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 COLUMN
Sell solutions to CTOs SOMETIMES I THINK that the acronym CTO stands for Chief Telephone-answering Officer. On a typical day in the office my phone rings nonstop, and as soon as I clear one batch of voice mail messages, the red light on my phone lights up again to indicate yet another message.
In my last column I recommended that aspiring CTOs learn to love their sales team because its members are on the front lines generating the revenue that keeps the company in business. Based on the volume of cold calls I receive, salespeople have already learned to love CTOs, because as a group we have dollars to spend and plenty of influence in the boardroom. I grew up in the South where I was raised to say, "Yes, sir," "No, ma'am," "please," and "thank you" to everyone. Early in my career, I carefully listened to every cold sales call, noted the salesperson's contact information, and always called back and dutifully followed up with a simple "No, thank you." Most of the time, that was the end of the relationship -- but it was a cordial ending. These days, out of pure necessity I find myself deleting sales pitches from vendors more often than answering them. I feel like a man wielding a machete, clearing the underbrush of daily communication. If you are a salesperson reading this, you are probably asking yourself: How do I get the CTO to call me back? (If you're a CTO, I hope you're feeling less guilty for not always returning those calls.) The answer is fairly self-evident: Make sure you are selling something that the CTO you are calling might find useful. I have had cold calls pushing everything from servers (which I always need) to custom-made wooden plaques for my office (which I generally pass on). You definitely need to do minimal background research on the company you are calling. For every well-informed and well-prepared salesperson I have encountered, there is always one who describes a "must-have" product to me just before asking me what InfoWorld does and whether or not we have a Web site. T-shirts and pens notwithstanding, CTOs also generally do not respond well to enticements that are unrelated to solving technical problems. Just last week, one vendor offered me limousine service from my house to an event his company was sponsoring. With budgets continuing to tighten for the rough months ahead, I would have appreciated a discount offer on the product instead of the limo. Besides, limos are so 1999 -- fiscal responsibility is the zeitgeist of the current economy. The approach CTOs appreciate the most is one of pure honesty. As counterintuitive as it may sound, the vendor I like to do business with the most often is the one who recommends a competitor's product when he or she thinks that choice is more appropriate for my environment. Recently a storage vendor went through a presentation with me for an NAS (network-attached storage) device that was clearly overpowered for my needs. At the end of the pitch, he quickly said, "I hope you enjoyed the discussion of the technology behind this -- it really is very cool. But you probably should buy our competitor's product, because it's less expensive and is a better fit for your needs." Now I call him first when I need something. Honesty builds relationships, and relationships make sales -- it's that simple. What sales approaches work (and don't work) for you? Write to me at chad_dickerson@infoworld.com. No sales pitches please. MORE > SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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