Hi it's me Tony Parinello the creator of Vito selling as you know this is the third edition of selling to Vito the very important top officer and I'm proud to say that I've revised the book from beginning to end to bring it up to date for Selling in the 21st Century. The subtitle of my book says it all. Get to the top, get to the point, get the sale.
And that's exactly why you'll find the basic methodology of selling to veto is unchanged. Everything you'll be listening to. here is still based upon my own continued selling experiences with CEOs, presidents, and owners of small, mid-market, and mega Fortune 100 global enterprises, as well as my teaching and mentoring of more than two and a half million salespeople representing every possible product you can think of. Over the past years, I've gotten a lot of pressure from salespeople to water down my core principle that whatever you sell, you're better off connecting with the the office of the president, CEO, or founder of the enterprise before talking to anyone else. I can't count the number of salespeople who have debated this point with me, insisting that people with those titles simply don't buy what the company sells.
Be it office supplies, cleaning supplies, copiers, computers, software, pharmaceuticals, whatever. Most of these sellers felt they sold a commodity or something of no interest to Vito, and that Vito just didn't care about that kind of purchase. Over the past 28 years, I've held the line on my gut feeling and my personal Vito selling experience, which is that Vito does care about the results of anything and everything sold to their company.
Guess what? I was right. After more than two decades of field testing, I've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vito does care. Vito does decide quickly. and Vito does buy every single item whose results can help in the overachievement of Vito's goals.
Not only does Vito buy, Vito buys big. My job is to teach you how to position yourself as the dominant provider of value, Vito style. To do that, I'm going to ask you to change the way you look at yourself, your product, your marketplace, your organization, and your selling style. If you're ready for a change, challenge and the rewards that accompany meeting that challenge, you've come to the right place. At this point, you may be thinking, hey, wait a minute, Tony.
Revision or no revision, by the time I buy and listen to this book, it's already going to be old. After all, it's just a recording of ink on paper, and that means it was fresh when you wrote it, but not while I'm listening to it. Well, here's where technology comes in. As a listener of this book, you're cordially invited to participate. in my special live weekly internet broadcast with yours truly behind the microphone.
I'll keep you up to date on all of the veto selling tactics, and I'll answer all of your market-specific questions as they come up during your use of this program. And what's more, I'll role-play your telephone opening statements, your voicemail messages, your gatekeeper tactics, and every other part of my veto selling process. Thank you.
So, if you find yourself getting stuck on anything that you listen to, don't give up. Instead, join and participate and I'll coach you through whatever challenge you're having. Before we move on, I'd like to make a promise to you. What you're about to learn is what I use in my own sales process.
The day I stop using my own work myself to get appointments and sell to Vito is the day I'll stop writing books, recording books, and teaching. seminars about it, rest assured that everything I teach you I also do myself. I'll also promise you that everything I ask you to do will be ethical and will not cost you any sleep at night, and you'll have fun doing it.
Prologue, Altitude and Attitude. When I saw him, I was in northern Washington state waiting for a ferry to take me across the water to Vancouver Island in the British Columbia. columbia in the middle of a six city speaking tour i decided to drive to the island rather than fly from seattle my ferry's departure was still thirty minutes away and i was sitting on the dock taking in the beautiful scenery and daydreaming when i saw him approaching the shoreline some kind of bird considering the distance Since this bird was covering, he didn't seem to be flapping his wings very often.
And as he sailed closer and closer to me, I realized that I wasn't just looking at a bird, but at a bald eagle in full flight. He was huge, with a wingspan that seemed impossible. He was majestic, and for a moment, he left me literally breathless.
As he drew closer and closer to me, he dipped towards the water, then banked upward gracefully, gaining altitude quickly. As he landed, I saw a bird. landed perfectly without the slightest instability, flutter, or hesitation on the top of a telephone pole right in front of my car. I grew up as an inner-city kid in Hoboken, New Jersey.
I can spot a pigeon a mile away. But I'd never ever seen a real, live, soaring bald eagle until that day in 1993. As he sat on top of that pole, the eagle scanned the water looking for his next prey. opportunity. Somewhere just beneath the surface was an unsuspecting fish that was about to become breakfast. I stared at him until it was time for me to get on the ferry.
He never stopped scanning the water. You know lots of research has been done on bald eagles, America's national bird. As it turns out when eagles fly they almost always fly alone. You'll never see a flock of bald eagles.
When they land somewhere they almost always land alone. always land on the highest available spot. It could be a branch, a perch, an outcropping, or, as in this case, a telephone pole. You know why they land on the highest spot? Well, first of all, they aim for it.
And second, because that's the position from which they can see everything that matters to them. The landscape, their prey, and any predators they may have to deal with. Bald eagles prefer to fly alone. They like the vantage point they get from the top.
They maintain a... certain altitude and a certain attitude. In fact, just from watching that one eagle at close range, I came to my own conclusion about altitude and attitude of bald eagles.
That day, I realized that bald eagles not only enjoy being at the top, they feel they deserve to be at the top. That eagle reminded me of someone who was already very familiar to me, someone who's about to become very familiar to you too. I call that someone Vito, the very important top officer.
nineteen ninety nine nineteen ninety four by perinello inc published by adams business an imprint of adams media a division of f w media inc all rights reserved This audiobook, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from Anthony Perinello. Published in print by Adams Media, a division of FW Media, Inc. ISBN 10-1-4405-0669-8 Recorded in the United States of America.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher and Anthony Perronello are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal... legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
This audiobook is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases. For information, please call 1-800-777-VITO or visit www.sellingtoveto.com. Forward, written by Bob Irwin, CEO of... sterling commerce i first ran into veto selling in 2003 when i was working as a salesperson and i quickly realized that it was designed to deliver exactly what i was trying to make happen in my own sales career high level contact a truly consultative approach and aggressively shortening sales cycles all three became realities in my own career i did eventually become a ceo and built the veto program into the sales DNA of Sterling Commerce. Based on my own personal experience and the results we've seen at Sterling Commerce, I believe the relationships you create by deploying the veto tactics and philosophy can drive double-digit or even greater levels of sales growth.
That's regardless of the state of the economy and regardless of the state of your particular industry. These kinds of dramatic increases played out for us consistently over a four-year period. They are solely the results of improved sales efficiency.
Veto selling can change your career, just as it did mine, and it can certainly transform your sales team. What you'll be listening to works. Use it. Chapter 1. Meet Vito, the very important top officer. In your current sales process, how high up the corporate org chart do you land on your initial call or contact?
Are you typically starting at the very top of the organization? chart? Or are you more likely to be starting on the first or second branch from the bottom of that chart with the lower level supervisors, buyers, managers, purchasing agents, and associates?
Most of the salespeople I work with are pretty uneasy. about answering this question directly at first. They hem and haw and talk about what happened when they once called a CEO, president, or owner, or other C-level executive. I'm not asking who you eventually met.
I'm asking who you typically start your sales process with. I believe you must answer this question forthrightly if you are to benefit in any way from what follows in this book. Be honest with yourself. who have you been calling on and selling to?
Tony wants you to look very carefully at the titles of the people you've recently been trying to sell to. And then, if you dare, ask yourself one critical question that can literally transform your selling career if you are willing to ponder the answer carefully enough. What kind of flooring were these people standing on?
When you met with these folks to talk with them about your product, service, or solution, were you standing on... solid mahogany? Was there deep, comfortable, plush carpet everywhere you walked? Was there imported inlaid marble at your feet? Were you walking down the aisle of someone's private jet?
Well, if you wrote down titles like buyer, admin, or purchasing agent, or even thought about those titles, I'm guessing the answer to these questions about the flooring were no. In fact, I'm going to guess that you were standing on linoleum. Yep.
If you're like most of the people I've taught over the years. years you were standing on cheap flooring with someone who kept putting off decisions someone whose life's mission was making you jump through all the hoops someone who always wanted to see more from you more samples more demos more references more advice more meetings more whatever i'm betting that no matter what you offered no matter how many good ideas you brought to the table that buyer was standing on linoleum and did an awful lot of procrastinating and not much actual deciding or buying. The process dragged out. And if you ended up getting any business, you didn't get as much as you deserved. Am I right?
I thought so. When I was a younger salesperson working for Hewlett Packard, I used to start my sales cycle in Linoleumville, just like you're doing right now. I spent most of my day, heck, most of my months, talking to the Seymours.
I'll explain that interesting word in just a moment. These... Ice Seymour's dragged out my sales cycle, put off decisions, and restricted my access to others in the organization. Sound like anyone you know? Because I was full of ambition and energy and competitive spirit, I made that sales process work.
For a while, anyway. I was named Hewlett Packard's Rookie of the Year in my division. Then, after several years of being at the top, I got complacent.
I stopped prospecting. I started coasting. And I walked.
woke up one morning to find myself miles and miles and miles behind quota, staring at a memo from my boss informing me that I was officially on probation. I had just six months to turn things around or lose my job. Well, I didn't want to lose my job, so I started thinking, what the heck can I possibly do to hit quota within the next six months?
A little voice inside me told me that if I kept wasting my time in linoleumville, I didn't stand a chance. I listened to that little voice, and thank God I did, because once I started listening, I started calling at the top of the organization. It was at this fateful point in my career that I started selling to Vito.
You can probably guess the end of the story. Tony hit yearly quota, much to the astonishment of his manager. And Tony started his next year with a new perspective.
Now that he had figured out a way to close bigger deals quicker, Thank you What was Tony going to do? Go back to calling Seymours? No way! I didn't realize it then, but in closing that gap by the end of the year, I had harnessed the power of something I now call the Network of Influence and Authority.
This is a helpful structural breakdown that is common to virtually all enterprises and great for accelerating your sales cycle, increasing your average order size. if and only if you are willing to start at the top of the network. We're going to talk about the four players in the network briefly right now.
Don't worry about the labels if they seem strange to you initially. You'll be getting to know each of these four folks very well as we spend more time together. In your mind's eye, I want you to visualize this network of influence and authority at the very bottom.
Recommenders, you know, the worker bees, the users of the products, services, and solutions you sell. One step higher, the Seymours of the world. We'll call them influencers.
And one step above the Seymours, the people they report to are decision makers. Seymours. These are the people that Vito, the very important top officer, holds accountable for getting stuff done. And at the very top is Vito, the approver.
Meet Vito, the very important top officer. Remember that telephone pole my eagle landed on? How many tops did it have? That's right, just one. If that telephone pole represented the corporate org chart, the very top of it is where you'll find...
find our main character of this book, Vito. Why is Vito at the top? Because like an eagle, Vito intentionally aimed for it.
Because from the top, Vito can see everything that's critically important. Because Vito has responsibility for all that lies below. Because Vito has the ultimate Vito power over absolutely everything that happens in the organization, including including your sale. Believe it.
Veto is the one person who is the most interested in the economics of the organization, the growth of the organization, the compliance of the organization, the you-name-it of the organization. Heck, veto is the organization. Veto rule number zero.
The rule from which every other veto rule is derived. Veto is the ultimate approver of everything. that happens in the organization including your sale video is the person I've been selling to for the past almost three decades during that time I have met wind and dined vacations with written about and interviewed more vetoes than almost anyone else in the free world over the past two and a half decades Tony has personally trained over two and a half million sales people written eight six books on the topic and given over 3,000 veto training seminars we say this not to impress you but rather to impress upon you that Tony knows what it takes to sell to veto Tony also knows how to tell whether a salesperson really possesses the mindset necessary to take what he teaches and take action on it as you'll find out in the chapters that follow having the proper state of mind is an important part of what it takes to sell to veto are you ready to sell to veto go on to the next chapter to find out