Reach a new leader before their plan is set

Watch for new heads of the team you sell to, and write two to four weeks in, when they’ve found the problems but haven’t made their plan.

By Angelo Natale45 minSet up once, then every week

What it does

A new leader is hired to change something. In their first weeks they look at everything with fresh eyes, find what’s broken, and build a plan they’ll be judged on. Write on day one and they don’t know the problems yet. Write in month three and the plan is set. Two to four weeks in is the window.

What you need

  • The titles that buy from you (see write your buyer on one page)
  • A job-change filter or alert in LinkedIn or your contact database
  • Their company’s announcement, and their own posts

How it works

  1. Save a search for new starts

    The buyer’s titles, at companies that fit your aim, who started in the last 30 days. Most contact databases and LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator have a job-change filter. Run it every week.

  2. Read why they were hired

    The announcement, their first posts, an interview. The reason they were hired often shows up in plain words, like “to lead our expansion into Texas” or “to build out the operations team”.

  3. Write two to four weeks in

    Email or LinkedIn message
    Subject: your first month

[FIRST NAME] - saw you started as [TITLE] at [COMPANY] last month.

[ONE LINE ON WHAT NEW [TITLE]S OFTEN FIND IN THEIR FIRST MONTH, IN THEIR WORDS].

Is that on your list, or is it something else?

[YOUR NAME]

  4. Offer something they can use in their plan

    New leaders want early wins they can show. Offer something useful for the plan, like the numbers you’d look at in their seat or a checklist from your own work. Only offer what you really have.

  5. Check who they replaced

    If the person who left was your champion, say so, and offer to catch the new leader up. Then follow your old champion to their new company.

What good looks like

A short weekly list of new leaders at companies that fit, each written to in their first month, with a line about their world rather than yours.

An example, not a client story. A carrier announces a new head of operations “to lead our expansion into Texas”. Three weeks later: “Saw you started as head of operations at Northline last month. New depots usually mean building a dispatch schedule from scratch. Is that on your list?”

Mistakes to skip

  • Writing on day one, along with everyone else.
  • Pitching a big project. In their first month they want early wins.
  • Ignoring who they replaced.

More playbooks

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