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Protip: Executive Interviews - Cutting Through The Noise

By crooky | January 30, 2008

From a qualitative research perspective, executive interviews are an invaluable source of information. What I mean by an “executive interview” is that you interview a subject matter expert or key decision maker that has some stake in the topic that you are researching. For example, if you were researching a proposed special interest rate for first-time home buyers, you would want to interview folks from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Mortgage Brokers, banks, new home developers, etc… The problem is that most of these people are busy, important individuals and they don’t have time for you to ask them 30 questions and kill an hour of their day. However, that’s exactly what you have to convince them to do. In some cases, you won’t even be the first person to approach them for an executive interview. The trick for you as the researcher is to cut through the noise, engage the individual and give them a compelling reason to talk to you.

That’s easier said than done so here are some tricks that I’ve learned over the years:

1. Ingratiate yourself of the target’s secretary

If you haven’t been a secretary before (I have) - you might not understand the power that the lowly administrator yields. The bigger the boss, the less control he or she has over their own time. That’s what their admin staff is for. So, if you need an hour of time from a VP at a Fortune 500 company, you’re going to need to make sure that the VP’s secretary loves you. Tell a few jokes. Relate to the secretary. Talk about your kids. Seem human and warm. Admin folks love talking to people who take the time to pay attention to them at a human level. You can leverage this into an interview with someone that’s impossible to nail down.

2. Persistence

I’ve found that with many executives that don’t have their own secretaries to butter up, you need to call 3-7 times over the course of three to four weeks. Don’t give up until they tell you to “die in a fire” (was actually told this one time). What you need to do is get your leg in the door so you can tell them why you’ve targeted them. They need to understand that this isn’t some random telephone survey. You’re only going to be talking to 10, maybe 15 other people and you selected this particular individual because their opinion on this matter is invaluable. Once they understand this, unless they hate the organization you’re representing - they’ll talk to you.

3. A good value proposition

Most people that you’re going to talk to are going to do a quick mental calculation (consciously or otherwise) to determine if its worth their time to talk to you. You need to have a compelling value proposition so that the decision is a no-brainer for them. Be explicit about how they are going to benefit from talking to you. Is what you’re researching going to help their industry? Bring profile to it? Evangalize about it? Help them out with networking opportunities or to meet investors? Tell them. If you don’t have a good value proposition, don’t call.

4. Know everything you can about them before you call

Don’t ask anything of them that can be easily discovered by visiting their website or using Google. Do an exhaustive search on them. Know what they’re currently working on. Know their job title. Know if they’re a man or a woman. Make sure that you go in hot. Nothing is going to turn off an executive interview subject more than having to take time to explain what it is that their parent organization does or have you call them and ask for Mr. when you’re actually talking to the right person. DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

5. Keep a call log

Make sure that you’re tracking every touch point with your target. More sophisticated firms use Customer Relation Management (CRM) software to track that kind of data but if you’re only interviewing a handful of people, Excel is probably all you need. Just make sure that when you call them again, you know roughly how long ago you last called. A reminder to the target that you’ve alredy talked to them might be enough to spur them into doing the interview.

6. Have a call script

You need two scripts - one for if you get them live on the phone and another for when you get their voicemail. Be prepared. No stammering or “ums” or “uuuhs” when you’re talking to them. Make sure that your script clearly identifies who you are, who you’re representing and tells them what the value proposition is.

That’s all I can tell you for now. The key to executive interview success is much like sale success - don’t give up.

Good luck out there!

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for ten years.

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Topics: Research Methodologies |

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