Product Description

Gives tips on how to maximize one's selling potential by getting appointments with Very Important Top Officers (VITOs), improving the size of the sale and the commission.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129184 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

It works!
I first read this book when I was brand new to business to business sales and it got me in front of top decision makers straight away. It continues to do so.

It's a process that needs to be followed. The VITO letter is a winner - and it can easily be a fax or an e-mail (e-mail works particularly well for me). The 'Portrait of VITO' is great for more inexperienced salespeople; the breakdown of VITO's results orientation is something every salesperson should read - are you talking this person's langauage? If you are, you'll do fine with a VITO over the phone (I also use Stephan Schiffman's 'Cold Calling Techniques that really work' and have one of the highest calls to appointments ratios in my region).

The biggest wake-up call in this book for me was the "Seymours". The kind of low ranking decision maker who wants to 'see more' proposals, see more charts, samples, brochures, etc. I realised that while I thought I was making progress with these people it was the biggest waste of time ever.

All in all, this book got my B2B sales career off to an excellent start and I continue to use Parinello's principles. For additional motivation I ordered the Selling to VITO tape, and hearing him speak is an inspiration. There's also a great story about voicemail at the end of the tape....

Use the VITO approach and your sales will increase.

Kicking in the front door to higher sales
Everyone talks about how to sell to the customer once your in the door and have an established relationship with the account. Anyone who's gone through Solution Selling, SPIN, etc., understands the need to listen to the customer and direct him/her to your solution. The unanswered question remains - how do you get in front of the right person to begin with. What if you've never called on the account before and have no relationship. Selling to VITO will give you a workable blueprint for effectively getting to the right person. I've tried it and I like the structured approach. It also offers great advise on how to avoid spending much time with SEMORE, the guy who will suck up your time with never ending requests for information but unable to actually buy your product. While your "hit" rate will depend on how closely aligned your product is to who you think VITO is in your suspect organization, with "Selling to Vito" you will be better armed to get in the door and stay there. - SM

Highly Recommended!
Are your sales in a slump? Chances are you're selling to the wrong people. In this A-to-Z primer, Anthony Parinello explains how to get your foot in the executive suite. To be successful in sales, he says, go right to the top. Although well organized, the content at times reads like a stream-of-consciousness speech. Many of the "secrets" Parinello reveals are plain common sense - it's hard to believe that anybody in sales wouldn't know them. His advice about using the Web for research is dated (when was the last time anybody used the term "information superhighway"?), but the principles he outlines are timeless and make this a great read which we recommend to performance-oriented sales people and sales managers. Overall, this inspirational, motivational account should fire up sales people and help them see the forest, not just the trees.