Getting time with a senior leader isn’t always easy. Their calendars are packed, and every meeting has to earn its place. That means it’s not enough to just talk about merch. You need to bring insight into what works and how brands show up in the real world. The challenge is doing this quickly.

Andrew Sobel, the founder and CEO of a global consulting firm, says there are 4 main sources of value for time: insight, perspective, relevance and resilience. You should intentionally draw on these sources in your meetings with prospects and clients. In this issue of PromoPro Daily, we share Sobel’s thoughts on how you can make every minute count with senior executives.

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  1. Provide tailored insight. You can share all kinds of internal and external insights with prospects and clients. Internal insight may include what you know about the specific challenges a senior leader is up against. External insight could include information about competition and trends. Sobel says you can also share insight about people, relationships and culture.

  2. Offer a new perspective. According to Sobel, it’s extraordinarily valuable to help a client improve or change their perspective on their issues. Can you help reframe a problem or give your client a big-picture perspective on their issues? Sobel says they certainly don’t get this very often from their internal staff. A lot of the untapped value for executives lies at the intersections of different parts of their business, from sales to HR to operations. These opportunities are often missed, however, due to organizational silos.

  3. Stay relevant. To be relevant, Sobel says you have to align your conversation to their agenda or critical priorities. Sometimes, it’s a question of dropping the planned agenda to focus on an immediate, urgent issue the client is facing. You might ask, “By the way, are there any immediate issues that have come up this week that you’re concerned about and working on?”

  4. Help them increase their resilience. This is an underappreciated way to add value, according to Sobel. One way you can do this is by helping senior leaders increase their confidence. They often need a little encouragement just like the rest of us. Just saying, “I think you’re doing a great job under difficult circumstances” can be reassuring. Sobel says you can also improve their resilience by challenging them. For example, you could say, “I know you’ve set a goal for 5%, but I wonder if that’s aggressive enough considering what your competitors are doing?”

You can add value quickly by showing up with insights and then tying everything back to what matters to them. When you do that well, you’ll make the most of the meeting and earn the next one.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers
Source: Andrew Sobel is the founder and CEO of Andrew Sobel Advisors, an international consulting firm. He’s also a speaker and bestselling author.