I was talking this week with a global account manager who deals continually and pretty successfully with a very common problem—getting time with his customer’s executives. After years of building credibility, he’s earned some access and is justly proud of that fact. But cultivating a relationship at the executive level remains a challenge, he says, because of the power mismatch. First of all, the customer is a household name with revenue in the double-digit $ billions, while the company he represents is a tenth that size. “Meeting with our CEO isn’t a big deal to them—they see executives all day long.” On top of this, the main competition is a well-entrenched giant with a legacy of trust and influence.

With customers consolidating vendors and moving buying decisions to higher levels in the company, what does the smaller player need in order to gain trust-share?

Well, we asked this account manager and others, and their answers overwhelmingly pointed to one solution: they need content for executive dialog.

By content, they don’t mean more marketing or corporate presentations. They don’t mean more white papers or benchmark studies. (All that is really more vendor–centered monologue.). And they don’t mean new and improved product features to tout. These account managers are hungry for compelling content that will capture the attention of business unit VPs; cause these VPs to say, “my CFO must see this”; and start a chain reaction of invitations up the ladder for executive-to-executive conversation. What this does mean is customer-centered content on the impact the vendor can have on the customer’s revenue and the customer’s customers. While this is a lot easier said than done—it’ll require investment in processes and skills—it is the one sure way to fuel the dialog, shorten the buying cycle by gaining admission to top level of the decision hierarchy, and beat out those goliaths on the inside.

Nancy Heifferon, Consultant
Nancy.Heifferon@phelongroup.com