Breaking into the trust network of a senior executive is tough.

Like, really tough.

Regardless of how long they’ve been there, they’ve usually worked with trusted advisors for years.

Plus, like every professional, they’re strapped for time. They have hundreds of e-mails sitting in their inbox. They have 20 voice messages they haven’t listened to.

And then you have to compete with other sales people for their attention.

So let’s take a look at how you can build relationships with this hard-to-reach prospect:

1. First, Understand Their Concerns

Senior executives, like all other professionals, have personal and business concerns. Here are those concerns:

• Can you extend their network with valuable contacts?

• Their personal wealth, and how your product or service could impact that

• The status of their career – where it is now, where they’re going in the future

• Their personal life – friends, family, and hobbies (by far the most important personal concern)

• Future growth (or lack thereof) of the company

• Cost control and risk minimization

• Their relationship with the senior team

• Equity and debt financing, and where it might come from

2. How to Be a Person of Interest for Senior Execs

Now that you know where they’re coming from, you can position yourself strategically as an asset. At the end of the day, senior executives, and especially those at larger companies, want to do business with the thought leaders in their field. And they want to know that you understand their industry so well that you know where it’s going in the future.

Here’s how to position yourself as that kind of person:

• Produce content that shows exactly what you know

• Have interests beyond work that you can discuss

• Develop a core specialty, and surround that with branching areas of knowledge valuable to your client type

• Get to know other people in your niche who are themselves well-connected

• Send interesting articles and ideas to your connections on some of the key issues they face in their industry

3. Join Their Culture as Much as You Can

Online, LinkedIn makes this a cinch. Join groups with your target prospects.

In real life, be present where they’re present. Go to conferences they attend. Join their seminars and webinars.

Spend time at the driving range. You get the idea.

4. Sometimes, You have to Go Around to Get Straight In

Networking from the top down works best. But sometimes, you just can’t penetrate those well-built circles.

There’s a few tactics you can try:

• Use the authority of your own senior leaders to set up a meeting (some execs only talk to other execs)

• Connect with a junior level exec, and try to work your way up

• Never, ever, give up

Networking with execs isn’t easy. But then again, nothing worth doing is.

 

 

');