The one question CIOs hate yet sales people love to ask

I have met with a friend of mine recently, who happen to be the CIO of a US based investment firm. He complained about one irritating question he gets often from sales people (only one irritating question?!), yet it is a question sales people love to ask.

So what is that irritating question?

“what keeps you up at night?”

On the surface, it is a great consultative sales question, you identify key concerns and you map them to your solution.

This would have worked 20 years ago, but today, it is considered a lazy sales question. CIOs are far more informed today about the market, technology and vendors and these legacy sales questions are insulting.

What CIOs appreciate today is valuable insight, offering them something they do not know yet. The chances are, your organisation meets more CIOs in one week, than a CIO would in a whole year! If you are the expert in certain technology or industry vertical, then it makes sense that you should be telling the CIO what should keep him/her up at night.

Thank you for reading & sharing.

Nick