Why C-Level People Don't Come to Your Event

Last week, I met with an executive of a global tech giant to discuss how we could use Executive Roundtables to bring them closer to their target decision makers in Switzerland.

He told me that they had tried running 300 people events together with their major partners in Switzerland. However, the actual key decision makers they wanted to have there did not show up.

This is something I hear again and again. In this article, I’ll share how to change that.

Your Event Topic

That’s often where the problem starts. When I ask people what the purpose of the event is, they say “To bring potential and existing clients together and do more business with them”.

Ok that’s legit. However, you won’t be able to win if you’re hosting a sales conference.

The executive above told me that the event theme was “How to do more with *Company Product*”. Well, that’s a sales conference.

Do you think the key decision makers invest their precious time to come to a sales conference?

The people you will have there are the ones who like free lunch and the decision makers that have already decided to work with you.

If you want to reach the people who are not aware about your company or are on the fence, this won’t work.

People don’t want to be sold to, they want to buy.

Your Event Format

There are enough conferences already happening where people download information. That’s not rare nor adds additional value to people.

When I talk to high-level decision makers, they often tell me they don’t attend any of these events anymore except if they speak there.

What’s rare and highly valuable, is the unfiltered, honest exchange with their peers. C-level people often lack the honest perspective of others on their level.

This is what an Executive Roundtable provides.

One of our previous guests, Philippe Op de Beeck, CEO of APCOA Parking Holdings said "Exchanging ideas in a largely unscripted but very disciplined way with high calibre people from all sorts of backgrounds and industries is very refreshing."

Customer Success - You vs. Them

Earlier this year, I talked to a Customer Success Executive at a gloal tech giant and he told me they tried running an Executive Roundtable event with 150 of their best clients.

They invested about a million EURs and the outcome of the event was pretty much zero.

He asked me for advice on how to run it differently so they would actually generate more business with these clients.

In simple terms, I told him “Don’t make it about you, make it about your client”.

We discussed several key points to make it a success next time.

1. Make the event about them and the exchange with their peers
2. Make it invitation-only and personally invite the key people you want to have there
3. Give them an intimate, personal experience, no matter how big the event
4. Host the event on neutral ground and not at your corporate conference center
5. Hire external moderators for the roundtables so your client executives can focus on listing and understanding

Organize Custom-Built Executive Roundtables

If you have the budget and the capabilities, running events is easy. What’s difficult, is running great, highly-effective events, that actually serve the purpose you want them to serve.

That’s why we are working with high-end B2B companies to organize custom-built executive roundtables with them. There are always three key reasons for doing this.

1. Gathering deep market insights
2. Building trust with key decision makers
3. Positioning yourself at the right level with the right people

Interested to learn more? Send me a message on LinkedIn and let’s have a chat.

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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 create custom-tailored Executive Roundtables, to help high-end B2B companies build trusted, long-term collaborations with Switzerland's top digital 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.