If you don't call on people who have authority to buy, you might as well do something else you enjoy more than selling.
Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Perot Systems, billionaire, former candidate for the presidency of the United States and famously cantankerously outspoken Texas personality, used to tell his sales people at EDS to “call high or go to a movie.”
Perot’s point was that his sales people will never close a deal on a big-ticket item with a low-level manager. So they might as well spend their time doing something they enjoy rather than waste time on sales calls with people who can’t approve the sale.
For what EDS sells – multimillion-dollar contracts for data-processing services to businesses – Perot was probably right.
Great Advice, But Not a Rule
The problem arises when sales managers in other companies, including my own, quote Perot’s advice as if it were sales gospel.
They think you should always start by calling in at the C-level of the executive suite (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, etc.) You’ll never get anywhere if you call much lower.
In my judgment, that’s often true — but not often enough to make it a rule.
Risks of Calling Too Low
If you call into an organization too low initially, you can get “stuck” with low-level employees who have no budgetary control or purchase authority. They may not be tuned in to corporate priorities. And the least effectual of these people will gladly consume your time as long as you let them.
Once you’ve established a relationship at a lower level, your contact may also become a blocker who prevents your access to higher-level managers. You’ve got a problem unless you handled it properly from the start.
Even if your contact is open to introducing you to higher levels, it’s an immutable rule of power hierarchies that referrals upward are always less influential than referrals downward.
When to Call Lower
Here are some situations where it may not make sense to start high:
- Your offerings have low strategic value to your prospect.
- Senior executives are unavailable or unresponsive.
- The company you’re calling on routinely purchases products or services like yours.
- The price tag for your offering is too low for the company to consider them major purchases.
- Senior executives have demonstrated that they’re unaware or in denial about the existence and severity of problems your product or service is uniquely able to solve.
- You don’t know enough about the company and its needs to approach a senior executive with a compelling business reason for him or her to talk to you.
In such cases it may be better to call lower — at least initially.
Best Point of Entry = Point of Greatest Dissatisfaction
Sales consultant and trainer Jeff Thull recommends that you find the point of dissatisfaction in an organization and not worry initially about how high or low it is.
People at the point of dissatisfaction are usually open to talking about ways to solve their problems. They can be great sources of diagnostic information, data and organizational insight.
Jeff uses a great maxim that I paraphrase often: If you don’t know the cost of a problem in business, you might as well not have the problem. You’ll never justify the investment required to fund a solution.
Lower-level people may be the best resources to help you estimate the cost of their problems.
If you play your cards right, you can use the information they provide to work your way up to the level of power and authority that can make your deal happen.
Starting low can be a much longer and slower process than getting to the top early. But if you can’t get to the top, start wherever you can get in. That certainly beats going to a movie in hopes you’ll be inspired with some message that senior executives find compelling enough to give you their time.
Stay fresh,
– Scott Silverback