Get Out of My Office!

First of all, the level everyone understands isthat an executive is the person who is responsiblefor policy and direction of a departmentalfunction. I call this the functional silo. Theyare in charge and lead the Sales and Marketingeffort, the Manufacturing Division, the R&Defforts, the financial function or various otherareas. Each has the primary responsibility forestablishing policy and direction within theirdepartment making certain that BOTH support theoverall corporate direction. Their efforts anddecisions in this functional silo are not basedon the slickness or sexiness of a particulartechnology or application, but rather on itsoverall ability to bring their silo into alignmentwith the corporation’s strategic intent.But this is only part of their job. There isa second part which carries a greater deal ofinvolvement and time investment. When you are ableto recognize and understand this, it will createmore value opportunities for you. Executives mustalso establish policy and direction at the corporatelevel. I call this the corporate strategic silo.This corporate silo always takes precedence overthe functional silo. If the two ever come intoconflict, the corporate silo always wins. Perhapsthis might explain why salespeople who go into ameeting with an executive to 'pitch their wares',and are addressing the impact they can bring to thefunctional department silo lose the executive’sinterest. While this 'stuff', (which is how theexecutives usually describe it), is important tothe salesperson and possibly the functional silo,it does not capture the executive’s attention,or address the value they most care about or arelooking for. The response that usually followssounds something like, 'This is very interesting.I would like you to continue this discussion withmy Director of Manufacturing', thus effectivelyGET OUT OF MY OFFICE! 31ending the opportunity for you to build any kindof relationship with this executive. Understandthat relationships will be built based on thevalue you can offer. For the executive the valuethat would cause them to entertain the idea of therelationship will be separate from the impact youmay have on their functional silo. Remember, theirprimary responsibility, by definition, will be thecorporate silo. They will have others to managethe functional aspects of the corporation.I have used the word 'primary' several times andit bears some explanation. I am trying to conveythat executives have multiple responsibilities.Sometimes it will be necessary to get theircoveralls on and go down into the bowels of theship. While they may often have to make theseroad trips, please don’t confuse this with thechance for you to bring in your value propositionand have it fall on eager and accepting ears.Executives are NOT managers. They have people totake care of the tactical efforts of a functionor project. The executive will LEAD and determinethe direction of the silo and team up with theircolleagues to lead the company.When people get a meeting with an executive,they typically have a conversation that addressesthe executive not from the corporate silo butrather as the highest-ranking manager of thefunctional silo. Yes the executive can and willtalk the talk, look the look and walk the walk,with technical, functional silo language, but atthe end of the day the value that they are lookingfor as an executive has not been addressed in thistype of exchange.Allow me to illustrate this in another way.Have you ever wondered why there is such a hugedifference in compensation between executives andthe rest of the organization? The typical companyhas a pay scale that is used for all employees.32 KEVIN L. STINSONFrom the lowest level employee to the highestsenior management position, there might be 20