Keys to Closing Executive-Level Deals

In most sales, business executives are the ones who finalize the deal. However, business executives often hear the same things repeated: Sellers saying they know EXACTLY how to help that exec, sellers promising results, et cetera.

Sellers often miss one important aspect for finalizing sales with business executives, however. Sellers don’t appeal to their buyer’s emotional sides. People make decisions based on both logical and emotional reasoning. If you want to sell to executives, you HAVE to appeal to their emotional thinking.

Appealing To Emotions

There are a few different things you can do to help appeal to the emotional thinking of executives. The first aspect of emotional selling is: Differentiating yourself from your competition.

Think about how many emails business executives receive daily. They are VERY busy people, and they’re often flooded with the same, repetitive sales lingo. If you want to not only capture the business executive’s attention but also finalize the deal, you HAVE to offer something different.

Case studies are a PHENOMENAL tool for this. Identify a similar company to the one you’re selling to, and look at a case study. What problem did that company have? How did you solve said problem? Show THIS to the executive instead of repetitive, empty words and you’ll appeal to emotion.

The second aspect of emotional selling is: Being a trusted advisor.

Business executives, and people in general, come to sellers for one reason: To solve whatever issue they have. However, they don’t want to be sold. They want their problem solved. Build trust with the business executive and show interest in SOLVING their problem, not offering them a product or service. If there’s no trust between you and that executive, you’re far less likely to actually make the sale.

The third tool we’ll cover for appealing to emotions is Data insight questions.

Data insight questions tie back into the idea of using case studies. The idea behind data insight questions is you first present your buyer with a piece of relevant information, THEN ask them a question.

After providing the client with some data, turn it into insight. Relate that information to whatever issue the buyer is facing. Essentially, just offer the buyer some context that’s relevant to both their business AND the data.

Finally, ask the buyer a question. The question should be relevant, provocative, focused on them, and action-oriented.

Utilize these tools to better appeal to the emotional side of business executives and your buyers. You’ll be surprised at the improvement.

Our podcast, The Centricity Podcast, is dedicated to helping small and mid-market businesses thrive and develop the sales and marketing acumen to move the needle. Tune into our episode featuring Tim Riesterer to learn about aligning your sellers and marketers for maximal growth and profits.