Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Do you sell to chief executives, presidents, and corporate bigwigs? 

If so, chances are good you're doing it wrong. Here's why... and later in this post, you'll get some tools to start doing much MUCH better FAST...

The reason you're not getting the appointments you want or capturing the interest you need from senior executives and CEOs is that you're selling functional ideas to strategic people.

The last thing - and I mean DEAD LAST thing - that any chief executive cares about is the "how" of solving a particular problem.

You've seen the cliche in a hundred different movies of the top dog barking at an underling in the board room - "I don't care HOW you do it. Just get it done."

But when it comes to selling, we sellers and marketers are soooo in love with our "How."

What you need to focus on is the "Why" and then immediately jump to results and outcomes. 

But not just ANY results and outcomes - the results and outcomes that your CEO prospects are publicly, permanently and strategically committed to achieving. 

Not sure exactly what results or outcomes your top executive prospects care about? 

Don't guess... educate yourself. 

Here are links to some online and offline resources (magazines, annual lists, websites, books) that you should buy, download, read and integrate into your marketing game plan so that you can sell much more effectively to CEOs and other C-level buyers:

ARTICLES and WEB LISTINGS:

Harvard Business Review - Top 100 CEOs

Fortune Most Admired Companies

Fortune Best Companies to Work For

50 Most Powerful Women in Business

2013 NAFE Top 50 Companies for Executive Women

BOOKS:

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

The NEW Secrets of CEOs: 200 Global Chief Executives on Leading

The CEO Code 

The moment YOU start talking CEO Language about CEO Problems is the moment you start to earn their attention, their trust, and - eventually - their business. 

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, sales, selling, CEO language

What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on effectively selling to CEOs and corporate executives...

I am leading an ExecSense webinar on “How to Get Published as CEO of a VC-Funded Company and How to Make it Work Towards Your Company's Success” on Friday September 28th.

Shhhh... it's NOT just for venture-backed CEOs. It's for YOU!

What we'll talk about:

Avish Parashar has just released a new book titled, "Say Yes, And!" and he has a great special offer for people who buy the book by midnight tonight, Feb. 28.  

The book takes a fundamental principle from improv comedy - saying "yes, and" instead of "yes, but" - and shows you how that one simple idea can help you improve your career, your business, your relationships, and your life.  

As a special promotion, if you buy the book today, February 28th, you'll get access to over $200 in free gifts, including PDF versions of two of Avish's other books and over 8 hours of MP3 recordings of some of Avish's most popular audio programs. That's over $200 in gifts in return for buying a $12.95 book.  

To get the book and the free gifts, visit http://www.SayYesAnd.com

p.s. Here's my review from amazon.com:

First I have to tell you - I'm a business book junkie. I read 'em all. Big ones, little ones, famous ones, and hidden gems. All topics including sales, marketing, leadership, strategy, the how-to, the what-to, and the why-to kind.

And this books stands out.

Plain and simple, Avish Parashar packages essential wisdom, insights, and practical advice into a small concentrated form factor.

But don't be fooled - this is life-changing stuff.

One small turn in what you think and what you say CAN and WILL make a huge impact. Example after example pours out of this book and will soon spark ideas and memories in your own mind of times you took charge and created success - and other times when you chose the "Yes but" path and created your own obstacles, limits, and barriers.

Whether you are a business owner, corporate executive, sales professional, association executive, or non-profit leader, this book is for YOU. Filled with immediately actionable insights and concrete take-aways, this little book may trigger the biggest and best changes your team, your organization, and your results will ever experience.

Tell you what - STOP reading Amazon reviews of this great little book, say "YES AND I'll buy it right now." In fact, you may want to buy three - one for yourself, one for your boss, and one for the significant other in your life. Yes (and) the ideas in this book work as powerfully at home as they do at work!!

Guest Column By Lee Thayer

Firing someone is often a distasteful, sometimes painful, act. It is the end of something. Hiring someone is usually full of hope and expectation. It can be exciting. It is the beginning of something.

You could learn a great deal about yourself and about others from the process of firing someone, however.

If you can do a better job of firing, you could do a better job of hiring. The most direct way of learning how to do a better job of hiring lies in what you can learn from the process of firing.

Here’s why:

• Hope and wishful thinking clouds your perspectives when you are hiring someone. But when you fire someone, you are challenged to understand why.
• Firing can clear the lenses. It can be – ought to be – a very rational process. If you do it right, you are dealing with bedrock criteria, not wishful thinking.
• If you can figure out why and how and when to fire someone, it will clarify why you went wrong in the first place.
• If you did a perfect job of hiring people, you would have a perfect understanding of how to fire people. But most organizations haven’t done a better job of hiring people in spite of the tsunami of advice about how to do it.
• You have to come at it the other way around. There is no reliable recipe for doing a perfect job of hiring. You have to learn from your failures – as all leaders have had to do.
• It is figuring out who needs to be fired and why that provides the clarity needed to get better and better at hiring.

There are always the conventional reasons for firing someone: poor performance, redundancy, obsolescence, RIF, attitude, and myriad others. There are reasons. And then there are the real reasons.

It is these real reasons the chief executive needs to uncover. You have to plow through the verbiage and your own thinking to arrive at the real reasons. Was it a poor hire? Was it just a poor “fit”? Was it the culture of the organization that was at fault? Was it the attitude of the person’s peers? Was it the person’s boss? Could it even be you?

Done well, this kind of forensic exploration begins to illuminate better hiring practices by starting with reality rather than the jargon of the day.

To the person targeted for being fired, there is often no correlation between the reasons offered and that person’s assessment of his or her own performance. Big clue.

Here is the crunch issue:

The person being fired was probably not told at the time of hiring the specific reasons that might lead to dismissal.

Three mistakes were likely made:

1. The person was probably provided with a list of activities to be performed. That’s the way conventional “job descriptions” are constructed. There may have been some past experience or credentials thrown in for the company to hedge its bets.
2. It was likely nothing was said about what was to be accomplished. You can’t measure activities objectively. But you can measure accomplishments.
3. The person was most likely hired for a “job.” He or she was not hired to a role in the organization’s future. It is the future that really matters, not the past. Past performance does not predict well to future performance.

Competence is difficult to measure. So most organizations measure what’s easy to measure – the financials. But, to use a provocative metaphor:

Financial performance can only be measured in the wake of the ship. It is where the ship is headed that matters most. And then it is how it is powered and steered to get there.

It is full competence in every role in the organization that seals its fate. If you hire for full competence to carry forward in a well-specified role, you won’t have to fire for incompetence.

A key ingredient of competence is being in the “learning mode.” The best evidence for being in the “learning mode” is that the person performs his or her role better today than they did yesterday. You fire for lack of that. Maybe you should hire for the presence of that.

And, if it isn’t necessary for the person to perform his or her role better, poor performance may not be the person’s fault. It may be your fault for not making continuous improvement in every role necessary.

What is necessary will likely happen. What is not necessary may not happen.

Every organization, like every person, arrives at a status quo – ways of doing things that take precedence over doing them right. Percy Barnevik of ABB fame considered the status quo to be the enemy. His suggestion? Kill it.

There are people who have one year’s experience repeated 20 times. They become deadwood. How frequently do you clear the deadwood? Ranchers cull their herdsat least annually, in order to get better breeding.

Jack Welch eliminated the bottom 10% of performers annually. That takes the uncertainty and pain out of firing.

Outstanding performers are disruptive of the status quo. They are therefore more likely than mediocre performers to get the axe. If the culture of your organization is a safe haven for mediocrity, you are not doing a good job of firing.

And if you aren’t, you can’t do a good job of hiring.

One of the hidden reasons for firing people is that they don’t seem able to learn from experience. They never seem to get consistently better at what they do. Lesson? Make that explicit.

The best CEOs are not in their role to do the job. They are there to learn how to perform their role better today than they did yesterday. They expect the same of others.

If that’s not why you are there, you should be fired. You are, after all, the exemplar.

The best time to fire someone is the day before you hire them. If you can do that, you will be doing a far, far better job of hiring.

The bonus is that firing the wrong people for all the right reasons makes room for hiring more of the right people for the right reasons. But you have to know clearly what those are.

This is why knowing the real reasons for firing people will help you to make better and better judgments about hiring. In other words, the best way to get better at hiring is to get better at firing.

For what good reasons would you fire yourself? If you really figure that out, you will do a far better job of hiring – including casting yourself in the right role.

=====

Lee Thayer has been a CEO coach and consultant for 45+ years and is known worldwide for his work “in the trenches” with executives to create high-performance organizations. Dr.Thayer has also held distinguished professorships in many of the major universities worldwide. His recent, acclaimed books include: Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing; The Good Leader; Leaders and Leadership; Leadership Virtuosity; How Leaders Think; Explaining Things and The Competent Organization.

As a speaker marketing expert and head honcho of an inbound marketing agency serving speakers, consultants, and thought-leading professionals, I often find myself with prospects who want to get involved in social media but - sadly - do not understand the intent, ideas, or influence factors that make social media an effective tactic in their overall marketing arsenal.

How can I put this? Ummm... well, they're idiots.

Relax... IDIOT is an acronym that stands for the 5 key misconceptions, faulty assumptions, and pillars of goofy thinking that prevent most thought-leading professionals (YOU perhaps??) from generating maximum results from your social media efforts.

Namely...

I: I, Me, My syndrome

D: Dumb it down

I: Information without invitation

O: Over-selling

T: Today vs. tomorrow focus

Let's take a look at each of these in a bit more detail:

I: I, Me, My syndrome. No, your social media postings do NOT need to be all about YOU. In fact, if all you talk about is YOU - your company, your book, your blog, your brand, your articles, your resources, your tools, your programs, your products, your services... people will ignore you, tune you out, and dismiss you for the self-centered idiot that you are. (Please remember - idiot is an acronym used throughout this post.)

Experts promote other experts. Experts are not insecure about shining the spotlight on others. Experts are curators and pointers-out-of-cool-things. Experts post book reviews BY other experts FOR yet other experts' books.

As long as YOU can be counted on to share interesting, relevant, valuable, sometimes even edgy content, guide your followers to the "good stuff" online, and position yourself as a reliable sherpa in your expertise, you'll get PLENTY of attention, love, and respect. Even MORE SO if you're not a mental weakling who is focused only on hyping your own crap.

Grow up. Step up. Be a real expert and learn once and for all - it's not about YOU.

D: Dumb it down This mistake comes from the fear that if you give away your VERY BEST ideas, strategies, tools, tactics, insights and other secret sauce (yes, the stuff you get paid BIG BUCKS for with your paying clients!) that you will somehow diminish the demand for your paid products and services.

So you "dumb it down." You post that second-rate article. You remove some detail from that tip sheet because you want people to buy your consulting services and not do it themselves. You post the video that only has 3 of your 10 key ideas because heck, if you gave all 10 ideas, they'd never hire you to keynote at the big industry conference - you've already "spilled the candy in the lobby."

Yep - you guessed it: You're an idiot.

The reality is - it works 180 degrees the other way. The ONLY way folks are going to pay you the big bucks is if they have a FIRSTHAND experience of your genius - if they feel it, taste it, touch it, and fully experience it. ONLY THEN will they want more. ONLY THEN will they share it with their colleagues. ONLY THEN will they call their boss over to look at your website or email them your link.

Do you want to be SHARED - or do you want to be SCARED? Your call - but you already know which answer will make you more money. Unless you're an idiot. 

I: Information without invitation  Social media sites are not a dumping ground for your old, outdated, crappy content from books you wrote in the 1980s or articles that you could never get published.

Even rock-solid, current, highly relevant information is NECESSARY but NOT SUFFICIENT to fuel your thought leadership platform and build your empire as an expert.

Here's a secret - the internet actually does NOT need more information posted on it. Not from you. Not from me. Not from anyone.

An effective social media campaign will share information of standalone value and then INVITE a two-way (or 5-way or 17-way) conversation around that information.

Ask questions, seek engagement, invite involvement. 

Offer value, seek opinions, spark conversation - and ask the most powerful question in sales AND leadership AND relationships: "What do you think?"

O: Over-selling One particularly idiotic individual told me that he wanted ALL his Facebook posts to have a hyperlink. Every. Single. One.

Hyperlink to where, you ask?

To HIS online store, HIS products, HIS books on amazon, HIS speaking page, HIS consulting page, HIS services overview. He said, "If you're not linking every Facebook post to a selling opportunity, you're just putting a lot of dead-end junk on Facebook and you'll never make any money." 

Wow - this guy is a WORLD-CLASS idiot.

Social media is not about posting "here's how to buy my crap" - it's not about creating an extra dozen or so sales pages for your products, services or programs.

If your goals are: Sell on Twitter. Sell on Facebook. Sell on LinkedIn. Sell on YouTube...

Your results will be: Unfollow. Unfriend. Unlink. Unsubscribe. You're done. Buh-bye. Idiot.

Lesson 1 for you to share with your idiots: Content comes before commerce.

Lesson 2 for you to share with your idiots: First you earn their attention. THEN you earn their money.

T: Today vs. tomorrow focus The final mistake is to think of social media in the same way that you might think of outbound sales activity.

Think about it: Cold calls. Email blasts. Direct mail. Do those things and the natural question to ask is - OK, how much did we sell?

You made 100 dials, you connected with 20 humans, you had 14 conversations, you qualified 5 serious prospects and then how much did you SELL TODAY?

You sent 10,000 postcards. Requests came back for 300 quotes. So how many widgets did you SELL TODAY?

Social media doesn't work that way. Social media is... well, social. It's about relationships and trust. Relationships and trust don't have an ON/OFF switch - they develop over time.

Transactions happen today from relationships you built last week, last month, and last year. The benefit of that - and the reason it's worth the "wait" is that social media gives you a permanent asset - TRUST.

Blog entries are forever. They continue to sell your expertise, your company, and your value day after day, week after week, year after year. LinkedIn recommendations are forever. People that wrote glowingly of you in 2002 are still "selling" for you and your reputation TODAY.

A voice mail? BEEP - gone. An email? ZAP - gone. A face to face meeting? DONE - bye. Those happen today and they're gone today. 

Sure, you have to sell today. You have to make your quota today. You have to feed your family today. But social media marketing helps you ensure that what you create ONCE today works and lasts and brings customers and clients to you for many years to come...

Not because you SOLD them like an IDIOT -- but because you built the trust and relationships that HELPED THEM BUY today, tomorrow and beyond!

==========
So... what do YOU think?

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

As a motivational speaker in the area of marketing and business development, I'm often asked by CEOs and business owners about how they can be better leaders of their internal marketing efforts. 

My answer is you can't be a great marketing leader unless you're first a great leader.

Here are some guidelines that the best leaders across all disciplines have come to recognize as foundational to their leadership success and that I share with you for the benefit of your own marketing success:

1. Expect the best from people you lead.
2. Become fully aware of others' needs.
   
3. Establish high standards of excellence; communicate them
   clearly and often.
4. Create an environment where failure is not fatal.
   
5. Climb on other people's bandwagons if they're going
   anywhere near the neighborhood you want to go.
6. Employ stories, examples, analogies, and models to
   encourage success.
   
7. Use a balanced mix of positive and negative feedback in
   a constructive spirit and with specific substance.
   
8. Appeal sparingly (or not at all) to competitive or
   aggressive impulses.
   
9. Encourage and reward collaboration.
10. Build into the group an allowance for healthy conflict
    and "fights" around issues, not around personalities.
    
11. Recognize and celebrate achievement.
    
12. Take steps to keep your own level of motivation genuine
    and high