The CEO Fist Bump
Below is one of the most impactful sales tactics I’ve ever implemented. It’s wickedly simple - and it works. But first some background…
Many years ago I was working on a sales opportunity with AT&T Mobile - and it was stalled. This is an all too common scenario that anyone in sales has experienced… I had great conversations with my main contact, they had budget, it was an important initiative, and they seemed ready to go. But the deal was stalled and I didn’t know why. At the time I was selling for a marketing technology company, and our CEO was curious of the status of bringing this well known brand onto our client roster.
Unbeknownst to me, after that conversation our CEO sent an email (sample is coming below) to the Chief Marketing Officer at AT&T Mobile. It was a simple email, but single handedly unlocked the stalled opportunity and a few days later the deal was closed. My day-to-day contact reached out to me to thank me for our CEO sending that email because it put the project on the CMO’s radar which made her feel comfortable to move forward.
This experience taught me the surprising weight that a senior title carries, and how their involvement instills confidence in the client. As salespeople, one of our key roles is to simplify the decision making process, and one way of achieving that is helping the client see that they can trust us. This is why I think that email to our clients CMO was so powerful - it communicated that our company, all the way up to the CEO, was committed to doing a great job, we wanted to earn their business, and we had their back.
I started using this tactic on a regular basis, which I now call The CEO Fist Bump and I’ve outlined in detail here in this post. The idea is to have your CEO (or some other relevant senior title) reach out to another senior title at your prospective customer to make a connection, make themselves available, and show some confidence in the work that you’ll be doing together. It’s a simple step, doesn’t take much time, but creates massive impact.
Here’s how to do it…
Setup / Background
The best time to do this is after an initial discovery call, or later in the process when you are getting close to a decision.
This email does not have to come from the CEO but that’s the ideal if possible. If it’s not the CEO, it should be some other senior executive - at least 2 steps above the salesperson in the org chart.
The AE (aka, the salesperson) should be engaged in this process to have a voice in who the CEO reaches out to - have them help identify the person, and give the CEO the contact info such as name, title, email, link to LinkedIn profile, etc.
You MUST understand how your company solution aligns to some key corporate initiative - ideally using the internal language of your clients company. This way when your CEO reaches out to the clients senior executive, they can communicate in a way that maps your company to advancing that initiative.
The target contact at the prospect should be a senior contact who clearly has decision making authority and is likely who the overall initiative or strategy is coming from. For a small company it's likely the CEO. For a medium sized company it's likely the VP or C-level. For a very large enterprise, you have to learn the org chart but again probably some VP level person. This person is likely 2 steps above your AE's day-to-day contact on the org chart.
The AE should NOT tell their day-to-day contact this is happening. Their contact may say no, hesitate, or come up with some other reason that is really only motivated by their own fear of being put in the spotlight. As you will see below, this email will be written in a way to make the main contact look good.
Don't over think it - the email needs to be short and sweet and more high level is better anyway.
Email Template with Notes
Below is a link to a PDF (no form to fill out) that includes the email template and detailed notes on each section. These notes are important to read so that you understand the intention of each paragraph and word choice. You should put this in your own voice, but I urge you - don’t overcomplicate it! As you will see there are five keys to this email:
It’s short and to the point
It gives kudos to your day-to-day contact
It’s written with confidence
It opens the line of communication between your CEO and the client
It asks for what you want at the end
That’s it! I encourage you to give it a try and make it your own. Don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have a question about it or want to discuss some nuance - big or small. Also please share your success stories!