Customer Reviews

Selling To Vito: The Very Important Top Officer

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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.

Selling To VITO (Very Important Top Officer) is a book dedicated to the science of getting past the proverbial gatekeeper and reaching the executive prospect.

The book discusses in detail everything from attitude to the format of letters one should mail to the content of the voice mail one must leave. In that respect, the book is complete and combined with the personal experience the authors bring manages to offer an above average methodology into an important aspect of most sales cycles.

Having said that, does the book's advice actually work? Well, the answer is some yes and a lot of no. Having put the methodology to work first hand - letters, labels and all - it is fair to say that VITO helps, but is hardly a silver bullet. In fact, while the book facilitated some headway the final end-goal was never in sight.
The failed experiment might be the result of bad luck or a small and non-representative sample, but the bottom-line remains that the book's effectiveness must be questioned. Furthermore, the book's content is slightly dated as shown by some of the verbiage which might be translating into the same for the content.

Selling To VITO is definately a must read for anyone who sells high-dollar products or services in low volume. It would be terribly hard, however, to make a good living using Parinello's process if you are required to close large numbers of sales to hit quota. (Because the work that goes into pulling this off is immense.)

The success of Parinello's process is rooted in four key features:

1. Social Proof: If other, well-known companies used you, then you must be great.
 
2. Authority: One of VITO's peers will supply testimonials of success on your behalf.
 
3. Process: Develop a linear process to ensure objectives are preplanned and met.
 
4. Consistency: Keep a consistent message that focuses on results and makes you stand out as unique among the many salespeople attempting to get in.

(For information on social proof and authority, see INFLUENCE, Science And Practice, by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.)

I must admit that I was unable -- perhaps unwilling is more accurate -- to make the follow-up phone call and voice-mail processes work, because, while I'm passionate about what I sell, faking perkiness simply doesn't work for me. (And I'll bet that being over-the-top perky is a key part of pulling this off.)

Bottom line, if you do any type of cold-letter writing, you should read this book.

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.

Mr. Parinello seems to have some unresolved issues with those of us who graduated from college. I have never before encountered a person who is so full of contempt for engineers, accountants, programmers, managers, and all other professionals who chouse to graduate from University rather than make cold calls to little old ladies.
Putting Mr. Parinello's high-school drop out attitudes towards education aside, the book is not too bad. If you have never sold anything to an organization before then you can learn a decent approach from this book and then adopt it to your own situation. Just don't take Parinello's cheesy pitches too seriously. You will make a fool of yourself in front of the top managers you will talk to. Many if not most of them got an MBA degree. They will catch your bluff it you try to talk to them about financial concepts that you don't know much about.

Mr. Parinello seems to have some unresolved issues with those of us who graduated from college. I have never before encountered a person who is so full of contempt for engineers, accountants, programmers, managers, and all other professionals who chouse to graduate from University rather than make cold calls to little old ladies.
Putting Mr. Parinello's high-school drop out attitudes towards education aside, the book is not too bad. If you have never sold anything to an organization before then you can learn a decent approach from this book and then adopt it to your own situation. Just don't take Parinello's cheesy pitches too seriously. You will make a fool of yourself in front of the top managers you will talk to. Many if not most of them got an MBA degree. They will catch your bluff it you try to talk to them about financial concepts that you don't know much about.

This is a useful guide for sales professionals. Many sales managers and companies will have some sort of letter library. The problem is that most of these letters were written by marketing people, and they do not understand what motivates many top executives into buying your product. They are so canned, and 99% of them will be filed in the circular file under "G." Most executives could care less about all the bells and whistles your product has. They care about how your product or service will add to their bottom line.

If you can follow Tony Parinello's line of reasoning, you will succeed in landing corporate sales. This is not something you can pick up overnight. Selling to Vito is an excellent component to a salesman's library.

This book is magnificent. The techniques are real-world and are backed up with specific examples. The author spends time teaching, not talking about himself. This book would benefit any sales professional at any point in his or her career. Read it and turbo charge your career and earning power.

As other readers have indicated, this book is cheesey. And the techniques are fundatmentally flawed. The book is so poorly written as to be almost laughable.

For many if not most of you, VITO doesn't want to hear what you have to say, and he's not the guy making the decision. Parinello is just plain wrong. He has a few valid points, but they're so interspersed with garbage that it's hard to cull them out.

You won't be worse off for reading this book, other than the time you've lost. You'll pick up a few important sales concepts. But how are you going to know which ones they are?

Finally, I'll say the author is somewhat bold in his claims. Like one of his claims to write back to every piece of correspondance he receives. I'm still waiting, Tony, 6 months later!

Being agressive is always good in most aspects of one's life but in entering a vital relationship with a senior executive there is often more at stake than a slick line and "yes I'll fix your problem attitude." Most executives today are not the 1940s sterotypes that Parinello describes. Most executives are highly educated and sophisticated and respond to similar traits in sales people. The problem is that most sales people who try to sell to VITO are not highly educated or are not able to tweak the VITO's hot spots. More often the cheesy lines that sales people learn and use (some contained in this book) achieve exactly the opposite of what one wants -- VITO gets turned off. If one persists in this line one comes off as a used car salesman -- what one Australian reviewer called an "American" approach. I do not believe that even Americans are that immune to critical thinking and so happy-clappy that they can eat up all Parinello uncritically.

Parinello is unfortunately sophisticated neither in his writing technique nor his organisation. The writing is cheesy and reminds one of a vanity press at times. There is numerous repetition and really cliche stories to while away your hours. Parinello sells this book as a guide, but the organisation is so disjointed that it really cannot be said to be a "guide" as such.

Having said all of the above, Parinello does hit many of the vital points, handling gatekeepers etc. and these hard questions are what real intelligent sales professionals ask themselves. But the problem really is in Parinello's peurile and 1950s approach to solving these problems -- the answers are the problem, the questions are good.

Vito is motivated to talk with people who can solve his/ her problems, that much is true. But they are interested in straight talking, honest and aware sales people as well. Not ones so focused on the sale that they betray their lack of sophistication.

VITO knows that his problems are too important to entrust to used car sales people.