Reach key decision makers

When Adobe wanted to tell senior 3D CAD designers about a new product, it knew it had to do something special to get its message through to these busy, in-demand people; so it brought in help from marketing agency Mason Zimbler.

Mark Mason, CEO of Mason Zimbler, recalls, “95 per cent of B2B direct marketing ends up in the bin, so we knew we’d have to come up with something highly relevant and creative if we were to avoid that fate.”

He continues, “These people are absorbed in problem-solving, so we created a 3D direct mail piece, which was based around the solution to a significant technical problem the designers had with the original Spitfire. The problem was that its engines would cut out when the fuel supply was inverted, and this limited its manoeuvrability against the Messerschmitt. The piece showed how the engineers solved this tricky problem and it really struck a chord with the senior designers, achieving an excellent response.”

It is never easy to get a marketing message in front of senior decision makers, be they designers, marketing, financial or IT directors, company secretaries or chief executives. They are all busy, protected by gatekeepers and in great demand.

Yet, for almost all B2B sales it is essential to have at least the tacit endorsement – if not the actual signature on the contract – of these senior executives. Here are 10 techniques that might help you get through to this most elusive of audiences.

1. Invest enough. One of the chief causes of failure when it comes to targeting senior decision makers is failing to invest enough time and money. Ashley Bolser, MD of direct marketing agency ABA, says, “Most marketers underestimate the real cost of generating B2B sales. Few companies will buy a new computer system or accounting software package from a piece of direct mail costing 22p! Business decisions are often a complex mix of recognising business need, relevancy and timing, price and personality. Too many B2B marketers fail to plan or budget properly and so their efforts are doomed to failure.”

2. Personalise your mail. Richard Payne Gill, new business leader at data company D&B, claims that one of the campaigns he is running is achieving a response rate of 22 per cent from senior decision makers. “How are we doing this? Firstly, we’re selective and are only targeting 250 businesses. Secondly, we’ve made analytics a key plank of our data strategy. We make sure the targets we’re selecting have the characteristics of someone likely to buy our services.”

Once you have done all this to identify the best prospects, you should then make sure you speak to them in a way that will appeal to them.

Cat Jennings, associate director at communications consultancy Cohn & Wolfe, says, “Tailor your communications to your specific audience. Senior executives are interested in business benefits, and yet so many IT companies still fill their websites with detailed technical language describing product specifications.”

3. Use high value mailers. As Adobe showed with its Spitfire mailing, one of the best ways to grab the attention of a senior decision maker is to send a high value piece of direct mail.

Colin Sneath, MD of B2B marketing agency Native, offers this advice, “Gatekeepers are less inclined to discard communications that wear the sender’s high status on its sleeve, so ensure your communication comes from a senior member of your organisation. They are also more likely to pass on materials that they believe to be of a high value.”

Native put these principles into practice on a mailer for an office interiors firm. It sent a sealed ringpull can, which was personally addressed to the senior partner in architectural practices. The message ‘the success of your next project is in the can’, not only acted as a compelling teaser, but also encouraged gatekeepers to pass it on intact. The campaign achieved a high level of gatekeeper penetration, which was then converted into sales appointments, invitations to tender and secured contracts.

4. Host an event. In order to build new senior management contacts, Water for Fish – a human resources consulting firm – hired Julian Goldsmith, now a director at PR agency Marketforce Communications, to devise an innovative event for them.

He says, “Instead of the usual sort of event with a few presentations and talks following one another, we decided to stage a real Oxford Union-style debate at the home of off-the-record debating rules, Chatham House.”

He continues, “Senior people like meeting other peer-group senior people, so we involved Tim Waterstone (founder of the book store) and Boris Johnson. They also like to be involved, so we ensured the debate was interactive and engaging. Following the event, Water for Fish was able to arrange a series of follow-up meetings with senior decision makers who’d attended, and the agency claims it was a great success. Events like these can work, but you have to be original. A follow-the-pack approach is seldom successful in reaching those up where the air is rare.”

5. Invite them out. Another approach to events is to invite senior decision makers to a social event they will find hard to turn down. Oracle invited senior prospects to dinner with its CEO at the Wellington Arch – a highly-visible but little-known London landmark – and achieved an 85 per cent acceptance rate.

Last Christmas, Microsoft asked a number of clients and prospects to watch Peter Pan at the Savoy Theatre in London. The invitation, designed by Mason Zimbler, used a child’s telescope and a piece of parchment with a treasure map on it: everyone who was invited attended.

6. Make your website accessible. Because these senior decision makers are so busy, you must make it easy for them to respond to your communications and to find out more information about your company.

Drew Nicholson, joint MD at B2B marketing agency DNX, says, “I’m constantly amazed by the number of companies that direct senior decision makers to websites that can’t be viewed by mobile devices. These people are rarely in their offices and if they try once to look at a site that doesn’t work on their Blackberry do you think they’ll bother trying again?”

7. Network online. There may be many pitfalls to marketing online to senior decision makers, but there are also many opportunities.

Tim Gibbon, founder and director of PR agency Elemental, points out one, “More and more people are recognising the potential of networking sites such as Linkedin.com for reaching senior executives. You need to work hard to develop the relationship after first contact, but in our experience these websites provide a great environment for all levels of individuals to connect with each other.”

8. Editorial coverage. Another approach that can work very well with senior decision makers is gaining editorial coverage in media that they consume.

Tim Prizeman, director of PR firm Kelso Consulting, says, “Every senior executive will read some form of newspaper or news service most days, especially when they are travelling. If you can get coverage in these publications and come across as an expert, you will be well placed when the senior executive comes to hire someone in that area.”

However, there are downsides to PR in comparison to other marketing techniques. Specifically, it is notoriously difficult to measure the effect, you cannot guarantee any coverage and you cannot be sure that your target audience will even read the article. However, it can be very effective. As an example, Prizeman points to his client Global Expense, an expense management solution provider.

He says, “It has gone from start-up to sector leader, and coverage we secured for it in The Economist proved amazingly effective in establishing its credibility amongst their board-level audience in its early years.”

9. Link channels. While all of these methods can work on their own, they tend to be most effective when combined in a multi-channel campaign. Greig McCallum, planning partner at agency Personal, points to his recent B2B campaign for Barclays iShares as an example of this.

“We ran a multimedia campaign including press, television, online, offline, posters and ambient media, and the senior executives we were targeting couldn’t ignore it. For some key prospects we even parked mobile poster vans outside their offices and built special poster towers. This approach was expensive, but it ensured that the prospect was generally aware of the brand when the pack arrived,” he comments.

10. Aim low. If all of these techniques fail to attract the attention of senior decision makers, then there is one more to fall back on: targeting lower level executives so they become enthusiastic about your offer, and put it in front of the senior executive. In fact, some – such as Grant Keller, MD at agency Acceleration – believe that this is often the best way to approach senior decision makers.

He says, “In my opinion, in order to reach the top executives, a marketer needs to tread the hard path though the executive teams. To a large degree, the decisions that senior staff make are dependent on the quality of the information provided by the executives. So, marketers should not focus all of their energies on those at the top of the organisation. They should ensure their message is heard by all those who will have a say in the purchasing decision.”

Related content

Access full article

Propolis logo white

B2B strategies. B2B skills.
B2B growth.

Propolis helps B2B marketers confidently build the right strategies and skills to drive growth and prove their impact.