Selling To VITO
August 9, 2007 – 12:48 amI have read Selling to VITO and seen Tony Parinello live. The essence of his approach is to go straight to the top person in an organization ( VITO = Very Important Top Officer) and get their backing to shorten your selling cycle and increase your sales. Nothing really new there excepting that he promises to teach you how to get the CXOs attention - the vital first appointment.
His concept is solid and can work very well if you have a solid story to tell. What the book breezed over is how to pinpoint what it is that your business or product does much better than the competition and how to convey that message to the CXO. Essentially, if you don’t have compelling stories of how you have helped other or similar businesses save money, make money, save time or increase marketshare all of the VITO letters in the world aren’t going to get you an appointment.
If you are new to higher level sales or to cold-calling on the C-level I would highly recommend this book. Once your done reading it, start by honing your value statement and uncovering examples of how you or your company have helped other business achieve and exceed their objectives. Sales reps that have strong written skills will enjoy this sales approach.