In this podcast, I discuss the analogy that selling to executives is like trying to talk to a pretty girl at a bar. I spend this time diving deep into this analogy not just to give you something to ponder but more so because I believe this analogy can be used as a tool that you can keep in mind so that you have more clarity on what to do and not do when communicating with executives.
Main Premise
The main premise behind this analogy is that a pretty girl at a bar will have a lot of guys coming up to her, trying to pick her up. This is similar to how an executive will have a lot of salespeople contacting and approaching them to try to sell their products and services.
The Girl is not in “Buying Mode” (Just Like Your Target Prospect….Most Likely)
Some girls may really enjoy lots of guys approaching them, but to make this analogy helpful, we assume that the girl is not out to meet a guy and that her interests are to visit with her girlfriend and have fun. She is not in “buying mode” in terms of looking to meet a guy, so when guys try to pick her up, even though she is single, it does not match up with her immediate interests.
This is similar to selling to executives in that they may need your product or service, but most likely, they are not in buying mode when you reach out to them. Just like the girl, their interests are to have fun, and that converted to the business world would be to make more money, decrease costs, not work so hard, get more recognition, get promoted, etc.
You Don’t Want to be the 10th Guy to Talk to the Girl
This analogy becomes helpful when we realize that as guys keep interrupting the girl from having fun and talking to her friend, she starts to get a little more annoyed. Sure, for the first couple, she plays along with their questions, but then she realizes that if she does that with everybody, she will never get to talk to her friend.
So what happens is that she starts to become guarded and short when guys come up. She tries to identify if it is just another guy trying to pick her up, and if it is, she gets rid of him pretty quickly. This is the exact same thing with high-value target prospects in that they get approached all day, every day, through cold calls, voicemails, and cold emails.
Target prospects will operate with a level of guardedness and try to identify if people contacting them are trying to sell something. If they are, they will send them away as quickly as they can, usually by using sales objections.
How to Use This Analogy as a Sales Tool
This can be a helpful way to think about how to sell to executives by thinking about one clear thing you would not want to do with the girl at the bar. If she is getting annoyed by guys coming over to hit on her and you are going to be the 10th guy to try to talk to her, one key thing you can do is go over and avoid looking like you are trying to pick her up.
Converting that to selling to executives, if your target prospects are annoyed by getting sold to a lot, then you can improve your odds of starting a conversation by not looking like a salesperson trying to sell something.
We don’t discuss how to do that in this podcast, but we do discuss it in most of our other training videos, blogs, and podcasts.
The other thing to think about is how she is not in buying mode in terms of looking to meet a guy, just like the prospect is not in buying mode to buy your product. But just because she is not looking to meet a guy doesn’t mean that she can’t have a conversation with someone. And just because your prospect is not looking to buy or does not need what you sell does not mean it does not make sense to have a conversation.
If you were the guy at the bar and the girl’s interest was to have fun, you would increase your odds of establishing a conversation by focusing on that interest and either adding to her fun or presenting yourself as someone who will add to it. Converting that to selling to executives is that you can improve your ability to establish conversations by presenting yourself as helping them to fill their interests and have more fun – make more money, decrease costs, etc.