RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP
WITH A CEO? WOO THE
INNER CIRCLE FIRST
By John Ruhlin
W
hen building partnerships
with other businesses,
most
entrepreneurs
naturally target
the
C-suite leaders
first.
That’s
understandable:
CEOs,
after all, are the decision-makers,
so naturally you and every other
entrepreneur is going to clamor
for a meeting with the top brass.
14
|
FALL 2018
However, the problems you want to
solve are not likely to be the same
ones keeping those executives up at
night. What’s more, your constant calls
and follow-up emails are actually a
turnoff for CEOs. And your messages
will probably just get buried in the
84, on average, other emails, that
CEOs typically receive in a day.
Getting the face time you need to
close a deal is a challenge, all right.
This is why you should rethink
identifying the “right people” to contact.
Every business leader maintains
a core staff that manages his or
her schedule, advises on business
decisions, coordinates events and
acts as this leader’s gatekeepers.
For this reason, your only shot at
landing a meeting with the CEO is
to find an internal advocate who
can prioritize the proposal and