How to sell to executives

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Sales veterans know that selling to an executive is a much different experience than selling to an individual. Executives likely will never use your product or service, and run tight schedules with competing priorities. Just getting a meeting on the books is a big win.

To better your odds, we amassed a panel of busy, tech CEOs to shake out tips on how to sell top-down.

Below are the can’t-miss highlights of the exchange between Ryan O’Hara, VP of Marketing at LeadIQ and 3 CEOs of high-growth companies: Olof of Mixmax, Ray of Chorus.ai, and Eric of Terminus.

SALES

How to sell to executives: From the minds of 3 CEOs

Selling to executives demands a strategic approach distinct from standard sales tactics. Executives operate under tight schedules, focus on high-level decisions, and often delegate daily operations. Therefore, engaging them requires a deep understanding of their priorities and challenges.

Get the executive thinking

Strengthen their domain expertise but shaking up assumptions.

Olof reveals one of the most detrimental beliefs of an executive is to, “build up functions where you have had a little bit of expertise, because you’ve done it to some extent.

An example of this: earlier on I did all sales for the company. I thought I totally knew what sales was all about. Then I hired our first sales rep, and they totally schooled – which was eye opening and wonderful.”

It’s near impossible for an executive to be an expert in every function & speciality. And in many cases, the area where they have historic sole contributor experience has evolved considerably. This is a chance to demonstrate value without going straight into your pitch.

Reveal data points and insights into impactful areas of the business.

“I like to learn about best practices, especially from our Industry, that maybe we’re not doing. It’s the fear of missing out. Not knowing what you don’t know.” – Roy

Humanize the sale

Authenticity and excitement go a long way.

“For cold email, some degree of flattery works. You see through it, but it puts you in a good frame of mind. It’s 1000x more interesting if the rep actually uses your product or service and can reference it intimately.” – Olof

Get personal.

“For anything coming from someone I don’t know, anything that is hyper-personalized will get flagged and read, but outside of that, I never see it. If an email looks like they have a relationship, or put an extensive amount of time personalizing it, I at least want to look at it.” – Eric

“Whenever an email comes in, it goes to one of two parts of my brain: it either goes into the professional part, or it goes into the personal side. I handle the two completely differently. If something comes in that’s classified on the professional side, I have to rank it against every other priority I have. And there can only ever be 2-3 priorities there; and everything else gets blown off.

When something comes in on the personal side: I’ll make time. There’s a lot more flexibility if something comes in a little less than purely professional. Trying to find a way to make it human can go a long way.” – Roy

Work your network

Leverage your team to get in the door faster.

From one EA to another.

“The EA relationship can be critical to getting meetings, and in many cases, open doors that I normally wouldn’t be able to.” – Eric

Find team members with personal relationships.

“When there’s a personal relationship there, it can be extraordinarily effective.” – Eric

Try to get into a deal cycle with current vendors your company is using.

Leverage the existing relationship, customers are often treated differently.

Title matters.

If you’re struggling to get in touch, try your VP, Head of Sales, or even your CEO to get a foot in the door.

Should you sell to the CEO?

The answer is: it depends. If you’re looking for a direct intro, advice, or to influence top level priorities, then it can be worth it. If you’re looking to hard sell, get around department heads, or to take up a lot of time, the answer was overwhelming no.

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SOFTWARE

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✅ Maqnet AI: The first AI that thinks like an award-winning creative director.

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