Podcast episode
How to Partner with Exec Assistants to Tilt Enterprise Deals in Your Favor | Laura McDonald
30 Minutes to President's Club27 Aug 202642 min
Description
Laura McDonald breaks down how to multithread enterprise deals, reach the C-suite, and build buying committee consensus without getting trapped with one champion. Learn how to leverage executive assistants, map the real power base, and neutralize blockers before they kill your deal. 🎙️ ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS: 🪑 Build the three-legged stool: Get every critical stakeholder group to “green” instead of treating enterprise deals like a linear sales process. 🤝 Sell the executive meeting: Broker peer-to-peer introductions between executives instead of asking the C-suite to meet with another salesperson. 🗺️ Map the real power base: Whiteboard the org with your champion to uncover who matters, who has influence, and who you still need to win over. 🚧 Neutralize blockers fast: Find out why they’re blocking, how much influence they have, and either win them over or build enough support around them to overpower their veto. You're one step closer to President's Club! 📝 The Ultimate Multi-Threading and Selling to the C-Suite Report 🏋 30MPC Training 🛠 Weekly Tactical Breakdowns 📚 Things you can steal and use today
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with a proper champion and we trust each other and then you know that obviously they're invested in bringing your solution in as well so they are going to help you and so once I've got to that point, you know regardless of when exactly that is in the cycle, I will build the org chart myself. “I'll just use LinkedIn, I'll just research the types of people who I know are” needed to sell things to and then I'll just build the org chart. ThoughtSpot to like, do we have the analytics team, the data team, the different business teams, who are the execs that I know are going to need to sign off on this? I will build that out in my row. And then I will have a call with my prospect and say, Hey, I feel like we're not with everyone who's
this project? Is he attached to the current tool, etc, etc, etc. So I'll do that for each person who I know is important. And, you know, they'll advise me on different things. And then that can spin off into a number of actions. Like if it's people that are champion is friendly and has a good relationship “can you broker an intro so that we can” meet with them and start to bring them on board. If it's someone who is really going to be a blocker, then I would have a conversation about okay, how you know, how typically have you got around this kind of scenario when you've brought in technologies in the past? Or who does this person listen to? Maybe it's some random engineer in their team met, but this is back to the power base. Like, you
working with Alex here, Alex is your champion, you pull up the whiteboard and Alex tells you, hey, this analyst over here is going to be critical. And I think they're a blocker in your deal. If you could get a redo on the deal, what action would you have taken to save that deal? “So I would have firstly wanted to understand why.” why are they a blocker? What don't they like about ThoughtSpot? What are they hesitant about? And I think a lot of the time there's maybe job fear, you know, people have done the same thing with the same tool for a long time,
it's like, No, and this person is absolutely in has the power to veto it. And they're unsavable. And is I'm, that's what I was wondering that you just kind of go like, All right, well, gonna focus elsewhere. I mean, no, ultimately, I won't give up that easily. But then I'll go “how much influence do they have over people that need to say yes” the C level or whoever else like are they? Are they a blocker that's just going to be annoying when we do an implementation? Or are they a blocker that actually is going to tell our exec sponsor, do not buy ThoughtSpot. So I want to understand again, like what level of blocker even are they
gonna focus elsewhere. I mean, no, ultimately, I won't give up that easily. But then I'll go into understanding, okay, how much influence do they have over people that need to say yes, the C level or whoever else like are they? Are they a blocker that's just going to be annoying “Or are they a blocker that actually is going to tell our exec sponsor,” do not buy ThoughtSpot. So I want to understand again, like what level of blocker even are they if they're the latter, which is like the red zone, then I mean, I was asked my champion is like, is this lost cause then should we even continue running our POC or whatever and get their advice?
into understanding, okay, how much influence do they have over people that need to say yes, the C level or whoever else like are they? Are they a blocker that's just going to be annoying when we do an implementation? Or are they a blocker that actually is going to tell our exec sponsor, “do not buy ThoughtSpot. So I want to understand again, like what level of blocker even are they” if they're the latter, which is like the red zone, then I mean, I was asked my champion is like, is this lost cause then should we even continue running our POC or whatever and get their advice? And I'll also ask, okay, who else has influence over CIO Alex, because if there's, you know,