How to reach decision makers and get a meeting, even with a CEO

Decision makers ignore most outreach because most of it gives them no reason to reply, and because one person rarely decides alone.

• Irrelevance. In a Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers (June 2025), 73% said they actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.
• Pressure. In Hunter’s State of Email Outreach 2026, 65% of decision makers said cold emails fail because they feel too sales-focused.
• Groups, not individuals. A typical buying decision includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, according to Forrester’s State of Business Buying 2026.

So reaching a decision maker is less about finding a back door and more about arriving with something worth their time. Who they are is covered in our guide to decision makers; finding their names and sources is covered in how to find decision makers in a company.

Contact the person who owns the problem first, then the person who signs. One or two people per company at a time works better than writing to everyone.

Hunter’s 2026 data supports a narrow start: contacting one or two people per company yielded a 5.1% reply rate, against 3.5% for three or more. Move to the next person when the first has not answered, not all at once.

A reason to reply is a recent, specific change at their company, the problem it creates for them, and a question they can answer quickly.

In Hunter’s 2026 report, 67% of decision makers said personalization using publicly available information makes them more likely to reply. The useful kind is not a compliment about a post. It is a dated event, such as a new site, a new leader, an acquisition or a project named in a job post, connected to the part of the business that person runs. Our guide to trigger events in sales lists the events worth watching.

Use the channel that carries your reason best: a short email for most first contacts, a call for a confirmed problem, and an introduction whenever someone can make one.

Follow up, but not forever. Hunter found that three messages instead of one more than doubled total replies (6.8% against 3.3%). Our guide to sales follow-up emails has templates.

Write to a CEO only when the topic is theirs: strategy, growth, risk or a change they announced. Tie the message to their own words and ask for little.

1. Check that it is the CEO’s topic. At a small company most purchases are; at a large one, only strategic ones.
2. Use their words. Quote a priority from their annual report, a press release or an interview, with the date.
3. Say what changes for them in one sentence, not what you sell.
4. Make the ask small: a question, or a short call on one topic.
5. Offer a way down: “If this sits with someone else, who should I speak to?” A referral from the CEO’s office opens the right door.
6. Use an introduction where you can. A board member, investor or shared customer carries more weight than any subject line.

Treat the gatekeeper as a helpful entry point, not an obstacle: be specific about why you are calling and ask who owns the topic.

• Say the reason in one sentence: “I am calling about the Dayton expansion permitted on September 12.”
• Ask a routing question: “Who looks after production planning for the new site?”
• Be honest about who you are. A gatekeeper who feels misled will not put you through next time.
• Thank them by name, and use their name when you call back.

Prepare one point of view about their business, the numbers behind it and a clear next step. A CEO meeting is short, so every minute needs a purpose.

• Their priorities in their own words, from the latest annual report, press release or interview.
• The change that brought you here, with its date and source.
• One hypothesis about what it means for them, and the question that would prove you wrong.
• Who else in the company owns the problem, so you can propose the next meeting.
• A time limit you keep, and one decision you ask for at the end.

Our account research checklist covers the research behind each point.

Here is how an engineering firm reached the people who decide at one account. The company and its people are fictional.

The seller never wrote to the CEO. The decision sat with the COO, and the plant manager’s reply gave the COO a reason to take the meeting.

SalesOne is AI account research and qualification for B2B teams. S1 agents find the dated reason, then map the buying committee: who owns the problem, who signs and who can block it.

In SalesOne’s production research runs in October 2026, S1 agents mapped 4.2 people per kept account on average, 95% with a dated source. Outreach rules decide who on your team may contact whom. A person approves every message, and every approval is recorded with who gave it.