First of all, the level everyone understands isthat an executive is
the person who is responsiblefor policy and direction of a
departmentalfunction. I call this the functional silo. Theyare in
charge and lead the Sales and Marketingeffort, the Manufacturing
Division, the R&Defforts, the financial function or various
otherareas. Each has the primary responsibility forestablishing
policy and direction within theirdepartment making certain that
BOTH support theoverall corporate direction. Their efforts
anddecisions in this functional silo are not basedon the slickness
or sexiness of a particulartechnology or application, but rather on
itsoverall ability to bring their silo into alignmentwith the
corporation's strategic intent.But this is only part of their job.
There isa second part which carries a greater deal ofinvolvement
and time investment. When you are ableto recognize and understand
this, it will createmore value opportunities for you. Executives
mustalso establish policy and direction at the corporatelevel. I
call this the corporate strategic silo.This corporate silo always
takes precedence overthe functional silo. If the two ever come
intoconflict, the corporate silo always wins. Perhapsthis might
explain why salespeople who go into ameeting with an executive to
"pitch their wares,"and are addressing the impact they can bring to
thefunctional department silo lose the executive'sinterest. While
this "stuff," (which is how theexecutives usually describe it), is
important tothe salesperson and possibly the functional silo, it
does not capture the executive's attention, or address the value
they most care about or arelooking for. The response that usually
followssounds something like, "This is very interesting.I would
like you to continue this discussion withmy Director of
Manufacturing," thus effectivelyGET OUT OF MY OFFICE 31ending the
opportunity for you to build any kindof relationship with this
executive. Understandthat relationships will be built based on
thevalue you can offer. For the executive the valuethat would cause
them to entertain the idea of therelationship will be separate from
the impact youmay have on their functional silo. Remember,
theirprimary responsibility, by definition, will be thecorporate
silo. They will have others to managethe functional aspects of the
corporation.I have used the word "primary" several times andit
bears some explanation. I am trying to conveythat executives have
multiple responsibilities.Sometimes it will be necessary to get
theircoveralls on and go down into the bowels of theship. While
they may often have to make theseroad trips, please don't confuse
this with thechance for you to bring in your value propositionand
have it fall on eager and accepting ears.Executives are NOT
managers. They have people totake care of the tactical efforts of a
functionor project. The executive will LEAD and determinethe
direction of the silo and team up with theircolleagues to lead the
company.When people get a meeting with an executive, they typically
have a conversation that addressesthe executive not from the
corporate silo butrather as the highest-ranking manager of
thefunctional silo. Yes the executive can and willtalk the talk,
look the look and walk the walk, with technical, functional silo
language, but atthe end of the day the value that they are
lookingfor as an executive has not been addressed in thistype of
exchange.Allow me to illustrate this in another way.Have you ever
wondered why there is such a hugedifference in compensation between
executives andthe rest of the organization? The typical companyhas
a pay scale that is used for all employees.32 KEVIN L. STINSONFrom
the lowest level employee to the highestsenior management position,
there might be 20
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