I had coffee with Silvia Quintanilla last week. She is a seasoned sales pro and an expert when it comes to identifying “triggers” at Fortune 500 companies that present opportunities for vendors of all kinds. She creates amazingly concise, yet in-depth company reports that are completely customized for her clients. Of course she does not do this for free–but what you can get for free is her monthly newsletter highlighting current sales triggers at Fortune 500 companies. As you know, timing and relevance are everything when it comes to making a sale. Industry Gems’ monthly report is a great way to keep up to date on these opportunities.

I just found out that Tom O’Toole has been named CMO of United Airlines. I have been following his career for quite awhile. While at Hyatt Corp., he held a dual role: Chief Marketing Officer AND Chief Information Officer. This is a very unusual combo and puzzling to many. How can one person be an expert in both marketing and technology–both left brain and right brain?

No one explains it better than O’Toole himself. Just listen to some of the insight he has shared over the years: “The priority needs and interests of marketing and IT tend to go hand in hand,” he said. Long considered outside the purview of marketing directors, qualitative information is something O’Toole has repeatedly counseled fellow CMOs to “get comfortable dealing with.” He has encouraged CMO’s to learn about various technologies, including XML, relational databases and ASP’s. “One need not be a chief technology officer – being conversant is enough,” he said.

In 2009, O’Toole told BearingPoint, “CMOs and CIOs may not realize it, but they increasingly share a common aim: They both are working to create information-driven enterprises. Marketing is increasingly conducted through IT-enabled media driven by database analytics/applications…in my view, the areas of overlap between these two spheres are where the most dynamic, interesting, important, growing business activities are happening.”

O’Toole is not the only one who feels this way. Bob Willett, the CEO of Best Buy International (and a former CIO himself) believes that the path to the corner office is going to skew more toward the CIO role in the future. “A lot of CEOs have come from the CFO background – in the future I think a lot of the CEOs are going to come from the CIO background. Because technology…it’s the only thing that touches every single facet of the company in great depth and great detail. And so I think the route to the corner office in the future, five ten years, is going to be much more via the CIO route than it is the CFO route today.”

What does this mean for those of us trying to engage them? It means you can no longer make assumptions about the CMO or CIO persona or archetype. With the convergence of business, marketing and technology, the people ascending to these positions come from more diverse backgrounds. It is important we look at them as individuals and tailor our messages to speak their language.

For example, if you are pitching a marketing solution to O’Toole that has a technology component–say a marketing analytics package or virtual events platform–you better be prepared to answer questions about what’s under the hood and how the back end technology could integrate with solutions he is already using. While this is not typically what you would expect with a CMO, given his background, it could come up. Don’t be caught unprepared.

I have been enjoying Marc Benioff’s book, Behind the Cloud, which Santa left for me under the tree last month. Benioff is the CEO and Founder of Salesforce.com. Of particular interest to those of us in the business of CXO strategy, is a story he tells on pp. 92-93, called “Connect the Dots:”

“Don’t dial for dollars! Never cold-call; always call with a plan. Learn about the company and use your network to find the right individual(s) to approach. Our sales team uses our network the same way people use the business networking Web site LinkedIn, constantly reaching out to our contacts (our executive team and board of directors) to find connections. With the reach of our executives, customers and partners, it is almost impossible not to be able somehow to connect the dots before engaging with a prospect. When we were trying to win lender CIT as a customer, for example, we realized that Gary Butler, the CEO of ADP, a customer of ours, was on the board of CIT. I reached out to Gary, who recommended us to CIT. The first meeting we had at CIT was with its CEO and chairman, Jeffrey Peek. By connecting the dots, we won the unlikely opportunity to get to the “C” level on an initial sales call. This ultimately resulted in a multithousand-user deal and an extremely short sales cycle.”

This is what we have been preaching for years! We can help you pull together the information you need about your prospects and customers, so you can take a similar approach. And if you haven’t checked out Behind the Cloud, you should. It’s a great read for entrepreneurs and salespeople.

Happy New Year,

Sharon Gillenwater

Founder, Boardroom Insiders

sharon@boardroominsiders.com

I have been following sales guru, author and speaker Jill Konrath for quite some time, and have used her advice and resources to help break into big enterprise accounts. If you are in the position of selling to big companies, check out her website and learn why Fortune calls her book, Selling to Big Companies, a “must read” for salespeople. Jill’s email newsletter is also a great resource and she is offering a free sales call planning guide to subscribers.

On Nov. 3rd, Boardroom Insiders founder Sharon Gillenwater was the guest speaker at a Netprospex webinar on Best Practices in CXO Marketing. You can access a recording of the webinar here.

Join NetProspex and Sharon Gillenwater, founder of Boardroom Insiders, as she shares best practices on targeting senior enterprise executives and increasing the effectiveness of account-based marketing efforts. You will learn:

• What CXOs expect from vendors who want their business
• How to ‘move the needle’ with executive-level customers and prospects
• How to customize communications and programs for individual CXOs
• How other companies have successfully reached and engaged CXOs

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn tips and best practices for targeting, connecting, and achieving success with senior enterprise executives.

Register for November 3rd webinar at 9:30 PDT

Register for November 4th webinar at 9:30 PDT

All attendees will receive a free one-month subscription to Boardroom Insiders.

Two new surveys of retail executives show that retailers believe the economic recovery could be just around the corner. The BDO Seidman Retail Compass Survey of CFOs reveals that 62% of retail CFOs plan to increase inventory purchases by the first half of 2010. The most recent quarterly supply chain risk report of U.S. retail and manufacturing executives from AMR Research supports the Retail Compass Survey’s findings that retailers and their partners are expecting a need for increased inventory in the coming year. Forty-four percent of the survey’s respondents believe the recovery cycle is the biggest supply chain risk in 2010 because of potential commodity price increases, limited internal skills after workforce reductions, and problems meeting new demand with constrained capacity, low inventory, and transportation constraints. In contrast, only 23% of respondents are worried that the recession will continue, resulting in weak customer demand. Most respondents, 83%, expect the economy to turn around in Q2 2010 or later, with 41% predicting a turnaround will occur in Q2 2010.

If you are marketing to retail CFOs, this is good information to have. After more than a year of stagnation, they might be ready to buy what you’re selling. Now is the time to become familiar with your target CFO careabouts so you are prepared to engage them around how your offering can address their current initiatives and challenges.

There are plenty of forums out there about general sales and marketing–but I haven’t yet found a good one that focuses on the special challenge of selling and marketing to senior executives and CXOs. So I started a new forum on LinkedIn on just this topic. It is sponsored and moderated by Boardroom Insiders, but you don’t have to be a customer to join–everyone is welcome! Appropriate questions and discussion topics include:

- research on CXO careabouts
- how to increase the effectiveness of account-based marketing efforts
- what CXOs expect from vendors who want their business
- best practices in CXO engagement
- how to “move the needle” with executive-level customers and prospects
- how to customize marketing communications and programs for individual CXOs
- how other companies have successfully reached and engaged CXOs
- how to pitch new ideas to CXOs within your own organization

To join, just go to LinkedIn, click on “Groups Directory” and search for: “Boardroom Insiders”

Look forward to seeing you there!

Sharon

In “The Next-Gen CIO: The New Archetype,” we covered how the role of the CIO has changed, and what type of people are now coming into the role now that the first generation of CIOs is beginning to retire. Listen in on our most popular 30-minute webinar to date!

Listen now!

This McKinsey article poses ten questions that CFOs should be considering now that an economic recovery appears to be on the horizon. For those of you who target CFOs as key decision makers or influencers, you can leverage this as a thought leadership piece and demonstrate how your offer can help CFOs address some of these key questions. Enjoy!