How to Actively Engage Corporate Executives

Engaging with corporate executives is essential throughout the client relationship—from the sales process to ongoing client success. The higher the buy-in, the better. But on-point engagement with higher-up execs is difficult. Today’s modern work environment is highly collaborative, meaning executives are extremely overworked and constantly being pulled in multiple directions. According to Harvard Business Review, corporate leaders receive an incredible 120 new emails per day on average. And get this, they only respond to about a quarter of them! 

So how do you get noticed through all the noise and increase engagement with key stakeholders?

1. Understand Their Goals and the Problems They Want Solved

Full visibility on the executive’s specific goals and problems will take you far with engagement. Connect your product’s benefits to their company-wide goals and their buy-in will be easy. But keep in mind that different executives will have different goals and different problems to solve. A CFO might be concerned about renewal costs while the COO is more concerned with time costs associated with onboarding. 

If you have a lot of accounts to keep track of—thus, a lot of executives—it can be helpful to create a customer journey map for each type of executive you engage with. Then create an automated process for how and when to engage with each. Which deliverables do CFOs get throughout the journey? What about the COO or CEO? Big picture, hard benefits are usually a good bet with this group, whereas day-to-day benefits may not be as impactful. It might be good to start with a quarterly business review (QBR) and assess from there. 

2. Give Kudos

Many times, an executive is only asked to get involved when something is going wrong.  Be a breath of fresh air and get the executive’s attention by giving visibility to something their team is doing well.  Find a metric or tactic that is trending positively that relates to larger goals. Reach out to the executive with good news and they will remember it! 

3. Provide Value by Focusing on Meaningful Messages

Bring a meaningful-only message approach by only sending those details that resonate and connect with the executives industries or goals. Mix in details about your product with industry news. Offer the exec an opportunity to be on your podcast. Invite them to a networking event. These are two-way bridges that help bring value to your message while fostering connection. We’ve all been at that networking event or get-together where the person we’re talking to won’t stop talking about themselves. Don’t be “that person”. Meaningful messages always provide value by offering opportunities to learn, listen and engage. 

4. Pay Close Attention to Channel Preferences

Emails, phone calls and meetings used to be the only players in town. But today’s modern buyers and customers have access to every communication tool under the sun from texts to chats, to Zooms and social media. We all have those communication channels that resonate and those that are just a hassle to keep up with. Adopt an omni-channel approach and then hone-in on which resonate with the specific executive you are targeting. Look to the data here for guidance. Was that industry article you sent to the CEO opened? Was it more helpful to look over the MAP in-person versus over Zoom? Make note of it in your CRM and reference that before reaching out in the future.

Engaging with corporate executives is critical for sales teams and client success. That engagement builds relationships that increase sales, upsells, cross-sells and customer retention. If you’re looking for more ways to help your teams build relationships with customers and prospects from the frontline to the executive level, we can help you create the perfect approach. Our ProteusEngage platform is powered by our own proven engagement formula. Learn more and schedule a demo today.