SPT

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

Fortune 100 company agreed to take meeting - but only agreed to give us 15 minutes ;-(

Hi WarRom Peeps! I did cold outreach and got an executive level intro meeting with a Fortune 100 company. I wrote the CTO and he referred us to our Ideal Buyer Persona within this company. This is our shot at the Big Leagues! The executive assistant said that he will 'give us' 15 minutes of his time. On our side we are having our founder present and lead the meeting - our founder is a big-wig from MIT - a kind of famous guy in our industry. How do I ask for - beg for - 30 minutes instead of a measly 15 minutes? Thanks ;-)

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Selichimorpha

Celebrated Contributor

Growth Executive

Honestly don't ask, take the 15 minutes and if the buyer is impressed, he'll let the meeting run over. Don't address the time limit on the call either.

I did this with a fortune 500 company once and they went from a 30 min cal invite to over an hour.

JDialz

Politicker

Chief Operating Officer

Exactly. When we "give" somebody 15 minutes, we have blocked 30 on our end. If we "give" somebody 30 minutes, we have blocked a full hour.

Ace

Arsonist

CEO

+1. Those 15 mins are not to show a demo, but just to show that you are worth listening to further. Your goal for that 15 mins should be to get a 30 min meeting. Which means, talk a lot about their problem and how you can solve and how much they can save

Captain_Q

Arsonist

Sr. Account Executive

This is them telling you that you have 15min impress them. I'd bet my firstborn that they have at least 30min, if not more, open just in case. No one sets meetings on the quarter-hour. There's is not begging for an extra 15, you have to earn it:)

Don't let that psych you out. Be prepared, don't waste too much time on introductions, and knock their fucking socks off!

YOU GOT THIS!

SPT

Valued Contributor

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

Thank you ;-) My problem is - how to explain to our MIT professor founder that we only get 15 mins? I'm nervous to tell him (and my boss, the SVP of Sales) this info :-(

BmajoR

Arsonist

Account Executive

Be honest... the sooner the better too

pitchandputt

Executive

Account Executive

You were asking to show them the movie; they asked to watch the trailer first. Your SVP of Sales will fully understand this.

sahil

Notable Contributor

Deepak Chopra of Sales

No prospect on planet Earth cares, at all, about your founder being from MIT or w/e. Like at all.

They care whether your technology can solve their problems. Which means your job is to figure out their problems, align a solution. Don't waste time with the professor BS... every startup tries that, every startup eventually learns.

PhlipOut

Politicker

Account Executive

this. It'll be also a lesson for your leaders that "titles" don't matter out there in the cold world. only if you are relevant or not

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

Tough call - sounds like conflicting and battling ego's of the MIT founder and the buyer (anyone who gives you "15 minutes" is an egomaniac). I would take the 15, and then spend the time before the meeting trying to connect with someone under "captain ego" (could be the exec assistant) and try to learn something that will impress/catch his attention in that first 2 minutes. If you can earn the right with captain ego, you'll likely get a longer pass at the wheel than 15 minutes. That being said, if you can't pull it off - have your best 3 "what's in it for him" value props ready and hope you catch him on a good day 😎

mrjve

Member

Account Executive

Exactly. Find your champion beforehand.

SPT

Valued Contributor

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

Thank you.

Telehealth_2the_Moon

Notable Contributor

Director of Business Development

Getting time with these guys is hard, what are you thoughts on putting together a really tight presentation and make sure to end with some interesting stuff. If they start asking questions then you could ask if they have time to go over the 15 minute limit or if they would rather schedule more time, either option means more time for you!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Then you better make this the best damn 15 minutes of your life.

Get rid of any/all filler or fluff. Focus on industry needs and value. If they are asking questions and the meeting is conversational, then ask permission for more time.

JDialz

Politicker

Chief Operating Officer

I'm with a Fortune 100. If the EA said you can have 15 minutes, I guarantee they have actually blocked 30. They will already know everything about you and your group when you go into the meeting, so skip the fluff and get to the problem solving. Any compelling pitch will likely get you more time than they told you was dedicated.

Not going to try to tell you how to sell, but ask a shit load of questions about them that you already know the answer to as it relates to your product and its potential unique utility for them.

SPT

Valued Contributor

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

Thank you.

salesninja

Opinionated

as already mentioned, have an agenda in mind and get straight to the point. if they like what they hear, you'll have more time. if they don't then, they'll cut it at the scheduled 15 minutes.

theprideofmanagement

Account Executive

I would do the absolute opposite of what you're suggesting. Go into the meeting and state that it was scheduled for 15 minutes & you have a hard stop at that quarter hour. Now, you absolutely have to impress in those 15 but 100% get off the meeting when time is up. Deliver it as an upfront contract, "Hey, I know we only have 15 minutes here - typically, these conversations quickly go one of two ways. Either we completely miss the mark & you know that instantly so we part ways as friends or it's clear that another conversation is needed to see just how much we might be able to help. I've set my timer for 10 minutes & we'll use the remaining five to see which side we're on." You need that person to lean in & then you call time. "Hey, maybe I'm completely off base here but it seems like there might be enough interest to set some additional time - when could we find an hour next week?"

SPT

Valued Contributor

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

Thank you.

authello

Contributor

Head of Partnerships

I love this! I once had a 15 minute informational interview. I took it as a challenge to authentically connect and to end on time. When we were close to time, I thanked him and he said hold on a sec and then said he had a few more minutes. He shared some great resources with me. I followed up after and we stayed in touch. He became a friend and mentor.

Adslanger1

Opinionated

Senior Account Executive

Don’t try to extend and push em off. Take that 15 min to blow their minds, qualify, and close. If it takes more than 15 it'll happen.

SPT

Valued Contributor

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

@sahil Hey Sahil, would love your take on this since I know you used to sell into Enterprise. Thanks ;-)

sahil

Notable Contributor

Deepak Chopra of Sales

Hey @SPT - the 15 minute thing isn't relevant. You are never going to ask enough questions / prove enough value in 15 minutes that it's worth it for someone to keep talking to you. So as Aaron Rodgers would say: R-E-L-A-X. You've got the meeting, make it worth their while.

Here's what I would do:

1. Day before meeting, email an agenda that looks like this (I'll draft a hypothetical one for Bravado, but make it relevant to your company obviously):

"Hi <<Name>>,

Looking forward to our conversation tomorrow. Here are the 2 main topics we'd like to discuss:

1. Recruiting Strategy - Bravado helps sales leaders at Salesforce, Uber hire top AEs via our private marketplace. We filter based on previous track record of the rep and the territory they have historically covered, details which are unavailable on LinkedIn or other platforms. Wanted to understand what your top needs around AE hiring look like.

2. Interview Assessment - After you find the right reps you're interested in, Bravado helps you assess those reps faster. Leaders at companies like Google, Microsoft are using our video assessment to skip the initial phone screen and get a first-hand perspective of the candidate's sales skills. Wanted to understand how this might fit in to your current candidate evaluation flow.

Talk tomorrow,
SM"

2. When you get on the phone, R-E-L-A-X! Do not rush. Spend the first couple mins chatting, building rapport. I'd try to spend at least 5. If they like you, they will give you time. Afterwards, I'd go into detail on the above, get them interested, and close the deal.

Good luck, let me know how it goes!

SPT

Valued Contributor

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

Thank you so much! - SPT

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SPT

Fortune 100 company agreed to take meeting - but only agreed to give us 15 minutes ;-(

24 comments

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