Sales: Prep For a Meeting With a C-Level Executive in 30-Mins or Less

There’s no worse feeling than being unprepared for a meeting with a C-Level Executive. Their time is valuable and if you blow it, there are no second chances.

We think your time is valuable too. We also realize that sometimes life throws curve balls that you need to be able to hit out of the ballpark. You don’t need to be scrambling to do your homework before an important meeting. So we want to let you in on some of our trade secrets, which will help you prepare for a C-Level executive meeting in 30-minutes or less. 

For public companies, start at SeekingAlpha.com

SeekingAlpha is hands-down our favorite source of information on public companies. It’s where you will find all of the public companies’ earnings call transcripts, where CEOs and their peers discuss—in great detail--their companies’ strategies, initiatives and challenges. They also get grilled by analysts, who can ask some really tough questions. It’s all excellent fodder for knowing what is top of mind with the company’s senior executives. For a deeper dive on how to scan a Seeking Alpha transcript quickly, see our tutorial.

Do targeted Google searches

Try searching “company name” “strategy” and “2017” to cut through the clutter and get to the gist of what the company is focusing on. To narrow your search to a particular area of focus, say marketing for example, search “company name” and “marketing strategy”.

Go beyond LinkedIn

LinkedIn is essential but it can be inaccurate and inconsistent, since the profiles are maintained—or not—by users. Definitely check out your target’s LinkedIn profile if they have one, and seek out their Twitter and Facebook accounts. But be sure and go back to Google to search for any articles for which they might have been interviewed. We search “Name” “Company Name” and “interview” to narrow the results. And make sure and watch any video interviews that come up, as they give you more of a feel for an executive’s personality and mannerisms.

Doing your homework before a meeting with a C-Level executive can be intimidating. Add these tips into your research efforts to find relevant information that resonates with your audience. We hope these time-saving tips make your life easier!