A no-nonsense approach combined with getting under the skin of real business issues is the best approach when reaching out to the C-suite, says Rebecca Price, managing director at Lloyd Northover
Leveraging engagement opportunities with the C-suite can appear to be everything from a dark art to a thankless task. The C-suite is hard to access. They have ferocious gate-keepers, who bounce and filter approaches. They don’t open their own post, and sometimes, don’t even screen their own emails. They also have intimidating workloads. As if that wasn’t enough, this exclusive club is hard to impress. It regards marketing as vacuous spin – they’ve heard it all before, from the biggest and best, and have the t-shirt to prove it.
But don’t despair. If you’re worth your salt, the C-suite needs you. These people are where the buck stops, and despite the fact that they, too, are operating in the midst of a game-changing global recession, they’re expected to get results or fall on their swords.
When it comes to engaging the C-suite, it’s important to understand that for all their power, they don’t have all the answers. They are generalists who need specialists to deliver the day-to-day. They are surrounded by people who are good at what they do. This is where you come in.
Establish your credentials – by ignoring them
Success comes not by focusing on your organisation, but on your prospect’s. Establishing your credentials by ignoring them and concentrating on issues that are pertinent to your prospect’s business leads to a richer dialogue that underlines your credibility – without pages of turgid PowerPoint.
Demonstrate how you think and work through thought leadership. Create whitepapers on subjects pertinent to your prospects, invite them to roundtables and events where you can discuss the issues of the moment, and mail opinion pieces that encourage them to see life differently.
The approach accepts that your prospect really wants to concentrate on their specialist subject – their business. It indicates you listen first and talk second. It means you’re immediately in ‘adult/adult’ mode – two grown-ups debating the best way to resolve challenges and excel.
Such communications have tangible value, focusing on the challenges that link your story with your prospect’s. They are more likely to get past the ferocious gate-keeper. If the communications are digestible and thought-provoking, they will be valued by the C-suite recipient and may well win you a meeting. By this point, your prospect will already have a view of who you are and what you do without you having said very much about it at all.
Be bold, not beige
Your prospect will have an array of potential consultants and suppliers. They’ll have a long list of basic hard criteria: financial security, fundamental skillset, number of people, and so on. A shortlist of less tangible criteria includes: whether they can work with you on a personal level, whether you’re likely to help them move the business forward and such.
Success depends on being yourself, telling them what you really think and explaining why. By being bold, not beige, your addition to the shortlist will be based on a genuine appreciation of what makes you tick and increases your chances of success.
One of the most important factors overall in C-suite engagement is to swiftly acquire and maintain an ‘adult/adult’ relationship, where you share an obsession in finding the right approach for success. However, you can’t forget entirely that you are party to a sales process.
So tell your prospect you’d like to get on the shortlist, ask them how this can best be achieved, question what it is they value in you and ask whether they have any doubts about your ability (and what these might be). Then seek to eliminate them, one by one. By doing so, you will have made it clear to your prospect that their business is important to you, and above all, you will be memorable by dint of your no-nonsense approach.
Make it easy for them
In developing the right solution for a prospect, and in managing pitches, don’t make the mistake of complicating things to give them ‘sex appeal’.
Avoid jargon, gizmos or complicated tools and models – it’s neither cool nor clever. Make your final pitch as clear and straightforward as possible.
Play back your prospect’s overt and covert selection criteria, and explain how you meet them. If your prospect has six objectives, take them one by one, say what they are and how you’ll deal with them. If you know there are unwritten and subtle requirements, articulate them and explain how you’ll deal with those too.
Tell your prospect what you really think, why and what difference acknowledging it will make. Draw on examples from your experience of the wider business world. Give them your perspective of their real, positive differences based on your unique perspective as an outsider.
Finally, there’s little point in being shy. Summarise your prospect’s criteria and your solution. This is exactly what the C-suite will do when they are assessing your pitch, so help by doing it for them. If you think they may have doubts, be bold enough to say what they are, and why you think they aren’t an issue. Answer questions through the lens of your credentials.
It’s not over until it’s over, and even if you lose, you may have built a relationship with someone who may come back to you later with other work.
