What the CEO Wants You to Know, by Ram Charan, is a simplified guide for those who wonder what is on the mind of the CEO (or any senior business leader for that matter) and why that matters when it comes to understanding how a business operates. Beginning with his own business experience as a child growing up in northern India, Charan leads an interesting intellectual journey, connecting the same business principles he saw practiced by street vendors in India to his own consulting work with CEO’s of some of the world’s largest and most successful companies.

Charan explains why growth is vital to prosperity, outlining the necessity to “earn a return that is greater than the cost of using other people’s money (banks’, shareholders’, or owners’)” thus meeting the basic requirements of those who invest their money in a business. Of particular interest and value is the chapter entitled Your Part in the Big Picture, which offers a prescription for assessing a company’s total business through a series of focused questions around sales, margin, assets, competitors, customers and people.

For a sales professional, understanding why business leaders must focus on things like cash generation, margin, velocity, return on assets, and growth helps us formulate sales questions that create value as part of the sales process, and positions the sales professional as a valued resource and trusted advisor with senior leadership. Sales excellence is more effectively and efficiently achieved when a sales professional can demonstrate a link to increasing profits and increasing sales by developing a better understanding of customer needs. That link is best achieved when one understands and can speak the language of business.

When combined with specific selling skills, a sales professional can incorporate what the CEO “wants us to know” into a consultative diagnostic process that uncovers the real needs of a customer, and then present solutions that are perceived as value-added by a senior-level business leader.