Getting meetings with CXOs is critical to business development. However, with the many unsolicited emails CXOs receive every day, not counting the many phone calls, getting time with them can be challenging. Worse, they're reluctant to take sales meetings with someone they don't know.
Here's where you can leverage social selling tactics to make your "impossible meetings" happen. The following three value props may hold the key. They've worked for me.
Value Prop #1: Create a lifelong learning environment
This shouldn't be news to any of us. In a business world spinning as fast as it is, CXOs want a partner who's dedicated to creating a strategic advantage for them through dependable knowledge transfer programs. They want to know what you know. Help them learn. Be creative.
Example: Three podcasts that can change the way you see your customers.
Value Prop #2: Enable training and education
CXOs want education or certification for their teams at supersonic speeds and they want it in a guaranteed time frame. I've never had a CXO sales meeting where some kind of education isn't mentioned. Education is critical to their success because of the investment they have in people and programs. Think about how you can guarantee training time frames so they can build a business case with a sense of confidence.
Example: Ask me about our 30-day compliance certification program and the first student is on us!
Value Prop #3: Focus on outcomes
Today's CXO's vocabulary is dominated by outcomes-based strategies in everything from employee retention to top-line growth. A sure sign that you're talking their language is an appreciation for solutions that create positive outcomes for their customer. Think about what you can offer that has a measurable impact on their business.
Example: Sales team retention can increase your bottom line by 5% this year. Here's how we do it.
Want to dig a little deeper? Check out these conversations and resources below and come back here for part seven in our social selling blog series.
Theresa Caragol
CEO AchieveUnite
Theresa Caragol is Founder and CEO of Achieve Unite. She has more than 24 years experience in building and managing multi-million-dollar indirect channel teams and strategic alliance business and programs from idea to revenue acceleration, and building companies and channel teams from the ground up. She also holds a number of industry advisory board roles, and has co-founded numerous industry think tanks and industry leadership forums. Theresa is on CompTIA's (Global IT Association)'s faculty and is passionately focused on assisting young people to accelerate their success in the industry. She also started ACE, a leadership by influence program, that rapidly builds women's leadership skills in the channel. Theresa has 2 elementary school boys, lives near Washington DC and is on a mission to visit 15 DC museums with her boys in 2019.
