You’re Undervaluing CXOs

You’re Undervaluing CXOs

In any industry, selling any product, any salesperson can benefit from a meeting with a C-level executive. These CXOs (CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, etc.) have the power to make or break your next opportunity. So why do so many salespeople undervalue them as prospects?

Instead of focusing on CXOs, many companies build their sales strategies around targeting managers, directors, and others without the power to make a final decision on enterprise purchases. Even procurement managers often don’t have a final say, but everyone listens to their CXO.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t ever talk to directors, but the best practice in email marketing and sales is to prioritize reaching out to C-level executives first and then going after others as a backup plan. Almost any sales strategy will benefit from this simple piece of advice: talk to executives.

Inbound Isn’t Outbound

outbound-inbound

I hear it all the time: our inbound leads are all managers and directors, why wouldn’t we reach out to them on outbound?

If you’re asking the same thing, don’t get me wrong–it’s fantastic you’re getting so many inbound leads. But the profile for an ideal outbound prospect isn’t the same as your most common inbound lead.

For example, sometimes administrative assistants take an initial look at products their bosses are interested in. They pass the information on to the CXO they’re working for, and wait for that person to make the buying decision. In this scenario, your inbound lead is the administrative assistant, but who do you want to get a meeting with?

Let your competitors make their appeals to the assistant. You can skip that step if you effectively email a CEO and set a meeting with them directly.

Use Prospect Tiering

Use Prospect Tiering

Prospect tiering is the simple practice of prioritizing your email or prospect list. If you’re selling software infrastructure, a CTO is a more valuable lead than an IT Operations Manager. The CTO can order the manager to start using a product, but the manager can’t order their CTO to buy what you’re selling.

Proper prospect tiering will also acknowledge that at different stages of your sales cycle, some people will have different roles. An introduction to the CXO is a great way to get started, but they’ll usually set up a demo between you and someone at a lower level. That’s perfectly fine–you’ve gotten in the door, now all you need to do is make your pitch.

CXOs Care

CXOs Care

The biggest misconception I’ve run into when talking about this is that C-level executives don’t care about this kind of thing, or don’t have time to check their emails. Sure, they’re busy people, but they care enough that they make time for emails that matter. All you need to do is make yours matter.

CXOs often have significant ownership shares in their company. They’re the most passionate and interested prospects I talk to. They want what you’re selling, they’ll make time for you if you pitch it right, and they have the power to sign your contract. You should do whatever it takes to figure out how to make email marketing work for you at the CXO level.

Are you ready to start selling to executives? Let me know what strategy works best for you.

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Patricia McLoughlin
Patricia McLoughlin
2023-03-30
We have used Salaria for over two years and the experience has been great. They are hands down the best B2B prospecting agency I have used (and I’ve used many over the years!) I’ve seen them deliver consistent, quality results over a long period of time. We have even referred partners to them that have also been pleased with Salaria’s performance. They are very proactive when it comes to trying new strategies and do a great job managing engagement data - both inside and outside our system. Overall, I would highly recommend Salaria to anyone looking for an outbound prospecting agency that can deliver results and a positive ROI - regardless of the market you operate in!
Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
2023-03-17
Salaria has done a great job increasing the total amount of prospective leads for our company. Elizabeth and her team are very professional and the amount of calls they crank out with just a few people is remarkable! We value the collaborative process, and the open line of communication makes it easy to adjust strategies on the move without any down time. The weekly reports & dashboards they provide are a very nice touch. Overall a great experience with an honest and hard-working company who's motivated to help us grow our sales.
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Aviva Fridman
2023-02-01
Salaria is amazing! I have spoken with several companies like Salaria, but I have found them to be mostly talk. Salaria does exactly what they say they are going to do - they get meetings! I greatly appreciated that even though we had a slow start, they came in an worked hard to earn regain our trust. They are always tweaking and improving their process to make sure they are meeting our needs.
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Matt Shreibman
2022-11-28
As someone who has been in medical device sales for 10 years now, I highly recommend Salaria to anyone who is looking for more targets. Pipeline is the life blood for any sales organization and Salaria is a great resource to have.
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Nick Lassor
2022-07-20
Salaria has been a game changer for us! We have tried various companies and internal processes to manage a rather difficult lead gen process and they have performed way better than we expected. They adapt to our feedback. They provide clear information. They are always looking for ways to improve. If you are on the fence, just pull the trigger. Salaria will do everything they say and more!
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Jason Gonos
2022-07-14
Great company and great people. I am super impressed with our director of account management LP and his team. I have been with them for about 4 months and just signed for a 6 month extension. I have been getting TOO MANY HIGH QUALITY LEADS to manage and am now forced to build out my sales team because of Salaria :) Highly recommended. The cost will pay for itseld quickly.
James Hoover
James Hoover
2022-04-06
Salaria has been a huge boost to our lead generation efforts. They are able to create meetings with high level executives who are vetted properly. Great company to work with.
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Nilesh Surana
2021-12-16
We started working with Salaria about 10 months ago and they have been able to generate about 60-70 meetings of which 4 deals have closed. I was a bit skeptical before deciding to work with them because I didn’t know if we could effectively outsource part of our sales development strategy. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well things have gone. We’ve also seen an improvement in conversion rates across the whole team because we started using a lot of the scripts and templates Salaria was using. I have to admit that they've been impressive with how helpful they’ve been from a strategy perspective. Highly recommend these guys!
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