I imagine most sales people you meet would outwardly claim to be confident in connecting and presenting to senior executives. However I am not sure that is always true. I will confess I have not always felt that way. And I am reminded of countless professional sportsmen and women who, at the peak of their game, have related stories of a lack of confidence no matter how relaxed they looked, or how well they perform. Top performers can suffer from a lack of confidence. Some make up for this with extra practice, while others embrace the fear -knowing that come the moment it will help them perform. I think that works in sales too, going into a meeting nervous does sometimes help you perform, forces you to think about the most important things, and to focus on the performance especially if you have prepared as much as you can before. I am not sure how it works but also once you realize the meeting is going as you had planned or prepared for, and you are performing it becomes self reinforcing and confidence grows.
The reason I mention confidence at the outset is because you have to have that in the first place to even think about reaching out to an executive - as it will involve communicating with and hopefully presenting an idea in a meeting. You have to have that confidence at each stage: the outreach or connection to get the meeting, to present and manage the meeting and to maintain connections after. It's ok to be nervous but you have to be confident you can handle each stage - or at the very least sound confident! You can gain a lot of confidence from knowing what is involved and what to do
Making a connection
Making that connection is really all about personal branding (Which does take time to develop), research, the timing of the outreach, the call message, relevance, value and uniqueness. Personal branding as mentioned does take time, it needs to focus on developing relevant and valuable content that is seen by your prospect audience over time. It makes it much more likely they will respond to an initial contact because you will be known to them. However connections can still be made without that. If you focus your research on analyzing their business, their profitability, big picture ideas and you can lead with specific insights about their business and a unique point of view in your messaging (Call or email) you can attract their attention. (You should still aim to do this if you have invested in personal branding, but is obviously necessary if you have not yet fully developed your brand). If you are able to use or mention mutual connections (If they are genuine) that will help, as will recognizing time is limited so make your insights clear and ask at least one good question that shows your knowledge and that you have done the work researching and understanding their business.
Getting the meeting
To get a meeting quickly you have to make a very convincing case that you can add value - not easy to do, but possible if you research, prepare well and have something of value to offer. If it is not possible to get an early or quick meeting you will have to demonstrate your worth through consistently providing valuable ideas/insights - backed by results, relating stories of how you have helped past clients. You should focus on outcomes and the impact of your ideas, be direct and concise and be unique where possible - and honest. Don't forget everyone sells to executives, internally and externally and they are used to exaggerated claims. If you get no response with the first ideas, try others. You are not expected to know everything about their business and what solutions they are interested in, instead show that you have lots of ideas, show that you can think. Show that you are different to everyone else. Use other factors to help, your connections or champions within the company. Use trigger events that you learn from company reports or announcements (lets be honest nobody really reads company reports it will be from shorter announcements/news items). Then prepare executive briefings (past results, insights from research, a short "what's in it for them" business case) and present an interesting but short agenda to tempt them into a meeting.
Present
They key is to have agreed a short agenda and present a short concise, "what's in it for me" summary of key points - the business case. Use a strong opener, start with a big picture but no "fluff", be strategic but focus on concrete issues, real businesses ideas and be brief (Get to the point as quick as you can) and be confident. Leave then an opening to ask a question or confirm that you are on the right track, they are used to talking and asking direct questions. So also be prepared for what those questions or comments might be and again don't deflect or waffle - say you don't know, or have a line that you have prepared. (That answers needs more research I will have to come back to you on that...we have not figured that out yet...we are working on answers to that). That said the more preparation you can do the better the presentation, the smarter and more confident you will sound. Having examples, one or two customer stories and data to hand will also make you sound smart, or at least prepared and give your confidence a boost. The more stories you have the more experienced you will sound, the more data points you have the smarter you will sound. Also the ability for you to ask good questions yourself and have insightful follow up questions and comments shows you are not following a script, you have expertise, you are comfortable going off topic and that may be creative enough to help offer solutions.
Stay in contact - how to develop the relationship
Being able to connect with an executive, get a meeting and deliver a good performance in that meeting is one thing - building a relationship from there is another thing. This will take time, you have to bring everything together, good content, advice, trust over a period of time. To keep on adding value is a challenge, but you should think to do that in every communication. Also provide connections to peers or other experts that can help them - then you become a very useful asset. Continue with providing content but "up the game" a little provide new ideas, analysis, a point of view and help them save time by breaking your ideas and information down. Establish a peer dynamic, make sure you do not feel inferior to them but not to the point of arrogance and imagining you are at exactly the same peer level or best of friends, but it is important that you can hold your own. An important aspect in all of this is be open and honest in your communication, ask questions and having a genuine interest in their success. One tip would be to find a senior executive mentor, at your own company or via other connections (Maybe not a customer) so that you get used to communicating in their language, conversing at that level and the topics of interest to them. This will help develop confidence and enable you to maintain a relationship beyond the first meeting. Also be respectful of time, don't expect them to respond continually, do not overcommunicate. If you are providing value, most executives will recognize that, they know better than anyone their success is tied to relationships with people across companies and industries—colleagues, partners, and “vendors” alike. And make sure you don’t just focus on problems and challenges. The higher up you get, the more you’ll find people who are looking for business growth, innovation, and competitive advantage. Executives seek ideas that will be “the next big thing” for their business so focus on opportunities more than threats to their business.
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