The Funnelholic

Glossary: “C-Suite” — Defined on the funnelholic as any C-level executive but implies more than one. My buddy at SAP gave me this term and I have been using it ever since.

Assault refers to everyone’s continual quest to get into the C-Suite. It was brought up to me once again once I released my Optimize to Connect post…that alot of common techniques do not work when we are talking about C-level executives.

Let make one thing crystal clear: Getting into the C-Suite from mid-sized business and up is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT.

If you work at one of the tech giants (IBM, ORCL, SAP, MSFT, CISCO, etc), you SHOULD be dealing with the C-Suite and by virtue of who you work for, this is more realiistice
C-level executives DO NOT DOWNLOAD whitepapers on the internet. They don’t.
Per the above point, you may have to leverage a direct report to get to him and THAT IS OKAY
This is especially true when you are at an emerging technology organization
I know that the CFO signs off on technology, but he is not going to respond to a it infrastructure vendors “Save money, roi, etc” VITO letter
Rolodex works here (too obvious) but if you can use it do it.

So, what to do? I don’t know how many times I have been asked to build a lead development organization to get meetings on the C-level or as an internet lead generation organization to develop C-level leads.

Funnelholic tips:

Sales:

Be-friend the admin. There is so much written about this, that I don’t need to do more. But this lady is tough as nails but is human and will help you somewhat.

First of all, if you have a well-written email, ask her to print it and put it on her bosses’ chair

Talk to her when things are not hectic, late in the day, and just be up-front on what you are trying to achieve

Seriously, its ok, to talk to a direct report or the person in-charge of the area you are selling to (example: if you are selling supply chain, the person in charge of supply chain management is ok.
Try calling before 9AM and after 5PM when the admin is gone and your contact is just sitting at their desk

Using automation

Tools like Eloqua, Genius.com, etc DO work here and they work great. The earlier point of getting c-level guys when their day of meetings is done can be executed using Connect Automation. Send them an email at 5:45 pm and when they open it and start cruising around — call them OR if you can’t reach them send them another email right then. This technique is one of the reasons for Connect Automation.

One guy I spoke with sends 10 emails at 6PM and if he gets a hit. He calls first in hopes that he can reach the contact (gatekeeper gone). If that doesn’t work, he gets bold and sends an email.

Using online Lead Generation services

You won’t get C-level downloads from companies of any substantial size. That does not mean you should fire your online lead sources. Look it doesn’t take a dummy to know that if people from that company are researching what you are selling that you have a shot at getting to the top. Triangulate around your contact knowing what they are looking into and what their pains are and you can create targeted compelling messaging for your C-level target.

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
Sign up to receive emails when new articles are posted
Want to connect directly? Email me at craig AT funnelholic.com<

Share this Post: