AMA: Cisco Senior Director, Global Virtual Sales Strategy and Operations, Ignacio Castroverde on Influencing the C-Suite

This one is easy: Keep it simple and collaborative. Make them part of your plan since the very beginning. It all starts with arranging a meeting with the Exec group to learn what their key objectives are and how success is accomplished in their eyes. Have them rank or stack-rank these priorities. For each initiative, show your team's bandwidth and anticipated impact. This further demonstrates how time and resources line up versus what is of genuine importance. From there, you can decide what goes first and which can be left until next cycle; and of course where any extra resource should go. IMPORTANT: Be sure to provide regular updates with a good summary so the exec team can see for themselves the decisions that have been made jointly and then directly measure their success.

When two senior execs are at odds, focus on the common goal. Just try to make it factual, so you present data or insights that address their differing viewpoints, and propose a compromise or pilot solution if needed. IMPORTANT: Avoid taking sides; instead, act as a neutral facilitator, as these are your primary stakeholders and you can't afford to burn any of those bridges, so again try to keep the discussion factual. Summarize the discussion, agreements, and next steps in writing, and confirm that everyone understands their roles. This clarity helps prevent misunderstandings and keeps the team moving forward. Regularly check in with both execs to maintain alignment and adjust if circumstances change.

I want to make a point here: it's with everyone on the C-Suite. You need to ensure everybody's goals and concerns are heard. But if you'd need to prioritise, I'd pay special attention to the CFO and CEO (or their equivalents in your organization). The CFO is vital because they manage the budget that funds your initiatives, and he/she needs to have a full understanding of the strategic direction so you have no pushbacks from a funding perspective. The CEO is critical for overall strategic backing, especially if things go sideways. This way, you'd cover the financial feasibility of your projects while securing top-level support to keep things moving forward.

Most of my C-Suite interactions happen through brief, structured check-ins. I (usually) come prepared with concise updates on key metrics or initiatives and a clear ask or decision if needed. We might dive deeper into specific projects in scheduled reviews, but day-to-day, I focus on delivering quick, meaningful insights and ensuring alignment on priorities. By keeping it short and actionable, I respect their time while still driving strategic conversations.

I learned soon enough that being direct and straightforward was vital when engaging with senior execs at the organization. C-level execs face a multitude of priorities, tons of them. So I kept my statements extremely simple and straightforward. I would come to them with solid numbers, information that went right to the heart of their concerns, and specific recommendations or decisions. By respecting their limited time and focusing on what was really important, I built trust and gained swift, solid results. If they wanted more detail, I had it at hand but I would always start off with a short, to-the-point request for a decision.

1.Clear, ready-to-use insights: present precise data and analyses that relate to the company's top priorities so that decisions are faster and better informed. 2.Process optimization: from sales to marketing, from customer success to finance,, automation is removing barriers to help increase income and efficiency at higher levels. 3.Strategic alignment powering better results: To ensure any RevOps initiative is directly aligned with the vision of senior management, and can be measured in terms that matter to our/their business.

An all-too-common mistake is overwhelming executives with detail. So, to plug this leak, RevOps managers need only pass along the most relevant insights linked directly with their company’s top concerns. A second mistake is lecturing rather than showing clear ROI or strategic impact. This is their business world; they want to understand how an initiative brings in revenue or increases efficiency. Lastly, some focus more on flashy presentations than on actionable next steps, leaving executives without a clear sense of what’s needed from them. In short, being too granular, not tying the plan to tangible business results, and failing to prompt decisions are key pitfalls that I would try to avoid at any cost.