I'm going to be honest here, in life what we have always been told, isn't always true.

You know how we have always been told to sell, to always be closing? It really pisses people off and c-level people hate it even more. You want to get more c-level meetings, let me walk you through 3 rules and then make some suggestions about what you can do on social. 

Rule 1

First and foremost, don't pitch.

If you pitch, you are seen as a "brochure salesperson" and a dinosaur. Simple as.

Rule 2

It's nothing to do with your age. Unless the c-level person is an idiot, then we (I'm a CEO after all) are open to hear people of all ages. Everybody. Why? Because c-level people are looking for "nuggets", we want to be told something we don't know.

Some sales gurus will tell you that c-level people want to talk to c-level people, or people that make decisions. This is rubbish.

Rule 3

Don't lie and don't be manipulative. Don't, whatever you do, say "my CEO said you might like this". It's BS. I know it, you know and you just come across as a "chicken shit" salesperson.

How will social selling help?

1. You need to get a profile, that when I read it, I can see the real you. I don't want to read about your products and your company.  If you write about your company and products, sorry you just sound like, just another "chicken shit" salesperson.

As a CEO, I'm interested in you and how you can help me. Just copying out a brochure or copying something off the web site that says "buy my product because we are great" does not help me.  It also shows me that you are lazy and are not creative. 

Think about it, has anybody marketed by saying, buy my product and it's shit, the after sales is terrible and you will try and cancel after two months? No, of course not. That means, I cannot tell your company from your competition, no client can, we are, after all not experts, you are. So don't think you can just serve up a brochure.

Think of it like this, we are in a bar, and I ask you "so what's your story?" how would you answer? 

2. You need a network. Most people on LinkedIn have contacts, these are x colleagues and recruitment consultants. If you are going to sell into any account today, you need to be connected with the people you want to sell to.

So connect to them, don't sell, there is plenty of time for this, first I need to get to know you. So start a conversation. There is plenty about me on social. If I have a conversation with you, I start to know you, like you and trust you. It's people that I trust, I will buy from.

3. The third thing you need is content. Please don't share corporate content, nobody is interested and especially c-suite people. If we wanted a brochure we would go to your website. Give me insight, educate me, tell me something I don't know.

This is what I want as a c-suite person. If you know your territory well, and you know what's impacting my vertical, tell me.

And finally

There is one strand that runs all the way through this and that is authenticity.

Be yourself, your social media profile is yours, not your companies, don't be a brochure jockey, it makes you look bad.

One more thing

The thing I love about social as a C-suite person is it's totally transparent, I can see you for what you are. In the past, you would walk in my office, I would put out my hand and look you in the eye. My first impression was based on the strength of your hand shake. Now I can see everything about you on social and will have made a decision if I like you, before you even know it.

On social, I can soon work out if you are going to waste my time. Don't.