Sales leaders tell reps to “get higher in accounts” 97% of the time, but rarely explain the tactical steps to make it happen. You get access to executive buyers when you know their specific priority and what’s preventing them from accomplishing it.
Why “Get Higher in This Account” Is Useless Advice Without a System
Every sales leader could say “You need to get higher in this account” in every deal review and they’d be right 97%+ of the time. Sellers rarely engage in significant ways with VP/SVP/C-Level contacts in their deals.
The problem is most sales leaders tell you what to do (and it’s always obvious) but don’t often tell you how to do it.
Here’s the thing: you don’t need a 1:1 meeting with the VP/C-level contact to get the insight you need for executive access. You should be able to uncover both pieces of intelligence by talking with anyone within their org.
The Two Intelligence Assets You Need for Executive Access
You get access to executive buyers when you know two things:
- Their specific priority – not generic goals like “increase revenue” but concrete targets like “hit 40% YoY growth in Q3”
- What’s preventing them from accomplishing the priority – the gaps, challenges, or roadblocks standing in their way
These two pieces of intelligence transform your outreach from generic executive spam into personalized, relevant messaging that earns meetings.
How to Uncover Specific Executive Priorities (Not Generic Goals)
Generic priorities are easy to research: increase revenue, decrease cost, mitigate risk. They’re also easy to pull with AI-driven account research. But they don’t stand out in executive inboxes.
Before you could ever hope to articulate how your solution can help, you need to know what’s top of mind for your target prospects: what they care about and how they are measured.
To prepare for these conversations, read job descriptions for open roles in the same department as your target prospect. The tasks and expectations assigned to a product manager are likely related to the VP of Product’s priorities. If no open roles within the account relate to your prospect, look for comparable positions at competitors.
Here’s a question you can use to assess your understanding of an account: “If meeting with their CEO, CFO, and CMO, how comfortable would you be talking about their business in their language?”
Once you understand their business context, ask ICs or middle management in an exec’s org these two questions to uncover specific priorities:
“What metrics/KPIs does your (VP/C-level exec) consistently discuss in all-hands meetings/town halls?”
“During your last all-hands or executive update, did you hear any phrases repeated?”
The difference between generic and specific priorities is massive:
- Generic: “Steve – reaching out re: your goal to increase revenue.”
- Specific: “Steve – reaching out re: your goal to hit 40% YoY growth in Q3.”
Questions That Reveal What’s Blocking Executive Success
Once you have the priority, you can start to get a point-of-view for the gaps. Start with these questions:
“What changes have you seen the org make to try and achieve [specific priority]?”
“From your perspective, what’s working/not working?”
Even half-way decent answers to these questions will significantly elevate your outreach to execs. You’re gathering intelligence on what they’ve tried, what’s succeeded, and where they’re still struggling.
This gap identification is what separates you from every other vendor reaching out with generic value propositions. You’re not guessing at their challenges – you’re speaking to the specific obstacles they’re facing right now.
Before and After: Generic vs. Intelligence-Driven Executive Outreach
Here’s how this intelligence transforms your messaging:
Before (Generic): “Steve – reaching out re: your goal to increase revenue. We’re seeing companies like yours struggle with rep onboarding, leading to less productive sales teams…”
After (Intelligence-Driven): “Steve – reaching out re: your goal to hit 40% YoY growth in Q3. Sounds like you hired a new enablement leader to help improve onboarding to decrease new hire ramp time, but there are still challenges with ‘best practices’ stored more in the minds of top reps vs accessible to everyone.”
The second message demonstrates you understand their specific situation, not just their industry’s general challenges. It shows you’ve done your homework and earned the right to their attention.
Turn Every Meeting Into Executive Access Fuel
All of your meetings won’t be with executives or decision makers. But every meeting can become valuable if you are able to uncover specific exec priorities plus gaps that you can use to earn time with an exec.
This approach transforms how you think about every contact in your accounts. Instead of seeing lower-level contacts as obstacles to executives, you see them as intelligence sources. Each conversation becomes an opportunity to gather the specific insights that will make your executive outreach impossible to ignore.
The more quality time you earn with execs through this 3-step framework for executive access, the more you’ll win. When you combine this intelligence-gathering approach with broader early stakeholder engagement strategies and strong discovery skills for understanding what buyers want to achieve, you’ll consistently outperform reps who rely on generic outreach.
Stop guessing at executive priorities. Start systematically gathering intelligence from every contact, and watch your executive access rates climb.
