I recently ran across an excerpt from a new book called Influencing Up by Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford, which details how to partner with senior management and other powerful people, persuade key decision makers, and turn a difficult boss into an ally.
Chapter 11, the chapter I downloaded, focuses on what the powerful people care about. If top executives are part of your target market, here’s what you need to know about successfully selling to them:
Just like any other group you sell to, you have to know what pain points the group has. Powerful people – whether it’s a CEO, movie studio head, or public figure – can be a little harder to understand, as their assumptions and values – sometime their entire world – can be very different from your own.
First things first: understand what top executives care about. In general, it is:
- Keeping the organization’s costs, growth/innovation, and building future capacities in balance
- Major economic forces, especially during a downturn, like inflation, deflation, interest rates, and demand
- Innovation, products, and processes
- Competition, especially from overseas
- Outsourcing to contain costs
- Searching for new markets
- Talent acquisition and retention
- Supply sources
- Integrity, ethics and company reputation
- Their relationship to stakeholders, the media, and peers
- Government regulations
Do your research beforehand so you can link your proposal to current strategic efforts or preoccupations. The best information to look for includes:
- Their public statements
- What the press says about them and the company
- Company strategy, vision, and values, which you can find on the company’s website
- Educational and professional backgrounds
- Whether they care more about risks or results (this might be trickier to uncover)
Now that you’ve done your homework, it’s time to put together a proposal, which might be structured quite differently than others you normally create. It should be:
- Concise
- Start with the conclusions and implications to grab attention right away
- Include major assumptions
- Explain all benefits
If you sell to top executives, how do you build relationships and gain credibility? Share your tips below!
Image courtesy of bmwblog.com
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