Vito Corleone

The idea of top-down selling has been around forever.

Selling to the Very Important Top Officer was re-energized and popularized again about 10 years ago with the business book "Selling to VITO". The book did a good job of explaining just how difficult it will be for you if you attempt to sell/market into an organization at a middle or lower level.

I've read too many business and sales-oriented books...I'm not proud of it and I very rarely read books of that genre now. For every good one, there's 20 bad ones. Let's face it folks, there's nothing new under the sun. And that goes double in the world of human behavior...especially in relation to the world of business. I purposely didn't read all of "Selling to Vito" because: 1.) I had already been doing it for some time and 2.)much of it was recycled rehash. The parts I read and enjoyed served simply to sharpen my saw a little bit.

So briefly, here's why if you're not approaching VITO first, your odds of success are reduced exponentially.

Every item of importance on a corporate agenda rolls up....it NEVER rolls down. And these items don't necessarily need to be time-sensitive and/or of critical importance in order for the CEO to be aware (e.g. operating capital, the price of their stock, short and long term strategy, capital budgets, research and development etc..). They have to think about other stuff too.

So, for example, if you sell software that improves the efficiency of a companies supply chain and logistics, go to the Boss. Go to VITO first.

That doesn't mean that, last night, The Board of Directors and the CEO were about to jump off The Sears Tower because of real or perceived IT-based shortcomings in their supply chain. What it means is what you represent is important ENOUGH to a CEO or a very senior manager that- if your timing is good- they MIGHT engage you OR delegate you down to one of their lieutenants. And not only does your timing need to be good, your approach needs to be impeccable.

Companies of several hundred or more employees, the CEO is the final decision-maker on only things of the utmost important. That's what their other senior managers are for. But don't think they aren't aware of a large number of other important issues. That's why they're in charge.

Chew on this: How different is the dynamic between you and the prospective senior manager buyer if you were introduced by the person who runs the company as opposed to, say, ANYONE ELSE?