Visionary Selling : How to Get to Top Executives and How to Sell Them When You're There

Innovative and on the cutting edge, Visionary Selling shows you how to sell effectively to top decision makers by going beyond the hard sell of a specific product to aligning with the broader vision of top management.

As a result of reengineering and the trend towards new "horizontal" management structures, top executives are more accessible and more responsive to outside sources of information and ideas. By discovering customers' vision and formulating innovative ideas to enhance their businesses, salespeople can "cross the boundary" of sales to perform as business allies in a collaboration to fulfill the vision of their customers. The sales results can be spectacular.

In this practical and informative book, top saleswoman and professional trainer Barbara Geraghty explains that the best way to sell to a CEO or other top-level executive is to learn to think like one. Her Visionary Selling program will guide you through every step of this innovative process, using helpful true-life examples of how salespeople have used this approach effectively. You'll also learn how to discover the customer's vision, values, and core competencies; how to package the information into a strategic collaboration; and how to communicate a pertinent story that adds value at the executive level. With her gift for making complex ideas accessible, Geraghty explains:

• How to "cross the boundary" of sales and become a business ally of your customers
  
  
• How to turn gatekeepers into allies (illustrated by success and horror stories from CEO administrative assistants at Fortune 500 companies)
  
  
• How to use the Internet to research industry issues, specific company information, and marketplace trends and opportunities
  
  
• How to approach executives through e-mail with compelling ideas and valuable information for their businesses
  
  
• How to craft a pertinent and provocative presentation that contains key elements of interest and value to an executive
  

Challenging its readers to look beyond the product to the achievement of a long-term alliance with their customers, Visionary Selling will be the turning point in the careers of salespeople everywhere.

Barbara Geraghty is a sales trainer and consultant, professional speaker, and inventor of Klue, an interactive sales training game. Before founding her own company, Idea Quest, she was a successful sales manager in Sprint's Pacific Division. Her present clients include AT&T, Silicon Graphics, Sybase, and Arthur Andersen. She is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton, and is a member of the National Speakers' Association. She lives in Irvine, California, and can be contacted at visionaryselling.com.