Cutting Through to Enterprise Buyers

Reaching and generating leads from enterprise contacts can be tough; they’re often short on time and focused on solving large scale organizational challenges. As a result, it can be difficult to get their attention with traditional marketing communications and your sales team is unlikely to reach them by phone. Regardless, C-suite executives don’t want a cold call sales pitch and won’t engage positively unless you offer them value.

Virtual events are one of the best ways to reach an engaged C-suite audience. By hosting, sponsoring or attending a virtual event with credible speakers or a deep dive, roundtable-style digital summit, you can bring together a group of peers and forge a real connection.

Here’s a few things to focus on if you’re looking to entice an executive audience to your event:

Understand your target

Be clear on your motivation for bringing this particular set of executives together. What issues matter to them, and how can your event bring them value? Think also about what you want the outcome of the event to be; are the conversations generated at the event likely to be sustained by your sales teams or client managers?

Answering these questions will help you to define the value proposition of your event for both sides.

Connect to a peer core group

One of the main reasons it’s hard to attract enterprise decision makers to events is relevance. C-suite buyers are only going to take time away from the office if an event is relevant to their business challenges.

You can ensure your event is relevant by convening a core peer group to obtain guidance and input on what to include in a compelling event agenda. This will turn potential attendees into co-creators and peers, happy to champion the event in their own network.

Leverage your senior executives

Use the expertise and credibility that your own C-suite offers. For example, if your next event is targeted at C-suite tech buyers, consider enlisting your own Chief Technology Officer to help curate the event and share their perspective during it. If your own executive team is invested, your audience will trust that it’s going to be a value-adding exchange of ideas, rather than a thinly-veiled sales pitch.

Start small and intimate

Executives want to connect with peers and exchange expertise. As a result, it can be difficult to attract them to large-scale events. Instead, look to more intimate formats, such as roundtables events and forums/panels. These sessions foster the kind of intensive, productive environment that C-suite executives value.

If you’re already hosting a large event and want to attract enterprise buyers, think about creating an executive track, or featuring a more exclusive pre-event meeting.

Think engagement, not attendance

The most important thing you can generate at an executive level event isn’t numbers: it’s engagement. Reaching senior decision makers with purchase authority is a significant challenge for high-level chiefs and executives, according to a GDS and IFP survey. If your content is sales-focused and based on benefits and features, you’re not going to come away from the event with highly qualified leads, as C-suite buyers want to hear about outcomes and impact.

To overcome this, think of your event as part of your broader engagement strategy, and bring valuable ideas to an audience of worthy peers.

Virtual events are the way forward

Getting the right setting, strategy, and roster of speakers together is key to the success of your event and the engagement of your audience. It can be done in house, but it’s tough work and there are no shortcuts. The ongoing COVID-19 has also made networking for businesses a logistical nightmare. However, virtual events offer the perfect solution, and organizations around the world are using them to thrive amid global disruption - it's no wonder that GDS and IFP's survey revealed that 80% of over 200 high-level executives and directors were planning at least six virtual events in 2021.

Co-hosting a virtual event is a great way to build a sales pipeline of leads with a tangible ROI. As an attendee, you’re assured of a chance to network with fellow executives in your geographical orbit. You’ll get to share problems and solutions in lively, direct discussions and come away with fresh ideas, unique perspectives and new connections.

Becoming an event host brings even more potential value. A successful virtual summit will enable you to cut right through to enterprise buyers, accelerate your sales cycle and facilitate idea exchange and innovation within your sector.