Get Out of My Office!

First of all, the level everyone understands is
that an executive is the person who is responsible
for policy and direction of a departmental
function. I call this the functional silo. They
are in charge and lead the Sales and Marketing
effort, the Manufacturing Division, the R&D
efforts, the financial function or various other
areas. Each has the primary responsibility for
establishing policy and direction within their
department making certain that BOTH support the
overall corporate direction. Their efforts and
decisions in this functional silo are not based
on the slickness or sexiness of a particular
technology or application, but rather on its
overall ability to bring their silo into alignment
with the corporation's strategic intent.
But this is only part of their job. There is
a second part which carries a greater deal of
involvement and time investment. When you are able
to recognize and understand this, it will create
more value opportunities for you. Executives must
also establish policy and direction at the corporate
level. I call this the corporate strategic silo.
This corporate silo always takes precedence over
the functional silo. If the two ever come into
conflict, the corporate silo always wins. Perhaps
this might explain why salespeople who go into a
meeting with an executive to "pitch their wares",
and are addressing the impact they can bring to the
functional department silo lose the executive's
interest. While this "stuff", (which is how the
executives usually describe it), is important to
the salesperson and possibly the functional silo,
it does not capture the executive's attention,
or address the value they most care about or are
looking for. The response that usually follows
sounds something like, "This is very interesting.
I would like you to continue this discussion with
my Director of Manufacturing", thus effectively
GET OUT OF MY OFFICE! 31
ending the opportunity for you to build any kind
of relationship with this executive. Understand
that relationships will be built based on the
value you can offer. For the executive the value
that would cause them to entertain the idea of the
relationship will be separate from the impact you
may have on their functional silo. Remember, their
primary responsibility, by definition, will be the
corporate silo. They will have others to manage
the functional aspects of the corporation.
I have used the word "primary" several times and
it bears some explanation. I am trying to convey
that executives have multiple responsibilities.
Sometimes it will be necessary to get their
coveralls on and go down into the bowels of the
ship. While they may often have to make these
road trips, please don't confuse this with the
chance for you to bring in your value proposition
and have it fall on eager and accepting ears.
Executives are NOT managers. They have people to
take care of the tactical efforts of a function
or project. The executive will LEAD and determine
the direction of the silo and team up wi...