Have you ever wanted to look into the lives of busy CEO’s and C-Suite executives? Or maybe you are wondering why they never take a look at any of the emails, letters and phone calls people send them…

These CEOs are on everybody’s prospecting list so to combat the constant interruptions, they have set up advanced spam filters, human filters and a whitelist of approved people they accept phone calls from.  Their letters are sorted over the bin and the personal assistant selects what the CEO sees or doesn’t see. These executives are very prescriptive about how they spend their time and have people helping them to stick to their schedule. 
 
Hang on a minute, I thought! I do that too, well maybe not with the high-flying personal assistant but I definitely have my own filters and I’m sure you have your own?

In fact, I’ll bet my last pound that you do not always answer calls from unknown or strange numbers and you only answer emails and letters from people or businesses you know – everything else is probably viewed with suspicion. 
 
So imagine a world where everybody is doing the same! In fact, we all are. That is why business development is getting hard. The world today is full of busy CEOs (yourself included). So to get noticed you really have to start thinking like one.

Most people I speak to use a scattergun approach to prospecting and business development and wonder why it doesn’t work. I hope this article gives you some insights into why it doesn’t. Get more out of your activities by planning and approaching prospecting and networking in a way that will grab the attention of your CEOs. Find out what is consuming their thoughts, research them and create swipe files on them. Invest some time upfront to craft something that is value adding, relevant and most importantly personal! I find that people just don’t want to do the work upfront because its much more interesting to be out there feeling busy.

So everybody ends up doing the same things over and over and over again. That is also why I believe its easier to stand out than you think – the question is whether you are ready to invest time in achieving that.
 
Next time you want to send an email, phone call or letter, assume that the email, letter or call may just be the 100^th your clients are receiving today.

Why should they pay attention to yours? 

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