Chapter 1- Setting the Stage

Who is VITO?
VITO is the Very Important Top Officer–the man or woman who sits at the top of every single
one of your target groups of prospects and customers who has the ultimate authority to make your
sale materialize or disappear.

If VITO doesn't want to buy your stuff, the sale is not going to happen, no matter how many
purchasing peons, interns, or technical experts say it's a great idea. Ever had a "sure thing" sale
evaporate mysteriously? Five will get you ten that VITO, whom you never met, happened to
mention to someone that what you were offering didn't seem like a great idea. Whoosh. You went
from the hot new thing to radioactive in 10 seconds.

If VITO does want to buy your stuff, then the sale is going to happen, no matter how many senior
VPs, entrenched suppliers, or relatives of the current vendor think it's a dumb idea to buy from
you. You want VITO on your side. This book is about getting VITO on your side.

VITO Principle #1: Everything changes.

I've spent a good many years writing articles and books, creating audio programs, building e-
learning lessons, and teaching and coaching salespeople how to get appointments with VITO–
the person who has the ultimate veto power. And over the years, like everything else in this
universe, the process has changed.

Why? VITO has changed. Levels of authority continue to migrate upward within the enterprise.
The tougher regulatory and legal environment of the last few years has made VITO more
cautious. When people at the top exercise caution, they typically delegate and empower others in
an effort to mitigate risk.

So I'll share with you, right now, the big lesson I've learned about VITO since I wrote my first
book. It is this: Contrary to popular opinion (and my own assessment in the early 1990s), today's
VITOs aren't really risk takers.

Actually, by the time VITO approves a decision–either through empowerment, delegation, or
(gasp!) taking direction from individuals lower down and higher up in the executive ranks of
VITO Inc. – the "risk" has typically become nonexistent. The decision turns into a well-
informed strategic choice, one that puts someone else's neck on the line. (Or, better yet, a
bunch of someone elses'.)

I realize that there are dangers in any generalization, and I know that what I've just described is
not the way all VITOs operate these days. But it is an increasingly common pattern in today's
business environment, and it seems likely to me–given some of the challenges faced by a
number of visible "hard-charging" executives who really were serious risk takers–to remain a
common pattern in years to come.

Copyright 2005, Anthony Parinello 858-278-8284DON'T KILL THE MESSENGER!

You're not going to like the facts of selling life that you're about to read. Just remember that I am
on your side, and when you get to the end of this chapter I will still be on your side. Ready? Here
are six things you need to acknowledge about your selling career.

1. Right now, your sales cycle is, in all likelihood, about 50% longer than it can and should be.
2. You've been lied to repeatedly by the decision makers you've been dealing with for lo these
many years. They've told you that they have the authority to say No to the vendors they deal
with. They really don't have this power.
3. You've been selling to individuals who don't like to be sold to.
4. You've been annoying the hell out of them in the process.
5. Whether you realize it now or not, every VITO has a VITO.
6. If you want to sell to a VITO, you have to think like a VITO.
Let's look at each of these in depth.

THING YOU NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR SELLING CAREER #1:

Your Sales Cycle Is 50% Longer than It Should Be.

I know, I know. The threadbare phrase "time is money" has been beaten into your skull for years.
But is that any reason to ignore it? The cost of a person-to-person "sales call" continues to rise in
too many of today's sales organizations. Many sales managers still insist on getting salespeople to
focus on "activity"–and not on results. In startling numbers, lines of business executives (like
VPs of sales) are watching their ROS (return on sales) dwindle. And guess what?

While all of this is happening, you and your contemporaries are, in all likelihood, using tactics
that are actually lengthening rather than shortening your sales cycle! That means you're making
these already lousy numbers worse, not better!

Dubious? Don't be. In the pages that follow, you'll learn what the (all-too-common) problems are
and how to turn them around.

THING YOU NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR SELLING CAREER #2:

You've Been Lied to: Decision Makers Really Cannot Say No.

There are, by my count, five important players in each and every account that you and I sell to.
For now, I want to focus on the role of just one of these players: the Decision Maker, or DM.

Fact Number One
The DMs' job is to say Yes. They have to. It's in their job description. They have a need to fill, a
job to do, and they need the help of "business partners" to do it. Keep in mind, then, that
whenever you get what sounds like a No from a DM, that means that they have said Yes to
someone else, like your competition. I know that's not cool, but that's the way it is.

Fact Number Two
In the not-so-distant past (like, say, within the last 12 to 24 months) a few players changed their
roles in your prospects' and customers' organization. You most likely didn't notice this, mainly
because your prospects and customers didn't want you to know anything about it.
But it happened. DMs grew in numbers. They are now sprinkled all over the enterprise. And they
tend to act out a role in our sales process that looks a lot more important than it really is.

Copyright 2005, Anthony Parinello 858-278-8284DMs did at one time actually possess the "signature authority" for some pretty substantial
numbers. Example: I sell to large Fortune 500 organizations. The VP of sales is typically the
person who signs my agreement when I get a "yes" answer. In days past, the VP of sales had
decision authority for upwards of $250,000. Today, that same VP in that same Fortune 500
account has a $2,500 authority level.

Look at it again. Was: a quarter of a million bucks. Is: twenty-five hundred bucks.

DMs are not about to tell us about this (very important!) trend.

So, then, who is making the real decision?
Consider the following situation.


Imaginary Case Study
Ms. VITO Importanta, the CEO of VITO, Inc., wants to capture the Pacific Rim opportunity for
her line of wireless products. She's done her own research, and she's confident that her vision and
mission will take the competition by surprise and win the market share that she needs to attract
round two of investors. Her most trusted line of- business executive, who has proven his ability to
get things done ahead of time and under budget, is her chief operations officer (COO), Mr. Joe
Kickbut.

Mr. Kickbut is empowered, during a simple one-on-one meeting with Ms. Importanta, to find all
of the necessary channels to make this push across the Pacific Ocean a reality. The COO will take
all of the tactical steps to make this happen. Ms. Importanta ends her directive with these words:
"Kickbut, once you've decided on the right suppliers, pass them by me before you sign
anything."
What just took place? Ms. Importanta kept her veto power . . . and turned over the risk to Mr. K.
So here's what the situation looks like to the typical salesperson: Mr. K is the Decision Maker.
The buck stops right on his desk. The typical salesperson thinks, "If Kickbut says 'No,' I'm out of
the game.
If Kickbut says 'Yes,' I just hit pay dirt."

Wrong on both counts!

If you think that the formal Decision Maker (Joe Kickbut) is the person who is approving your
sale, I have news for you. The numbers show different. The numbers also show that you're going
to be surprised during your discussions with Mr. Kickbut after he says "yes" to you, and most
of the time you are not going to be pleasantly surprised.

A recent poll of my Selling to VITO alumni indicates that more often than not when a DM says
"you're in the running and everything is looking good," your sale is still very much in
jeopardy. A whopping 30% of the time the sale is denied. Even if you look at the world with that
famous cup-half-full perspective, that means you're only getting seven out of ten deals, when you
thought you had ten out of ten. Ouch!
Copyright 2005, Anthony Parinello 858-278-8284Who's Who Continues to Change
The business landscape has changed since I wrote Selling to VITO, and so have the players and
their roles. Here's the lineup (from the bottom up) as it appears today, in the twenty-first century:

 Recommenders
 Influencers
 Decision Makers
 Approvers
 Board members

Note: In cases where you're selling to an enterprise that does not currently have any board
members, not to worry . . . your job just got a little easier.

Empowerment in today's business world works like this: Board members advise and empower

Approvers to over accomplish each and every one of their goals, plans, and objectives, especially
year-end shareholder distributions.

Approvers empower Decision Makers by telling them to sign on the dotted line . . . after
reporting to the Approver as to what their preferences are.

Decision Makers empower Influencers by telling them to make the selection and report to the DM
as to what their preferences are. But notice this: Influencers invariably interpret, and advertise,
this job of theirs as "making the decision," which is not the case.

Influencers empower Recommenders by asking them to be on a committee to make
recommendations, which (as you probably already know) may or may not be considered, or even
noticed, by the Influencer.

Recommenders empower nobody . . . unless they happen to occupy one of the other roles at the
same time. It is a complex but unavoidable fact of business life in the twenty-first century that
people sometimes play two, three, four, or all five of the roles outlined here at the same time!

Note: It's common in smaller organizations to have one individual playing multiple roles. Keep in
mind that lower-level players don't normally play the role of a higher-placed individual, although
they would have you think otherwise.

THING YOU NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR SELLING CAREER #3:

You've Been Selling to Individuals Who Don't Like to Be Sold To.

Consider the case of a salesperson selling human resources (HR) outsourcing. She calls on the
head of the HR department. Let's listen in on the call: Ima Gogetter, salesperson: "Ms.
Skepticala, our organization can reduce your department's direct cost and size by 75% while at
the same time guaranteeing compliance with all of the state and federal regulations. Furthermore,
our outsourcing team will manage and maintain your department's current workload without the
unintentional inefficiencies you're currently experiencing."

Copyright 2005, Anthony Parinello 858-278-8284Ms. Reela Skepticala, Head of Human Resources:
"Hmmm. Send me some information and I'll get back to you."

If Ms. Skepticala embraces this "solution," she will be out of a job! Skip this kind of exchange.
Follow these three simple rules.

Rule Number One: Don't waste your time trying to sell to anyone who makes less money
than you do.

Rule Number Two: Never ask anyone who makes less money than you do to sell for you.

Rule Number Three: Make your first call to the same titles your own CEO would call.

THING YOU NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR SELLING CAREER #4:

You've Been Annoying the Hell Out of the People You've Been Trying to Sell To.

If you violate rules one and two, previously outlined, you won't just be wasting your own time.
You will be building enemies within the organization you are trying to sell to.

Don't do it.

THING YOU NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR SELLING CAREER #5:

Every VITO Has a VITO.

I am going to get into this topic in much greater depth in the pages that follow, but let me make
the point here briefly to underline its importance. Every VITO has a VITO.

VITOs take direction from those individuals who are higher up in the "food chain". While I was
writing my Wall Street Journal bestselling book Think and Sell like a CEO I interviewed over
one hundred VITOs. To prepare for this daunting task and to make editing the material as
manageable as possible, I created a form with 15 different questions that I would be asking each
CEO, president, and owner that I would be interviewing. Everyone that I interviewed had
different answers to each question . . . with the exception of two questions. Both of these
questions were answered in exactly the same way by each VITO I interviewed.

The first question was:
Who has the power to interrupt you from your busy day and stop whatever you're doing
so that you take their call?

Here's the answer that always came back:
One of my board members.

Food for thought, yes?
Now, let's look at the second question.
Copyright 2005, Anthony Parinello 858-278-8284THING YOU NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR SELLING CAREER #6:

If You Want to Sell to VITO, You Have to Think Like VITO.

Here's the second question that was answered in precisely the same way by every one of the more
than 100 VITOs I interviewed:
What's the single most important aspect of your operation that is critical to your
overall success?
Here's the answer that always came back:
Following a plan and a process
I discovered that the most successful VITOS made sure their companies had processes for
everything! Finance, manufacturing, marketing, customer service, and yes, even sales. If it
mattered to the organization, the most successful top bananas had figured out a way to turn it into
a process. Interesting, yes?

A process, of course, is basically a recipe. It's the proven "what to do" and the reliable "when to
do it" of what VITO (or you) plans to carry out. It's the ingredients and the sequence used to
create any desired result (like increasing shareholder value or making a sale).

So here's what you have to understand. The most successful VITOs start with the end in mind,
then look for a process that will deliver that goal. They begin by stating what they want as a
positive picture for their mind's eye. For instance:
My goal is to capture the Pacific Rim market for my wireless products.
Not:
I don't want to lose market share to my competitors.
If you stop and think about it, it makes sense for us to state our desired end result in a positive
way. This is because the human mind (that includes you, me, and VITO) focuses powerfully on
whatever we give it, even when what we focus on contradicts the logical sense of what we
think we are asking our mind to do. So, for example, if we tell our mind, "I don't want to lose
market share to my competition," guess what outcome our brains are most likely to fixate on?
Losing market share! That's what will come back to us. If, on the other hand, we say to
ourselves, "My goal is to capture the Pacific market for my wireless products," our mind
fixates on the desired outcome: capturing the Pacific market. Phrasing commands and
questions in a positive manner is extremely important in running a company, making sales . . .
and, indeed, in just about every aspect of life you can imagine. Here's the payoff: I learned to my
astonishment that the vast majority of successful VITOs I was interviewing made a habit of
seeing themselves being successful. They habitually visualized positive outcomes, as I've
described . . . and, as a result, they were much more likely to attain them.

You can understand, then, why I'm going to insist that you see yourself taking each of the ten
steps to VITO's office that I'll be explaining to you throughout the remaining chapters of this
book. This visualization is a very important part of the sales success that awaits!

Here's an example of a positive message for you to use before turning to Chapter 2:
"I see myself making more sales with VITOs than ever before. I see myself realizing
larger than average initial sales in a shorter amount of time, and getting all of the add-on
business and referrals that I've worked hard for and deserve from my existing
customers."


Copyright 2005, Anthony Parinello 858-278-8284