Welcome to Boardroom Insiders!
Boardroom Insiders is a new tool designed to help sales and marketing pros more effectively reach and engage executive-level customers and prospects.
I created Boardroom Insiders because I saw a definite trend in my work as a marketing strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies in the technology and banking sectors. It seemed that every client was trying to do the same thing: develop closer relationships with senior executives. But executives have only so much time to give; and with an increasing number of companies competing for it, gaining access to the C-suite is getting increasingly more difficult.
So how do you break through the noise?
Research shows that there are two ways to get an executive’s attention:
1. Show relevance to something they care about.
and
2. Get an introduction from someone they know and trust.
Boardroom Insiders helps you do both of these things by telling you what executives care about and who they know.
A Boardroom Insiders subscription gives you access to all of this information in the form of in-depth executive profiles. Unlike other services that aggregate news feeds that you have to spend hours wading through, we use experienced business analysts to create concise, expertly-written dossiers on each individual. Our profiles contain a lot of personal color–from family background and hobbies, to anecdotes that provide insight into management style and business philosophy. Our relationship mapping tool allows you to discover points of connection between executives that your company can leverage to get an introduction or reference.
Can’t find the executive you are looking for? As a subscriber, you can request additional profiles — at no extra cost, ensuring that we cover the people that interest you. Plus–all of the individuals in our database are monitored and updated continuously, to ensure our profiles are never out-of-date.
To get a better idea of what you can expect, check out one of our sample profiles. You can also request a three day trial that will give you access to a limited number of downloads.
I am so passionate about this new venture–and so excited about helping you “move the needle” with C-level customers! I want to evolve this tool in partnership with you, our subscribers. So please send me your suggestions on how I can make the service better and more useful to you and your organization.
Thanks for reading!
Sharon Gillenwater
Founder, Boardroom Insiders
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Relevance: the key to C-level engagement
When it comes to being marketed to, we are all experts. As individuals, we are on the receiving end of thousands of “impressions” every day, the vast majority of which we ignore or dismiss as minor annoyances.
But think about a situation in which you had an immediate need for a product or service or a problem to be solved and someone came along with the right information at the right time.
“It’s amazing,” you think. “They understood my business, knew exactly what I needed and presented well-thought-out solutions to my problems.”
Instead of viewing this person as an annoyance, you were eager to buy. And if you are like me, you were probably even willing to pay more because the salesperson’s knowledge, courteousness, and respect for my time set the tone for the company’s ability to provide great service and added value.
That’s called relevance. And it’s the secret to succeeding with the C-level.
As more purchasing decisions have migrated up to the C-level, being relevant has never been more critical. Executives have very little time, so repeated attempts to get their attention without offering anything relevant will certainly doom your efforts. With the C-level, you get only one shot–so what you have to say better speak to the specific initiatives and challenges that are on his or her mind.
This means you are now in the business of one-to-one marketing. Because what is relevant to one CEO may not be relevant to another. You have to tailor your pitch to each individual, which is time-consuming.
For large, siloed organizations, the pitfalls are many. The lack of information sharing and integration between sales and marketing, business units and programs means that you might have multiple teams independently pitching the same executive a variety of products and services. Put yourself in his shoes and think of how you would feel about the barrage!
So while relevance is the first order of business, integration of your sales and marketing efforts–particularly when targeting the C-level–should be a close second. This is a topic of particular interest to me, so you can expect to hear more about it in this forum.
In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts and stories on the topic of relevance as it relates to C-level marketing. Do you have a success story–or a challenge–to share? Post your comments here or email me directly.
Thanks for reading.
Sharon Gilenwater
Founder, Boardroom Insiders
CEOs “Unplugged”
In corporate America, CEOs are our celebrities. Having worked as a consultant for many Fortune 500s, I know the incredible demands placed on these people and often wonder how they have time for family, hobbies or any personal downtime.
One of the things we do at Boardroom Insiders is “tag” each executive according to their interests so you know whom you should take golfing, versus sailing, or fly fishing or wine tasting, etc. You get the idea.
We recently compiled a list of all of the interests in our database to get a sense of what CEOs like to do when they are not in CEO-mode.
Seeing how many CEOs like golf, it is no wonder golf outings and tournaments are the most common CEO engagement tactics. Golf tops the list of executive passions, by a landslide.
Other top interests include tennis, reading, skiing, running, music, hiking and travel, which is somewhat surprising considering that these professional road warriors might be inclined to stay home whenever they get the chance.
We also discovered some more unusual pastimes among prominent business leaders. For example:
Eugene Roman of Bell Canada is an avid beekeeper.
Martin Richenhagen of AGCO Corporation favors dressage. A competitive rider for 30 years, he was the team leader of Germany’s dressage team in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
Scott Ford of Alltel enjoys roping and has participated in the national team roping championships.
Robert Miller, Jr. of Delphi Corporation enjoys building elaborate model railroads.
And Antoine Bernheim of Generali Group plays bridge and won the Gold Medal at the 2003 World Bridge Championship.
Stay tuned for more fun executive factoids in future posts.
Thanks for reading.
Sharon Gillenwater
Founder, Boardroom Insiders
