Multilevel research is the new norm

- I'm often asked, "So how do you research the C-Suite?" In the age we live in today, technology is everywhere and we use it in nearly all aspects of our lives. The same goes for researching the C-Suite. Technology becomes your friend. There are three simple steps that we utilize when prepping for a C-Suite meeting. We refer to this process as the inside-out research approach. The tools we most commonly use today are company websites, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor. We'll start our research with inside. Now from the inside perspective, the first thing you're going to do is go over to your company's website. The website is now the eyes to the world of this company. Once you're on their site, scroll down to the bottom. That'll allow you to access how the website is structured. In many cases, you'll find headlines about products, company information, publications, and even contact information. My first step is to go to the About Us section. This is where you can find out information about leadership structure and, oftentimes, core values. The leadership team will usually contain names, titles, and a biography. Study these profiles and make sure that you understand who they are as people, where they come from, and what they stand for as professionals. I also like to study their academic backgrounds as this begins to build a profile to see how close your network actually links to theirs. After reviewing the profiles, I search for company values. The values are the heartbeat of the organization. You'll often find terms like integrity, quality, innovation, commitment. This is the spot where you'll also find information on how the company defines itself. You see, this is critical to understand prior to the selling process. The third step is to study products and markets on the website. Most sites today clearly define the products that the organization is putting into the marketplace. It's as easy as that. Study the people, the values, and the products. Once this is complete, we move to the hybrid inside-outside research step and head on over to LinkedIn. And now that you're armed with executive information from their website, LinkedIn will act as your new Yellow Pages of business. This platform now allows us to study profiles, evaluate networks, review personal and professional experience, education, skills, endorsements, and interests. This step now gives you information beyond the corporate persona and lets us see into a little bit more of the personal persona. This is also where you can make a connection directly or indirectly into the individual's network. Once this is complete, you've now established a footprint into their system. From a practical standpoint, be strategic about when you plan to connect. So from here, we're going to move to the outside approach. At this point, I'm interested in what people outside the organization are saying about the company. A popular site we use is Glassdoor. Once you're in Glassdoor, you can simply type in the name of the company and assess information like overview, reviews, jobs, salaries, interviews, benefits, photos. You'll find a combination of good and bad, but you'll usually see some trends. Are there any common themes that we see in the research? Does the outside buzz seem to align with the values that we saw on their corporate website? Overall, these three steps in the process leverage technology and tools that make our research more accessible than ever before. Just remember, it takes time and it's critical to invest in the pre-work as this knowledge increases our confidence long before we've ever had that very first C-Suite conversation.