New executive arrivals at open opportunities
Overview
Entry Criteria
Action
Why it works
Setup
New executives can present risk with your open opps, even when priorities align well. Taking proactive & thoughtful action can help mitigate risk and sometimes drive faster + bigger outcomes.
This playbook serves as a strategic, actionable guide for addressing the risks & opportunities following a new exec hired during an open opportunity.
Before executing this play consider the opportunity stage, internal support, and expected involvement to determine if an informative approach via periodic & concise updates or a direct approach is needed (asking for the meeting).
Key contacts include:
- Current Opportunity Contacts
- Champify Contacts (if not yet involved in the evaluation)
- New Exec
Best Practices
Main Opportunity Contacts in Early Stage Opportunities
Approach:
- Where possible, address on your next live call before messaging offline
- If no live calls coming up, use existing email thread w/ engagement
Content:
- Reference ties to the likely initiative
- Position around customer: helping them succeed instead of preventing risk for you
Goal & CTA:
- Gather intel
- Proactively address any risk
- Inform any changes to next steps – which could mean different timing, or more stakeholders
Example Email Template:
Name - saw exec-name joined to initiative, which seems to align well with our initial convos.
Understanding it may be early, any insight on if/how this changes our project?
With next-steps coming up, want to ensure we’re taking the right approach for timing, stakeholders, other priorities for you & the company team.
Thank you,
Sender
Main Opportunity Contacts in Late Stage Opportunities
Approach:
- Where possible, address on your next live call before messaging offline
- If no live calls coming up, use existing email thread w/ engagement
- Send to your best contact(s), which could mean a group message or single message to your primary contact, ideally the champion.
Content:
- Reference ties to the likely initiative
- Position around customer: helping them succeed instead of preventing risk for you
Goal & CTA:
- Direct CTA / Recommendation – if later stage & exec more likely to have an impact
- Less direct / open ended CTA - if earlier stage OR exec likely less involved
Example Email Template
Name(s) - saw exec-name recently joined, and hoping to proactively address any new considerations for the project.
Do you have a sense of how involved they might be & how to best catch them up on things?
Typically we’d recommendation given they seem close to this area of the business, but understand there could be several changes in flight.
Any intel / advise is appreciated!
- Sender
Champify Contact
If there's a former customer contact on the account who is not yet involved they offer a great source for back-channeling and intel.
Best Practices
- Whenever possible, get intro from or name drop your colleague that worked with the former MyCo customer at the past role.
- Reference, link, or attach any relevant materials from the current opp.
- Customize the value prop based on the past customer’s use cases, prior lost opp, and persona of the new exec.
Example Email Template
Subject: MyCo - current project at company
Name - given your experience with MyCo at past-co, thought you may have good advice & also worth filling you in on the current project.
We’ve been working with current-evaluators to project-description and project-progress.
In light of Exec-name recently joining – do you have any insight that can advise our current project?
- sender
New Executive
Approach:
- Engage current contact evaluators first for intel / recommendation
- Have your own exec send on your behalf
- Adjust based on how relevant the exec is to your project
Content:
- Name drop top supporters
- Summarize business drivers / how you tie
- Eval status / stage
Goal & CTA:
- Goal – Provide value & get on their radar
- Soft CTA – If relevant they will bump this with the internal team.
Example Email Template
Subject: sender-name - project update
Name - I lead sender-department at MyCo. Filling you in on our teams’ work to date, which seems aligned with initiative.
Context – our project with opp-contact-names
- Why: Problem / opportunity area
- How: Direct value / solution / proof-point
- Where: Progress / current stage
See resource-1 & resource-2 for more details.
Hope you’re off to a good start & know you have a direct line to me as needed.
- Exec Sponsor