Tim Riesterer | Keys to Closing Executive-Level Deals - 055

Feb 7, 2023

Appealing to the emotional thinking of sellers, executives especially is PARAMOUNT. In today’s episode of Centricity, our host Sean Doyle meets with Tim Riesterer to discuss how you can better optimize your sales and marketing teams to more efficiently meet the revenue goals you’re trying to meet.

How Executive Level Buyers Buy

• Oftentimes, executive-level buyers won’t make a decision on whether or not to buy, or flat-out ghost a seller. Riesterer refers to this as the curse of no decision.
• Most of the reasons executives will give a seller for not buying are actually LIES. The real reason is: The seller didn’t appeal to the executive’s emotional thinking.
• Buyers ultimately make the decision to purchase something based on both logical AND emotional thinking. You HAVE to appeal to both to actually make the sale.
• Essentially, the process is broken into two steps. The first step is based on logic. The executive will give you reasons WHY they want to change or want their problem solved. But the actual decision to go THROUGH with this is purely emotional.

What Executives Look For

• When sellers were asked to give themselves a rating on their performance, most times they gave themselves around a B. Buyers, however, gave these sellers an F rating.
• Not only do buyers need to be emotionally aroused, but they also need SOMETHING unique from you as a seller.
• One of the KEY things that buyers want to know is: What are their competition and others like them doing? Think about it, a seller knows your product incredibly well and has met with several different executives or buyers. Buyers, meanwhile, completely understand their problem but don’t know what others like them are doing. They want to know this, however.
• Executives don’t want you to listen to their issues, then repeat their problem back. They already intimately understand their problem. Instead, they want you to point out things that they DIDN’T know, based on what others like them don’t know or are doing.
• One of the most POWERFUL tools in your arsenal as a seller is Voyeurism. When meeting with an executive, set benchmarks. Ask the exec how they think they stack up to others, then actually show them how they perform. Tell them how they can improve their performance.

Data Insight Question

• Another POTENT tool in your arsenal as a seller is data insight questions or DIQ.
• The data in DIQ highlights the scope of the problem to your seller. Essentially, you’re revealing the true extent of their problem and giving them a REASON to buy your product or service.
• After providing the data, you then offer insights. Offer some insights on WHY the data looks the way it is, or why things are the way they are.
• Finally, you ask the question. Ask them whether or not they’re willing to try your product or service, and transfer ownership of the conversation to the buyer. This gets them INVESTED in the conversation.

The Importance of Contrast

• Buyers come to sellers to address issues they have. However, one of the MAIN factors that determine whether or not a buyer will move through with a sale is: How much will they get out OF the sale?
• If they get marginally more, or the same, results as they currently are, they WON’T make the sale. You as a seller HAVE to show a noticeable contrast between the buyer’s current state, and their state AFTER buying your product or service.

If you want to learn more, or get in touch with Tim Riersterer, you can go to the website www.corporatevisions.com or www.b2bdecisionlabs.com. Tim also has a book, The Sales Expansion, available on Amazon.