Here’s why you need Executive Sponsorship in all your deals: 

1. The deal will move much faster if it’s important to a Senior Executive 

2. The deal will be much larger when you are working with Senior Executives, because they have access to more funding and decide where funding should be allocated

3. They will remove constraints or bottlenecks that arise during the sales cycle

Always aim to get the cell phone number of your Executive Sponsor, and text them a thank you note after you first meet so they have your contact info. 

I also ask permission to reach out to give them important updates, or in the event that something gets stalled or delayed with their team (which it will). 

They always say yes. 

It’s important to have a strong relationship with an Executive Sponsor at the C-suite level for many reasons. 

A major reason is so you can ping them if and when things get delayed throughout the sales cycle. 

If the project is important to the Executive Sponsor and helps them achieve their top goals or priorities, they will want their team to move quickly on it. 

It’s also helpful to have an Executive sponsor on your side aligned with their Executive Sponsor, so they can reach out as needed while you maintain your relationship with your champion. 

The earlier you can set this up in the sales cycle, the better. 

We recently closed a deal where everything was verbally approved, and we were just awaiting signature. 

My Head of Sales was frequently checking in with our primary contact, who told him they were still reviewing and would get back to him with questions. 

Two weeks passed without communication back, so I offered to step in and help. 

I pinged the CEO, who I was directly aligned with. 

I tried calling his cell phone first, and when he didn’t pick up I sent him a voice memo via text.

I prefer voice memos over voice mails or e-mails, because I can see that they listened to them when they disappear afterwards. 

Executives also check their texts more than e-mail. 

On the voice memo, I explained that things seemed to be stalled on their end, and I asked him to let me know if anything had changed. If this was still a priority, I asked if he would be willing to nudge our champion to get the contracts back because it had been over two weeks since we sent them. 

He texted right back and said he would find out what was going on. 

The next day we had readlines back, and within two days the deal closed. 

This is the power of Executive Sponsorship.