Anthony Parinello - Selling to VITO the Very Important Top Officer: Get to the Top. Get to the Point. Get to the Sale.

SELLING

TO VITO

the Very Important Top Officer

3rd Edition

Get to the top. Get to the point.

Get the sale.

ANTHONY PARINELLO

Copyright 2010, 1999, 1994 by Parinello, Inc.

All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any

form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are

made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by

Published by Adams Business, an imprint of Adams Media,

a division of F+W Media, Inc.

57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A.

www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN 10: 1-4405-0669-8

ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-0669-7

eISBN 10: 1-4405-0734-1

eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-0734-2

Printed in the United States of America.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

is available from the publisher.

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From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their product are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.

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To my beloved mom, Josephine Rose, for her continued love

and guidance and for teaching me right from wrong.

And to my greatest raving fan, best friend, and mentor, my

brother Al, who left this world too soon.

I will continually strive to make them both proud of me.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Prologue: Altitude and Attitude

Chapter 1 Meet VITO, the Very Important Top Officer

Chapter 2 Are You Ready to Sel to VITO?

Chapter 3 Spotlight on the Sales Process

Chapter 4 Replicate, Replicate, Replicate

Chapter 5 Six Big Reasons to Contact VITO First

Chapter 6 Influencers and Recommenders

Chapter 7 How Not to Communicate with VITO

Chapter 8 Twelve Attitudes and Traits You Must Own to Sel to VITO

Chapter 9 The Principles of VITO Marketing

Chapter 10 VITO's Time

Chapter 11 Exponential Revenue Increases

Chapter 12 Two Rules for Snagging the Intentional Area of VITO's Brain

Chapter 13 The Six Elements of VITO Correspondence

Chapter 14 Delivering the Message Your Telephone Opening Statement to VITO

Chapter 15 What to Do When VITO Picks Up the Phone

Chapter 16 Three Obstacles, Eight Steps

Chapter 17 The Gatekeepers

Chapter 18 Voice Mail Messages

Chapter 19 Pay Dirt

Chapter 20 Dealing with the Shunt; Qualifying the Opportunity

Chapter 21 Second Contact

Chapter 22 In-Depth with VITO

Chapter 23 Acquisition, Retention, and Winning Back

Chapter 24 The VITO Zone

Chapter 25 The Holy Grail

Appendix A The Template of Ideal Prospects (TIP) and the Benefit Matrix Appendix B Finding VITO, Tracking VI TO

Appendix C Social Media and VITO

Appendix D Your Prospecting Ratio

Acknowledgments

There are so many individuals whose hands, hearts and minds have touched this book. I am grateful to the entire team at Adams for their hard work and dedication; to the hundreds of VITOs who over the years have given me the knowledge and experience to continue to create meaningful intel ectual work on this topic; to the over 2.5 mil ion salespeople who have implemented this program, who continue to fol ow my advice, and who push me to continual self-improvement so the teacher can stay one step in front of the student; to my editor, Brandon Toropov, for his incredible ability to read my mind and who's been with this project since the writing of the first edition in 1993; and to my team at VITO Central: Beth Al en, Miki Davis, John Sel , Heather Burke, and Kim Barnett, who at times seem to know me and my work better than I do. I also want to express my thanks to my family and my many friends who have contributed to this book in ways large and smal over the years. Final y, I want to thank you, the reader; without you, there would be no book at al !

Foreword

I first ran into VITO Sel ing in 2003, when I was working as a sales-person 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 shortened sales cycles. Al three became realities in my own career. I did, wel , eventual y become a CEO and built the VITO 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 VITO 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 result of improved sales efficiency.

VITO sel ing can change your career, just as it did mine. And it can certainly transform your sales team. What fol ows works. Use it!

Bob Irwin, CEO, Sterling Commerce

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 British Columbia.

In the middle of a six-city speaking tour, I had decided to drive to the island rather than fly from Seattle. My ferry's departure was stil 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 this bird was covering, he didn't seem to be flapping his wings very often. 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 ful flight.

He was huge, with a wingspan that seemed impossible. He was majestic. And for a moment, he left me literal y breathless.

As he drew closer and closer to me, he dipped toward the water then banked upward graceful y, gaining altitude quickly as he landed, perfectly and without the slightest instability, flutter, or hesitation, on the top of a telephone pole 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 had never, ever seen a real, live, soaring bald eagle until that day in 1993. As he sat on the top of that pole, the eagle scanned the water, looking for his next opportunity. Somewhere just beneath the surface, an unsuspecting fish was about to become breakfast.