I know this sounds a little bit provoking, but it really characterizes the heart of the problem. These senior executives, they make unsound agreements, they create poor impression with customers just by making promises the company can later not fulfill, and that in turn creates a highly damaged a relationship. HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you.
We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about leadership from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Closing a big sale with an important client is stressful enough. Imagine bringing a top executive into that make-or-break meeting.
- And the other CEO said, I will not report anything I’m talking to with the customer to anybody, and especially not to the Salesforce, because this is confidential information, and I need to have my own sources of information.
- An account manager had the division president join the final negotiation.
- And we all talk about customer centricity, but let’s be honest, if such processes are still far away from reality, then I think it’s a long way to go for many companies.
- And I would say it’s quite a simple truth that no senior executives want to create the image of losers.
- And in some occasions they may turn around the deal, but it’s not a sustainable strategy.
You’ll learn what to do if your CEO is either overly involved—or not involved enough—in deals, and why knowing your CEO’s archetype can be helpful. So all they could do is the small talk, but if on the other side you have expectations on business talk then this strategy of the social visitor falls short. So it really pays off if you focus on both dimensions, not just the relationship building, but also on the revenue seeking at the same time. If at all, they may call you up as an account manager just the day before and say, “Okay, hi. ” And then the poor account manager is really super busy in either making this appointment or, as this is a strategy to deal with these loose cannons, maybe finding a way to postpone the meeting until the executive has left town again.
Our guest today has spent years researching the role of top leaders in B2B relationships, and he’s going to share how the best CEOs succeed at it. Spoiler alert, being a hands-off CEO or a loose cannon is not it. Whether it’s a salesperson deciding their next move, a manager reshuffling customer assignments, or a leadership team shaping strategy, fast, reflexive action—driven by real-time insights—is increasingly key to relevance and results.
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But there’s a fine line between successful outcomes and counterproductive disasters. Taking a social stance has become a rite of passage for contemporary brands that are hoping to resonate with younger, more socially-conscious audiences. In April 2023, Bud Light tried its hand at this strategy, collaborating with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on a social media promotional post. This sparked backlash from several prominent conservatives, leading many conservative figures and groups to call for a boycott of Bud Light.
We’ve combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review; articles and selected the most important ones to help you understand how to create the conditions for sales success.
That’s what happened in one case that today’s guest studied. An account manager had the division president join the final negotiation. But when the client suddenly asked for more price reductions, that executive was so hell bent on sealing the deal, they were about to agree to something that would have cost the firm two million dollars. Christoph Senn is a marketing professor at INSEAD where he codirects the Marketing and Sales Excellence Initiative. With Columbia Business School’s Noel Capon, he also wrote the new Harvard Business Review article “When CEOs Make Sales Calls.” Christoph, thanks for joining me.
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So you have to be selective also as a senior leader to which customers you apply that role of the growth champion. But I think the bottom line is if you really follow that growth champion role you are creating a positive environment, the favorable conditions for success for both the customer to grow profitably and also for your sales team. If you sales commission accounting don’t do that, you’re missing out a huge opportunity. So even if it’s only a handful of relationships, it really pays off here as our results then show, when we looked at the performance impact of these roles.
- And that signal is of course a strong commitment to a particular deal.
- But I think the bottom line is if you really follow that growth champion role you are creating a positive environment, the favorable conditions for success for both the customer to grow profitably and also for your sales team.
- This is especially true when it comes to giving presentations, whether you are presenting in person, over the telephone, or via a videoconferencing platform.
- Recent McKinsey research found that over the last five years, the percentage of B2B buyers who wanted in-person sales interactions with new suppliers has declined from 50% to 35%.
- It’s not uncommon for CEOs to engage strategic customers around key negotiations.
How CEOs Make or Break Sales
If you take these two together, with 28% for hands-off and 21% for loose cannon, it’s half of our sample, neither interacting with the customer or interacting in a very negative way. If we do the math, every second CEO here really doesn’t live up to the full potential. On the other hand if you look for the other extreme you would have the executive who would be really, really interested in making sure that the deal is closed. They engage when a significant revenue opportunity arises or when the customer is just about to choose a supplier. And that signal is of course a strong commitment to a particular deal. On the other hand this is not a sustainable strategy, because even rockstar CEOs or senior leaders cannot turn around every single deal.
And I would say it’s quite a simple truth that no senior executives want to create the image of losers. So you cannot just delegate the deal-maker role to your CEO every single time. So you can apply this role probably only every now and then, otherwise it’s not sustainable. Christoph Senn in a marketing professor at INSEAD , and he’s spent years studying the role top leaders play in B2B relationships. In this episode, he shares the five archetypes of CEO behavior when it comes to sales, which ones are the most effective in closing a deal or nurturing a client relationship, and where they fall short.
But the hard answer to it, of course, is it really depends whether you look at large, medium, or smaller companies. If you go to mid-size or large corporations, the picture starts to change completely. INSEAD marketing professor Christoph Senn has spent years studying the role top leaders play in B2B relationships. In this episode, he shares the five archetypes of CEO behavior when it comes to sales, which ones are the most effective in closing a deal, and where they fall short.
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When you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, find it all at HBR.org. But on the other hand this executive doesn’t care at all about business issues. So in hard terms the executive would just do the wining, dining, the nice meet and greet activities, which is frustrating customers who would look for deeper engagement of course.
And to give you the end of the story that first CEO who said, I will not report what I’m doing, he also got fired. And I think that’s the last thing you want to do when you are a senior leader, that all your business is really going down the drain. So I really think deal-makers have some short notice impact. And in some occasions they may turn around the deal, but it’s not a sustainable strategy.
That’s like a general who will never engage with the troops on the frontline and also doesn’t pay attention to what’s going on on the battlefield. On the other hand we also took as a second dimension the concept of, or the dimension of revenue seeking. And again, if you do this in a greater or lesser extent that defines the extreme position. So in the one extreme you could have an executive who would say, okay I am seeing customers all the time, I care about the relationships here. I really engage in fostering the relationship long-term to establish trust. When we started our research, we really thought that CEOs would just, again by default, interact with customers naturally, but that was far from the truth.
And one CEO was clearly saying, okay I need to be involved in critical relationships both from a relationship, but also from a revenue perspective. And the other CEO said, I will not report anything I’m talking to with the customer to anybody, and especially not to the Salesforce, because this is confidential information, and I need to have my own sources of information. So he was only acting as a deal-maker with at the start some initially good results, but finally it really backfired. Even existing customers often aren’t willing to invest their time in deeper discovery conversations, which are critical for winning bigger deals. The only way a sales team can prove their value is by understanding the customer, but buyers are increasingly unwilling to engage with sales teams long enough to share this kind of relevant information. Recent McKinsey research found that over the last five years, the percentage of B2B buyers who wanted in-person sales interactions with new suppliers has declined from 50% to 35%.
So you really have to sometimes also install processes, like for example, a logistics company did, just to make sure that the sales force is protected. And in this company, the sales force has the right, for good reasons with good evidence, to ask the Board or the senior management to change an executive sponsor if it’s appropriate. But of course that requires, I would say, a very open trustful working culture. On the other hand, it’s also a sign of a highly developed customer focused culture. And we all talk about customer centricity, but let’s be honest, if such processes are still far away from reality, then I think it’s a long way to go for many companies.
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