How do you get a meeting with a CEO?

Julie Thomas is President and CEO of ValueVision Associates and can be reached at 800-559-6419 or [email protected]

When he calls for an appointment, the administrator said the CEO was not taking any appointments unless the meeting directly pertained to the company’s IPO, scheduled for two months out. Instead of moving on to another opportunity, however, this determined sales rep called his stockbroker and asked for an analysis of the pending IPO. The broker suggested that the offering was sure to rise dramatically in the first few day of trading. However, the company had not demonstrated the ability to penetrate other market segments, and analysts expected the stock price to fall by the end of the year if this issue went unresolved.

The next day the sales rep waited in the company’s lobby, hoping to catch the CEO as he headed out the door to lunch. Sure enough, the CEO came walking through the lobby. The sales rep said hello and asked for a meeting. Without breaking stride, the CEO instructed the sales rep to call his administrator to set up an appointment. Knowing where this would end, the rep blurted out “Okay, but I was wondering what will be the impact on your stock price if you don’t penetrate some other market segments?” The CEO stopped in his tracks, looked at the sales rep and asked “Is that something you can help us with?” The sales rep nodded, and asked if they could talk. The CEO agreed, and immediately sat down for a 25-minute meeting.

That’s the power of an anxiety question!

Anxiety provides a powerful tool in many selling situations. Generally, it can be applied anytime a prospect will not engage with you, whether during your prospecting attempts, trying to get a return phone call, or most importantly, trying to close the opportunity. The idea is to get the prospect to consider the impact of not taking action. In the two second it takes prospects to consider your anxiety question, they journey to a place where they recognize the personal motivation for taking action.

For example, suppose you’re trying to close a deal this month in order to make your quota. The prospect has gone through all of the motions with you, confirmed you have the best solution, and agreed you can impact both this business and personal agenda. He even had buy-in from the right people in the organization, and has seen all the proof he needs to make an informed decision. Yet he finds a reason to stall. The holidays are distracting. It make more sense to use next year’s budget. I’m going out of town. The list goes on and on, and you’ve heard it all before.

Now is the time to use a compelling anxiety question, created by what you know the prospect cares about personally. For example:

• What’s the cost of not taking action now?
• What happens if you don’t start reducing costs this year?
• What’s the impact to you if the cost management initiative is delayed?
• Are you confident you’ll be able to support management’s 35% annual growth plan without impacting costs?
• Do you feel there’s any connection between your current capability and your lower profits?

Put yourself in the prospect’s shoes. If someone were to ask you one of these questions, what would run through your mind? Maybe part of his compensation plan is tied to this initiative. Perhaps he has a presentation to make on this subject at the next executive staff meeting. Or maybe he doesn’t realize how much effort he’s put into the initiative so far, and does not want to lose it now. Ideally the prospect will review of the potential impacts in that two-second time period. Inevitably, some nagging concern will rise to the surface and cause him to reconsider the delay.

Anxiety questions are designed to rattle a person and prod him to action. But be careful not to overuse this tactic. Consider it your ace in the hole – something to use when you need it, but not in every situation.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” Check out the online show every Friday at 11am ET, “Laugh and Learn with the Fearless Competitor.” Find New Customers is one of few lead generation companies in New York.

Find New Customers helps companies like yours (with 50 to 5,000 employees and complex products) implement lead generation programs to improve the way you find and acquire high quality sales leads using best practices in online lead generation. Quality leads matter. In fact, a recent study found that sales teams with fewer, high quality sales leads closed more than sales teams with more leads of dubious quality.

If you wish to do sales lead generation online, contact the B2B lead generation experts at Find New Customers using the form below or follow Jeff on Twitter at @fearlesscomp.