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 with their colleagues to lead the company. When people get a meeting with an executive, they typically have a conversation that addresses the executive not from the corporate silo but rather as the highest-ranking manager of the functional silo. Yes the executive can and will talk the talk, look the look and walk the walk, with technical, functional silo language, but at the end of the day the value that they are looking for as an executive has not been addressed in this type of exchange. Allow me to illustrate this in another way. Have you ever wondered why there is such a huge difference in compensation between executives and the rest of the organization? The typical company has a pay scale that is used for all employees. 32 KEVIN L. STINSON From the lowest level employee to the highest senior management position, there might be 20