This ITAC roundtable was hosted at the MaRS Centre, Toronto, Ontario.  

Is C-level the Right Place To Be?

What we learned

• Communicating with C-level is a mix; online nurturing is needed.
• Peer-to-peer events and communications. Consider event at a customer location. And involve customers in next corporate idea.
• Charity connection marketing.
• LinkedIn is very powerful.

What dialogue piques the interest of C-level individuals? What helps you reach the top tier?

• C-level individuals want to talk about client experience and ROI. They are not really interested in technology or a sales pitch, but rather real world experiences.
• Adding a charitable component “how can I give back”, yet still being profitable adds a sense of purpose.
• Engage in customer-level dialogue with peers at a customer facility.

How do you climb up the management chain without creating the impression you’re “going over the head” of your existing contact?

• Need to get permission and set expectations.
• Building partnerships is the key.
• You need a “hook” to bring sales decision into meeting; need to have a reason to bring C-level in.
• Establishing a purpose for a meeting is very important. Understanding your sales relationship is key; ask yourself, why go up? What’s your point? “Give to get” attitude. Ensure expectations are aligned with a clear purpose.
• Don’t overestimate advocates. Understand the players and politics along with their likes and dislikes. Understand the industry and company; bring a peer C-level into meeting.

Do you always want to be in the C-Suite – when may it not be in the best place to be?

• Understand the procurement process. Some deals may not involve C-suite. The best sales people don’t sell; they ask questions, they are consultants.
• “Big deal” sign-offs are obvious. Your purpose needs to be clear; reinforce your value proposition. Create a new champion to support the sales process.
• Default should be not to go to C-suite. If it necessary to go to C-suite, your purpose needs to be small, targeted and SURE.
• Focus on key influencers who typically make decisions. Stay vertically focused.
• Many C titles are doers. Are they the right person? A C-suite in one account may be a Director in another; understand titles.

Audience question: In the current economic environment, do you feel you need to go higher up the chain due to budget cuts?

• C-suite is getting more involved in understanding messages with a clear ROI.
• State of affairs is more difficult – your business case needs to be tight. Involvement hasn’t changed; it’s just tougher to penetrate.
• Organizations are leaner with 1 – 5 priorities. You’re out if you do not find yourself in the top 5. Make C-suite aware and understand what phase in buying cycle they are involved in. Map out decision-making process.

What types of events are C-level people most likely to attend? (size, content, presenters) How do you promote these events?

• Budget cuts at all levels; time is more precious. Webcasts with C-suite messaging and success story discussions.
• Right content, right message; get a subscription service to push content so clients can pull; content is critical for dialogue.
• Event size needs to be small enough for C-level to engage. Give opportunity for break-out rooms to allow for face-to-face discussion; provide short pull-down content on site for C-level to “come and get it when they need it”.
• Mini events work well with brief introductions and SME. Be respectful of time.
• Need to have advocate to push information to C-suite; get your C-suite to promote event.
• Be very specific and go in prepared. You have one shot.
• Unique events at unique locations can be successful. This works well in European countries.
• Events with spouses at a good venue have high degree of success.

Audience question: Has anyone tracked ‘pull-down’ content with C-suite? Are C-suite embracing the online world for information?

• Yes, they are doing research much more easily. C-suite self-educate prior to meetings.
• With the online world, some C-suite are more prepared than the sales person; it’s impressive.
• C-suite are not interested in online communication other than retrieving answers. “I’ll go if peers go”; need to push information to C-suite via non-online methods.

How do you track your efforts and measure ROI?

• No methodology. Minor tracking. Events are tough to track. Create cleaner pipeline.
• Hard to track but with 1 – 2 deals that come to fruition, it keeps marketing investment going. Try to measure every campaign.
• C-level tracking is costlier. Think of sales cycle, good ROI if win rate is short.
• Keyword searches, Google analytics and online tracking. Comes down to relationships with marketing. Build bridge between sales and marketing. There is no simple answer. Track what and where C-level participate then follow up.

Audience question:  We are unfamiliar with what web tools are available. There is a tremendous amount of technology – how do we choose the right one for a small company?

• Get as much information as you can; then find a platform that makes sense to you. Salesforce.com is very inexpensive, assist with sales advancement and tracks continuity.
• LinkedIn is very target-based and a useful tool for events and information. Twitter is a great hiring tool to target 30 – 35 year old looking for posts.
• Analyze your pipeline; at what stage of the buying cycle is each account. Place them in qualifying buckets. Ask yourself, how do you qualify? Define sales phases and have a checklist.

Audience question:  Glad to hear there is a sales and marketing connection. How much time is spent on the buying process?

• The key for resources and expenses paid is to have a good sales process in place. Content marketing, podcasts and Twitter help audiences understand your company.
• Sales background is needed. Sales knows what are effective tools and messages – tap into their account knowledge.
• Transition between sales and marketing is challenging. Tie between both is important. What stage of buying process are they at? Map it out and understand it.

Audience question:  We spend a lot of time nurturing leads. The challenge is closing loops. We find that many opportunities fizzle away. How to resolve? What tactics? How to motivate sales?

• Define qualifier with channel. “Permission content” is key. Keep asking questions. Nurture account and assume they are in control. Obtain agreement upfront of when to turn it over.
• Agree on what the follow-up activities are: emails, press release, white paper. Engage sales.
• Get them to engage in subscription service; figure out “interest to meet” cycle; how many touchpoints?
• Set expectations with sales team; what are you really trying to do in sales cycle?

Panelists:

• Johanna Delroy, National Director, Marketing, Compugen Inc.
• Frank Potocnick, Director, Public Marketing, Dell Canada
• Randy Clark, Chief Marketing Office, Platform Computing
• Rick Makos, President, Teradata Canada ULC