The Day Emma Stopped Being Ignored

Emma stared at her laptop screen...

7 unanswered emails to the target's VP of Strategic Initiatives. 3 ignored LinkedIn messages. Zero meetings booked. Her quota was slipping. Her manager was asking questions.

"What am I missing?" she whispered to her cat, Ginger.

The 'Aha' moment

Everything changed on a retention call with an existing client. As they discussed contract renewal - her client made an offhand comment:

"We're under pressure to prove our methodology stays relevant as enterprises build internal AI evaluation teams," they confided. "It's not something we discuss publicly, but it keeps management awake at night."

Emma's mind raced. If this (similar) company faced this challenge, what about her target?

Pattern spotting

That evening, Emma dug deeper into her target account's public communications. Not press releases or LinkedIn posts. She went through annual reports, earnings call transcripts, and past strategy decks.

Pattern after pattern emerged. They mentioned "methodology evolution" 14 times across various documents. They discussed "balancing practitioner needs with vendor engagement" in subtle but consistent language.

This wasn't random corporate speak. This was strategic tension they couldn't acknowledge explicitly.

Sharing a perspective

The next morning, fresh from a cup of coffee... Emma crafted a different email:

"Hi Sarah, XXXX's emphasis on 'methodology evolution' in recent analyst summits suggests growing pressure to maintain research credibility as enterprises develop sophisticated internal AI evaluation capabilities. We've helped similar advisory firms strengthen analyst objectivity while serving practitioner needs more effectively. This seems central to your strategic priorities—worth exploring?"

She hesitated before hitting send.

This felt risky. Direct. Almost presumptuous... But after 7 ignored emails, what did she have to lose?

She didn't have to wait long.

Sarah replied within two hours: "Interesting perspective. No one's framed our challenge quite like this. Let's talk Thursday at 2pm."

Emma stared at the email, heart pounding.

After three months of silence, one strategic insight had opened the door.

A meeting that mattered

Thursday arrived.

Emma decided instead of just broadcasting capabilities, she'd ask questions based on her new understanding:

"How are you maintaining analyst credibility as enterprises develop internal evaluation capabilities that potentially reduce research dependency?"

For forty-five minutes, they discussed challenges the company faced but rarely acknowledged publicly. Sarah shared strategic concerns Emma's competitors had never identified.

"Most vendors just talk about themselves, or offer high-level views on our marketing and research capabilities," Sarah said as the meeting ended. "You're the first to understand the pressure we're actually under."

The change

Six months later, Emma's meeting rate had tripled.

She'd learned to research like a detective rather than a tourist. Her process became systematic:

1. Identify strategic tensions prospects face but don't acknowledge explicitly

2. Connect these tensions to the value her solution uniquely offers

3. Frame meeting requests as strategic exploration rather than sales pitches

4. Position conversations as dialogue rather than presentations

Emma's breakthrough opened her eyes to similar opportunities everywhere.

Another client had ignored her emails for months until she discovered their annual reports mentioned "customer remediation exercises addressing potential service failures."

Her next email: "Your disclosure about implementation risk mitigation suggests customer success variability is a strategic priority. We've developed frameworks that help similar platform companies reduce this systematically. Could we explore how this applies to your situation?"

The question that started it all

Emma realised those 'impossible-to-reach' prospects were simply waiting for someone who understood their world well enough to make the conversations worth having.

"I used to research what companies did," Emma explained to her team. "Now I research what keeps their executives awake at night."

Emma's evolution began with one question: "What challenge is this prospect wrestling with privately that would create genuine curiosity about my perspective?"

She stopped trying to impress prospects with her knowledge of their public statements. Instead, she started demonstrating she understood the strategic challenges they faced but couldn't broadcast.

Beyond getting meetings

The company intelligence that gets Emma meetings now strengthens every subsequent interaction. Her questions support a consultative dialogue. Her follow-up shows targeted value rather than generic capability.

It all started with getting into the conversation. Getting into conversations required understanding the strategic challenges her prospects were privately wrestling with.

What strategic tension is your biggest prospect facing?

What would create genuine curiosity about your perspective?

Find that tension. Build your meeting request around jointly exploring it.

Don't rely on just their public announcements, investigate what occupies their leadership meetings. And if you need an accelerator to do so - try our Sales Insights.