This is the sales gravy podcast.

I'm Jeb Blunt, best-selling author of fanatical prospecting and sales EQ,

and I'm here to help you open more doors, close bigger deals, and rock your commission check.

This is my sixth and final installment of my conversation with Anthony and

Reno on competitive displacement. And on this episode, we discuss why you don't always need to get

to the decision maker. Sometimes you just need to find the CEO the problem.

First, though, did you know that I'm one of the few business authors who records his own

audiobooks, and you can get my latest audiobook objections on Audible, Google Play, iTunes,

or wherever audiobooks are sold. And now the final installment in my conversation with Anthony and Areno on competitive

displacement.

This leads me to one of the greatest myths in selling, especially in business services selling,

and that is that you should always start at the top.

I think it started with selling DeVito, right, the very important top officer.

And look, there's nothing wrong.

I mean, seriously, if you can get in front of the CEO, or you get in front of a P&L owner,

you should certainly do that. But in many cases, those people are completely disconnected from a mid-level small service in the organization. So most of the time you're going to be dealing with somebody who's a mid-level manager or director in the company or even someone who is, like I sold a lot of times to the dude that was working

in the tool crib, right? You know, somebody low in the organization who has the authority

to make a decision or at least recommend a decision. And you talk about this in the book,

and I'm just interested, you know, where you think people should start. And I'll just give you my philosophy

real quickly. You know, salespeople always ask me that question. And I say, listen, if you can get the

CEO to buy in, I love it. But in so many cases, especially in competitive displacement, you're not

going to be dealing with the CEO. You're not going to be dealing with a general manager.

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