Developing Executive Presence: The Essential Skills to Sell to the C-Suite (Unabridged‪)‬

One of the biggest challenges faced by every sales professional during their career is learning to gain access to the decision-makers at companies, businesses, or organizations they hope to sell to. These decision makers – collectively known as the C-suite – tend to be intimidating, pose difficult questions, and are prone to making snap judgements about sales representatives during the first few minutes of any meeting. For sales reps tasked with selling to the C-suite, developing an executive presence of their own is essential if they hope to hold the decision-maker’s attention in any type of meeting. Without an executive presence, nothing a rep says is likely to be seen as credible by the leaders in the room regardless of how knowledgeable they are or how much their product or service would benefit the business or organization. The bottom line is an executive presence creates opportunities. It raises the executives’ confidence in a salesperson’s abilities and keeps their name top of mind as a trusted authority in their area of expertise. It builds the Know, Like, and Trust factor that is essential for creating the inter-personal relationships that all top sales professionals rely on to continue to build their network of clients and customers.