A while back, I wrote wrote a thread about how to use executive peering in enterprise deals to beat your competition, improve your close rate, and increase your deal size.
The thread got some decent traction, so I figured I'd re-share it here in case you missed it.
Exec peering is a skillset I'm SUPER passionate about since it was a major part of how I've won the larger deals of my career, but it's something that rarely gets talked about, probably because it's not easy to teach.
In fact, I only learned about it from having a few great sales leaders who helped me run the play and coached me on how to do it the right way.
Here's a quick guide to help you plan your approach for your next big opportunity.
How to Get Started
First you have to understand who your executive sponsor is on the buyer’s side. This can be uncovered in your own research and validated during your discovery process.
I like to ask: Is this an active project and if so, who is sponsoring this within the org?
Another approach: In my research, I see Jane Doe is the VP of XYZ, at what point in the process will she need to be involved?
At a certain point, once you’ve built a strong champion, you’ve earned the right to ask who would sign the order paperwork. Your goal is to create a map of which execs will need to stamp this in some way or other.
In 2025, it’s not uncommon for a CEO, CFO or even a full on steering committee to get involved in a deal, so make sure you clearly understand the scope of everyone's involvement in the evaluation.
Once you’ve plotted out your org chart of stakeholders, it’s time to start prepping your internal execs.
I use a one-page account plan brief to share/present a summary of the deal ie prospect co. pain, goals desired outcomes, deal size, key features.
Begin working through your champion or coach on the buyer side to coordinate exec-to-exec meetings. This should be framed as a big positive for your champion, the goal here is to strengthen the partnership and gain support at the leadership level on both sides (when done right your champion gains status at their org).
Best Practices:
Be sure tech talks to tech don’t coordinate a meeting between their VP of Engineering and your VP of Sales. Match the exec to their most similar peer.
If the buyer CEO has agreed, don’t coordinate a meeting with your VP of Sales! VP<>VP CXO<>CXO
*Note: In early stage startups, your Founder/CEO may need to be a stretch peer and work with range of execs. Success with this technique will really come down to your ability to develop champions who feel confident asking their execs to connect.
For each meeting be sure to over prepare, enable your exec leader to have a relevant conversation based on prior conversations.
In most cases, these meetings should happen without you in the room, so you want to be sure your internal exec has an agenda, slides and is aware of any landmines, blockers or other insights.
The money is in the follow-up, be sure these conversations lead to new threads that can be re-activated if the deal goes dark (see my previous post on multi-threading).
Remember, executive peering is an art form. You will most certainly screw up the first few times. Keep running the play and you will build big, iron-clad deals and pipeline and make yourself some life changing commissions in the process.
Thanks for reading!
-Jesse
P.S. - If you want 1:1 help on exec peering, multi-threading or any other skillset to help you improve your strategic selling skills, hit reply and let's schedule a FREE 1:1 coaching consult.