How to Get CEOs to the Table

Last week, I had a call with the CEO of a billion EUR company about joining our CEO Collaboration Day

After 17 minutes, the deal was closed and he said YES to joining our Executive Roundtable event.

In this article, I want to share how I went about engaging him on LinkedIn, how I followed up and how I pitched him the Executive Roundtable, so he made space in his crazy schedule.

From LinkedIn to Phone Call

It took me only 2 messages on LinkedIn to get a response from him. After that, he gave me the email of his assistant to schedule a call.

Here is my second message that triggered him to respond. 

There are a few psychological triggers that I hit with this message that most likely triggered his response.

1. Being direct - I did not beat around the bush. I said in the first sentence what I want.
2. Reason why - Second sentence is focused on why he should care
3. Benefits - Third sentence is about the key outcomes that happened for other leaders who joined in the past
4. Soft CTA - The call to action is not aggressive and desperate. I’m coming from a power position and say “It would be nice if you joined but we really need to talk first to ensure you’re a good fit”.

Now there is no cookie-cutter way to write messages. I’ve had great success with very short messages and with very long messages.

The key is to not get hung up at “one message”. Sometimes, it takes me 7-8 follow ups before somebody responds. So I’m not that easy to get rid of :-)

Interestingly, people actually appreciate follow ups. Check out this response from somebody I followed up with 4 times. 

I always go with the approach of “If you don’t want to join, just tell me. Until then, I will keep asking”. Of course, asking is not being annoying. Asking in my worldview implies being of value at every single touchpoint.

From Phone Call to the Table

The phone call with this CEO lasted 17 minutes. The first 5 minutes, I shared three things.

1. Backstory & purpose of our CEO Collab Day
2. Benefits & outcomes for people who attend
3. Structure of the day and why it’s set up that way

The remaining 12 minutes, I asked him targeted questions.

1. What key challenges do you currently have on the table?
2. How do you see the CEO Collab Day could add most value to you?
3. Would you like to join us?

In between the questions, I tailored my inputs to his answers. For example, when he shared that he is completely transforming the company from “analog to digital”, I told him about our 10-minute talks at the day.

Stefano Santinelli, CEO at localsearch, will share how they scaled to a 800+ people organization and became the leading marketing partner for Swiss SMEs.

Andrea Bargetzi, Digital Head at Credit Suisse, will share how she transformed her organization from a traditional banking culture to a digital culture.

To my last question, he responded “Yes, please sign me up. How far is the location from the airport? I need to be in London for a dinner that day.”

Thank God it’s a 5-minute taxi drive away :-)

How to Write Highly Effective Messages to C-Level Leaders

Because my entire career was spent on building trusted relationships with top level leaders and helping companies do the same, I created a guidebook on how to effectively reach out.

Download the 23 Mental Triggers That Make Busy People Say YES here.

----------

Daniel is the Founder of LeadersBridge.org, Switzerland’s leading cross-industry network for Digital Leaders, to connect for business, partnership and board opportunities.

We are organizing custom-tailored Executive Roundtables, to get high-end B2B companies into meetings with Switzerland’s top level technology decision makers.

Over the past 5 years, we’ve hosted 40+ Executive Roundtables, and enabled connections that led to more than CHF 20m in new business.

If you're interested to learn more, just send me a message.