In the world of B2B sales, getting access to power granted is often highlighted as a cornerstone of complex sales methodologies like Solution Selling or Target Account Selling.

When done well, the challenge of gaining access to key decision-makers becomes an opportunity to get early blessing, accelerate sales cycles and elevate you as a trusted partner. You get it: you shift the conversation from the CPO to the CFO, or from the CIO to the CEO, and both your pipeline and your win rate should take off.

However, while selling to power is a guiding principle, it does not mean sales reps do not need to fine tune the approach to their customers’ culture and the way they make decisions.

Access to power requires skills and prep:

Key decision-makers operate at a strategic altitude. Selling to them requires more than charisma: it requires skills and preparation. Before you even attempt to engage, ask yourself the following questions:

Am I speaking the language of the C-suite? Your messaging should demonstrate an understanding of their business drivers and the related metrics. Make sure you speak their language: the rule “you get delegated to the people you sound like” will apply straight after your first meeting.

Do I bring value in every interaction? No discovery applies with the C-suite and surely not the notorious “What keeps you up at night” question. From outreach to initial meeting, CEOs and other power players don’t have time for exploratory pitches. make sure you are equipped with the insights, data and facts to drive meaningful conversations that are worth their time.

Can I connect the dots? Your solution align with their strategic roadmap including vision, goals and challenges. If you solve a legal issue that typically falls under the Head of legal but want to involve the CEOs, ensure you leverage value links that resonates with them: compliance for sure but also personal and brand reputation. Otherwise, you risk burning a valuable connection and being sent back to where you belong.

Research is non-negotiable and generic or far-fetched messages are a fast track to irrelevance. Marketing creativity without a documented burden of proof will not pass the litmus test of C-Suite reality.

Stepping back to business sponsors:

C-level people are inundated with sales messages claiming to solve problems they do not prioritize they do not have on their roadmap. The result? Fatigue, frustration, and a greater reluctance to engage with vendors.

Even if you do it well, selling to power has to be adjusted. You need to be humble about the problems you solve, the needs you satisfy, or the goals you help achieve. There is no shame stepping back to business sponsors. Let us face it:

Not all so-called solutions align with the C-suite priorities: forget about being transformational while trying to move away from being transactional. You may have done a great job working on your offer positioning and the value you deliver, but let’s be realistic: reaching out to the C-suite of a major account to highlight the merits of emails automation through AI, despite the obvious link to new business, productivity and therefore profit, may do more harm than good.

C-level people rely on inner and political circles: this comes down to hiring the best talents to do a job better than they could themselves. The more complex the sales and the higher the stakes, the more B2B organizations rely on collective decision-making. Focus on identifying and enabling internal change agents – mid to senior-level executives – who can generate consensus and grant you access to power in due time instead of bypassing them and creating a cohort of enemies or blockers.

Not all customers buy the same way: you may have encountered some success selling to Power. This could be because you activated the right personal drivers in key executives eager to leave their mark on their organization. Ego is a powerful sales agent. Or it may be because you met a visionary power sponsor who loved your offer and made a top-down, super-quick decision. This may not be replicable or reflect the reality of your business. Beware of mainstream buyers: their decision-making process is slower and driven by discipline and value. To access to Power, you must negotiate to win.

Conclusion:

Here is our message to vendors who made access to Power a pivotal component of their sales process: be humble about what you sell and the value you deliver. Humility is not about playing small—it is about playing smart. It includes being realistic about the key personas who should be involved in your sales process.

If you want to cell to the CEO, ask yourself: does the pain I solve really hurt the CEO? If you struggle to design a realistic pain chain up to the CEO and get it approved by your customers, sell to the lower levels.

If your “Selling to the CEO” strategy backfires in certain accounts, ask yourself: what is the culture of these customers, and how do they buy and make decisions? It could be Power belongs to the collective, not to ultimate decision makers.

Strategic selling is not just about access to the highest possible level: it is about alignment and consensus. When you grasp the subtlety of what power means in different organizations, that is when you truly become strategic and make a real impact.

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