Know your customer. Engage them in a way that speaks to them. Your differentiation isn’t just your product—it’s the relationships you build and the value you bring

When you need a key executive’s buy-in to land a deal, you quickly realize one hard truth: Customers can buy solutions like yours anywhere. The real differentiator is YOU and the unique value you bring.

Once upon a time, I had a sales year where a big customer had a renewal and the only way I was going to make my number was through a sizable upsell. The customer added a critical new executive and that executive wouldn’t take my call.

A great example of leveraging intel and LinkedIn to build a relationship happened when a customer organization added a new senior executive about a year before a major renewal.

I dug into his LinkedIn profile and saw he was a thought leader, prolific blogger, and podcast guest.

Instead of pushing my agenda, I flipped the script. I messaged him with a radically different approach:

I offered an executive-to-executive connection with someone prominent in my organization.

I highlighted our exec’s credentials and the incredible background of the executive and his team, and framed the meeting as a mutual exchange of ideas – where we could learn a lot from him.

Within 10 minutes, he replied: “Well played, Heady.”

He took the meeting.

He started joining our calls and kept up a relationship with our exec.

We did all of the usual fundamentals to ensure he felt good about our solutions.

Within six months, we landed the 8-figure deal and colossal upsell, and won the biggest award in the company.

Key takeaway? Know your customer. Engage them in a way that speaks to them. Your differentiation isn’t just your product—it’s the relationships you build and the value you bring.

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