks sure to selling anything!

Chapter 1
Meet VITO, the Very Important Top Officer

In your current sales approach, how high up the corporate “org chart” do you land on your initial call or contact? Are you typically starting at the very top of the organization chart or are you more likely to be starting on the first or second branch from the bottom of that chart, with the lower-level supervisors/buyers/managers/purchasing agents/ associates?

Most of the salespeople I work with are a little uneasy about answering this question directly at first. They hem and haw and talk about what happened when they once called on a CEO, president, owner, or other “C”-level executive. I'm not asking who you eventually meet; I'm asking who you typically start your sales process with.

I believe you must answer this question forthrightly if you are to benefit in any way from what follows in this book. Be honest with yourself: Who have you been calling on and selling to? Write the actual titles of the ten most recent new contacts you have called on in the space on the following page.

Titles of People You’ve Called On
Name	Title

Where Are You on the “Org Chart”?

I want you to look very carefully at the titles of the people you've recently been trying to sell to, and then, if you dare, I want you to ask yourself one critical question that can literally transform your selling career if you are willing to ponder the answer carefully enough.

What kind of flooring were these people standing on?

When you met with these folks to talk with them about your product, service, or solution, were you standing on solid mahogany? Was there deep, comfortable plush carpet everywhere you walked? Was there imported, inlaid marble at your feet? Were you walking down the aisle of someone's private jet? Well, if you wrote titles like “Buyer” or “Admin” or “Purchasing Director” in the preceding spaces, I'm guessing the answers to these questions about flooring were “no.”

In fact, I'm going to guess that you were standing on linoleum.

Yep. If you're like most of the people I've taught over the years, you were standing on cheap flooring … with someone who kept putting off decisions. Someone whose life's mission was making you jump through hoops. Someone who always wanted to see more from you—more samples, more demos, more references, more advice, more meetings, more whatever.

I'm betting that no matter what you offered, no matter how many good ideas you brought to the table, that “buyer” (and notice the quote marks around that word) standing on linoleum with you did an awful lot of procrastinating and not much actual deciding or buying. The process dragged out. And if you ended up getting any business, you didn't get as much as you deserved.

Am I right?

I thought so.

Wasting Away Again in Linoleumville

You know how I knew? Because years ago, while I was a young(er) salesperson working for Hewlett-Packard, I used to start my sales cycle in Linoleumville—just like you're doing right now. I spent most of my day (heck, months!) talking to the “Seemores,” (I'll explain that interesting word shortly) who dragged out my sales cycle, put off decisions, and restricted my access to others in the organization. Sound like anyone you know?

Because I was full of ambition and energy and competitive spirit, I made that sales process work—for a while. I was named Hewlett-Packard's Rookie of the Year in my division. Then, after several years of being at the top, I got complacent. I stopped prospecting; I started coasting. And I woke up one morning to find myself miles and miles and miles behind quota, staring at a memo from my boss informing me that I was officially on probation. I had just six months to turn things around—or lose my job.

Well, I didn't want to lose my job, so I started thinking: What the heck can I possibly do to hit quota within the next six months? A little voice inside told me that if I kept wasting my time in Linoleumville, I didn't stand a chance.

I listened to that little voice, and thank God I did, because once I started listening, I started calling at the top of the organization. It was at this fateful point in my career that I started Selling to VITO.

You can probably guess the end of the story. I hit my yearly quota, much to the astonishment of my manager. And I started the next year with a new perspective. Now that I had figured out a way to close bigger deals, quicker, what was I going to do—go back to calling the “Seemores” of the world? No way!

I didn't realize it then, but in closing that gap by the end of the year, I had harnessed the power of something I now call the Network of Influence and Authority. This is a helpful structural breakdown that is a) common to virtually all enterprises and b) great for accelerating your sales cycle and increasing your average order size … if and only if you are willing to start at the top of the Network.

Take a look at the four players in the Network briefly right now. Don't worry if the labels seem strange to you initially; you'll be getting to know each of these four folks very well in the pages that follow. Notice who occupies the topmost perch!

The Influence and Authority Network

Meet VITO, the Very Important Top Officer

Remember that telephone pole my eagle landed on? How many tops did it have? That's right: one. If that telephone pole represented the corporate “org chart,” the very top of it is where you would find the main character of this book: VITO!

Why is VITO at the top? Because, like an eagle, VITO intentionally aimed for it! Because, from the top, VITO can see everything that's critically important! Because VITO has responsibility for all that lies below. Because VITO has the ultimate veto power over absolutely everything that happens in the organization.

Believe it: VITO is the one person who is the most interested in the economics of the organization, the growth of the organization, the compliance of the organization, the you name it of the organization. Heck, VITO is the organization!

VITO RULE         #0

(The rule from which every other VITO Rule is derived!): VITO is the ultimate approver of everything that happens in the organization, including your sale.

VITO is the person I've been selling to for the past three decades. During that time, I have, met, wined and dined, vacationed with, written about, and interviewed more VITOs than almost anyone else in the free world!

Over the past two and a half decades, I've personally trained over 2.5 million salespeople, written eight successful books on the topic, and given over 3,000 VITO training seminars. I say this not to impress you, but rather to impress upon you that I know what it takes to sell to VITO. I also know how to tell whether a salesperson really possesses the mindset necessary to take what I teach and take action on it. As you'll find out in the chapters that follow, having the proper state of mind is an important part of what it takes to sell to VITO.

Are you ready to sell to VITO? Go on to the next chapter to find out.

Chapter 2
Are You Ready to Sell to VITO?

Sometimes, people tell me they don't think they're “ready” to sell to VITO. Fortunately, I've developed an effective, quick, and painless method for determining whether a salesperson really has what it takes to sell to VITO. You're about to take advantage of that method. For the next few paragraphs, I want you to absorb three “VITO Insights,” and then, once you've internalized what you've read, give honest answers to the questions that follow. Ready?

VITO INSIGHT #1

You have more in common with VITO than you think.

ALL ABOUT VITO

For starters, VITOs have big egos! A healthy ego is a defining trait of high achievers, and it's certainly a defining trait among VITOs.

What else? Power, control, and authority are important to VITOs.

VITOs are brief, direct, and to the point.

VITOs are self-assured, self-determined, driven to success, and goal and results oriented.

VITOs are highly accountable; they are used to accepting responsibility.

VITOs are passionate and highly competitive; they love to win and hate to lose.

VITOs are seekers of information that will give them an edge.

VITOs are constantly on the lookout for ideas that will help them over-accomplish their goals, plans, and objectives.

VITOs live in a time-compressed world. They have learned, from personal experience, the importance of investing their precious time with people they feel will help them quickly prosper.

VITOs are well read, well informed, and highly knowledgeable about the industry in which they're operating.

For the most part, VITOs have an “early adopter” me...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Prologue: Altitude and Attitude
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Meet VITO, the Very Important Top Officer
• Chapter 2: Are You Ready to Sell to VITO?
• Chapter 3: Spotlight on the Sales Process
• Chapter 4: Replicate, Replicate, Replicate
• Chapter 5: Six Big Reasons to Contact VITO First
• Chapter 6: Influencers and Recommenders
• Chapter 7: How Not to Communicate with VITO
• Chapter 8: Twelve Attitudes and Traits You Must Own to Sell to VITO
• Chapter 9: The Principles of VITO Marketing
• Chapter 10: VITO's Time
• Chapter 11: Exponential Revenue Increases
• Chapter 12: Two Rules for Snagging the Intentional Area of VITO's Brain
• Chapter 13: The Six Elements of VITO Correspondence
• Chapter 14: Delivering the Message—Your Telephone Opening Statement to VITO
• Chapter 15: What to Do When VITO Picks Up the Phone
• Chapter 16: Three Obstacles, Eight Steps
• Chapter 17: The Gatekeepers
• Chapter 18: Voice Mail Messages
• Chapter 19: Pay Dirt
• Chapter 20: Dealing with the Shunt; Qualifying the Opportunity
• Chapter 21: Second Contact
• Chapter 22: In-Depth with VITO
• Chapter 23: Acquisition, Retention, and Winning Back
• Chapter 24: The VITO Zone
• Chapter 25: The Holy Grail
• Appendix A: The Template of Ideal Prospects (TIP) and the Benefit Matrix
• Appendix B: Finding VITO, Tracking VITO
• Appendix C: Social Media and VITO
• Appendix D: Your Prospecting Ratio