Stop disqualifying junior titles

82% of execs enter the convo *after* their team has the shortlist

"Yes, the lead that came through is from a target account, but their title is too junior so I’m going to disqualify them"

^^ me in my agency days when I heard clients say this

THAT'S 👏 BECAUSE 👏 LEADERSHIP 👏 HAS 👏 THEIR 👏 TEAM 👏 DO 👏 THE 👏 RESEARCH

Unless you're targeting small companies, an effective leader often delegates buying research to the members of their team who would benefit from the purchase.

If you ever want to see me get HEATED about a subject, this is one of them. Let’s talk about why…

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📚 Story time 📚

A client I worked with years ago while at Refine Labs with had an inbound demo request come in from a perfect fit ICP prospect. Like tier 1, check allllll the boxes, “would love to have their logo on our website” perfect fit.

...but the job title associated with the submission was "Intern."

Since we tracked all of their inbounds, when I saw that demo request come through, I was STOKED + sent them a message of congratulations and to hear how they were going to make sure they got the red carpet treatment.

Turns out, they were about to disqualify it. It wasn’t the right “persona” since it was an intern.

A few deep breaths and goosfrabas later, I challenged them to give that intern a call. I told them about how I had been in positions like that before where I was doing research for our company’s decision-makers.

Fast forward a couple of hours later + I got a note message back from them:

"So, we had the discovery call with the intern and he's working directly for the CEO. Was tasked with researching which solution they should purchase to solve what they're going through."

The next call with the account was the demo, and guess who was on it - the CEO.

footage of me as this played out

What the data tells us

Peep Laja hit on this earlier this week with this post on LinkedIn:

Two BIG stats to recognize here:

• 82% of CMOs enter after the team has already narrowed down the list

• 35% only at the very final stage

AKA, if you’re optimizing for the executive only with your targeting, you’re fighting with your hands tied behind your back.

The execs aren’t doing the research or taking the discovery calls - they’re having their team do that. Or to pull from the post above, "My team does the first two rounds. I come in for the final 2-3 vendors when it's time to make a call."

What we need to learn/remember here

Unless you're targeting small companies (1-10 employees), an effective leader often delegates software/services research to the members of their team who would benefit from the purchase. They’re the individuals who are feeling the pains, not hitting targets, or are tasked with solving for how they’ll hit increased targets. And since they’re the closest to the problem, the savvy executive lets them do the initial research + vetting.

While the individual who signs your contracts may be the CEO/CFO/CMO/VP/etc., more often than not, they're only involved later in the process after their team has done their due diligence.

So all of those ads targeting execs, BDR calls to leadership teams, etc., are far from the best use of your resources.

The people deciding if you make the initial shortlist are 2-3 levels down from them. They’re the directors, managers, individual contributors, etc. who would benefit from the purchase.

By the time the exec shows up, you’re either on the shortlist or you aren’t. The team has decided if you’ll be involved when the decisionmaker gets pulled in.

Example of one of many demo requests we’ve received here where we see this play out

So what this means for us as marketers + GTM practitioners is this:

🙅‍♂️ Do NOT automatically DQ an inbound handraiser who fits your ICP but their title is "too junior"

🧐 Know ALL of the job titles of your product’s end-users within your ICP + target them

The ultimate decisionmaker is often too far removed from the pain - the employees who would benefit from your solution are the ones who will advocate up the chain for you.

That said, you still need to have some inkling of mental mindshare with the decisionmaker so that when the final 3 options bubble up to them, they recognize your name over the others, that you've somehow demonstrated credibility earlier on with them.

That's what takes you from 1 of the final 3 to "tell me why we shouldn’t go with [brand]."

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Book quote of the week

“And it became the place where [Jobs] really learned, albeit slowly and reluctantly and against his natural instincts, that sometimes the best management technique is to forgo micromanagement and give good, talented people the room they need to succeed.

- Becoming Steve Jobs, by Brent Schlender

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See you next Saturday,
Sam