Selling to Executives: Context Selling
The 5 Steps to Creating Context That Moves Executive Decisions
In episode twenty two of Selling to Healthcare, I get practical about Context Selling, moving past the idea that executives need more information and showing how what they actually need is context, something true about their own business that they could not see for themselves. I lay out exactly what a C Suite executive needs from a seller to feel confident enough to make the call.
I challenge the consensus selling myth that has hardened into strategy across the industry, the belief that winning means getting better at selling to the middle of the organization. Instead, I argue that CEOs and CFOs are more involved in major buying decisions than ever, and the executives who seem impossible to reach are simply being approached at the wrong level, with the wrong preparation.
I walk through the five steps of Context Selling: noticing when executives lean in, sharing specific and relevant details through narrative, considering every lens in the room, building a compelling narrative before the meeting, and circulating a Core Authority Asset that carries the narrative when I am not in the room. Along the way, I share stories from Temple University Health System and VIE Healthcare that show what the right context looks like in practice.
This episode is a practical playbook for healthcare sales professionals ready to stop chasing consensus and start building the context that lets the executives who already hold the authority actually use it.
Highlights of this Episode Include:
Information Isn’t Context: A thirty page deck is information. Context is showing an executive something true about their own business they could not see for themselves, and that is what actually moves decisions.
Notice When Executives Lean In: The C Suite engages when you know their market, understand their pressures, and bring a point of view they have not heard, external context and frontline experience their own teams cannot access.
Share the Right Details, Not Fewer: The myth that executives only want the summary is backward. They are voracious readers who want the narrative, how you did it, not just that you did it.
Consider Every Lens in the Room: CEO strategy, CFO margin, CMO patient care, COO workflow. Carry one clear point of view, fluent enough across all four lenses to make every person in the room feel seen.
Build the Narrative Before the Meeting: The meeting is not where you gather context. It is where the executive evaluates whether you already understand their world. Do the deep preparation ahead of time.
Circulate a Core Authority Asset: Most deals die after the meeting, when the narrative cannot survive the retelling. Leave behind a concise, specific document that sells in every room you cannot be in.
Stop Chasing Consensus: The deals that feel stalled are not lost. They are waiting for someone to show up at the right level. Give the executive who already holds the authority the clarity to use it.
You can listen to the podcast here: Context Selling: The 5 Steps | E.22