Most reps think personalization means mentioning a LinkedIn post, a funding round, or a job change — but that’s not what executives care about.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: CEOs don’t ignore your emails because you’re wrong. They ignore them because you’re irrelevant.
Today, we’re breaking down the Exec Reply Formula: how to extract what actually matters to a CEO and turn it into emails that feel like insider intelligence, not automation.
In this weeks Issue:
The real problem with your emails.
The “Secrets” in plain sight.
Building an executive reply superpower.
A prompt to run the whole process!
1. Your Email Isn’t Wrong. It’s Irrelevant.
Most outreach is built around signals that executives don’t value:
“Congrats on the promotion…”
“Saw your product launch…”
“Loved your LinkedIn post about leadership…”
None of these help a VP or C-Suite leader win their quarter.
Executives don’t judge messaging based on friendliness or cleverness. They judge it on one axis:
Does this help me move a strategic priority forward?
If not, it gets deleted — instantly.
Executives don’t delete your message because you’re bad at writing.
They delete it because the message doesn’t serve the business they’re trying to protect and grow.
2. The Priorities Are Hiding in Plain Sight
Every public company is required to publish its biggest risks, growth bets, strategic focus areas, and near-term initiatives.
The CEO writes an annual letter explaining:
What we’re solving
Why it matters
Where we’re betting
What could break
How we’ll measure success
Investors trade on this information.
Boards evaluate leadership against it.
Yet sellers rarely look at it.
This is where the leverage is.
You’re not personalizing to the person.
You’re personalizing to the pressure.
And pressure is universal: margin compression, AI scalability risk, customer churn exposure, rising cost-to-serve, platform consolidation, regulatory scrutiny, talent shortages, security incidents, operating model shifts.
If you want executive replies, you must tie your outreach to the forces shaping the next 12–18 months of their business — not the last 12 hours of their LinkedIn feed.
3. The Exec Reply Formula (3 Steps)
This is the system top sellers use to earn replies from VPs, CFOs, CISOs, CTOs, and CEOs. Use it exactly as written.
Step 1: Pull the Company’s Top 3 Strategic Priorities
Go to the CEO letter and annual report and extract the themes that matter financially.
Look for phrases like:
“Margin improvement initiatives”
“Operational efficiency targets”
“Scaling AI investments”
“Reducing cost-to-serve”
“Strengthening risk posture”
“Accelerating customer retention metrics”
“Core platform modernization”
Don’t overthink it. You need three.
These become the backbone of your outreach.
Step 2: Translate Priorities Into Persona Value
A strategic priority means something different to each executive.
Example priority:
“Reducing operational risk as we scale AI investments.”
To a VP of Sales, this translates to:
Predictability
Forecast accuracy
Avoiding revenue leakage
Stabilizing performance across teams
To a CTO, it means:
Architecture scalability
Platform reliability
Reducing latency and cost in data movement
To a CISO, it means:
Attack surface exposures
Compliance gaps
Model integrity risks
You’re not rewriting the company’s strategy.
You’re interpreting it through the lens of the person reading your email.
This is where 90% of reps fail — and where you will stand out.
Step 3: Convert Persona Value Into an Executive-Ready Email
Your email should signal three things within 2–3 sentences:
You understand the pressure they’re under
You understand its financial implications
You can help reduce risk, accelerate execution, or remove uncertainty
Use this structure:
Priority → Pressure → Implication → Offer of clarity/action
For example (full versions saved for Friday’s repurposing):
Bad personalization:
“Saw you just raised your Series D. Congrats!”
Executive-level personalization:
“In your annual report, you called out AI scalability risk as a material factor shaping margin performance over the next 12 months. There’s a pattern we’re seeing across companies at your stage: hidden cost centers inside the data pipeline stall ROI on AI investments…”
One line and you’ve positioned yourself as someone who understands their world.
4. The Payoff: Automate All of This
Executives reward people who:
Think in terms of strategic priorities
Bring context, not templates
Understand financial pressure
Respect their time
Show pattern recognition across companies like theirs
When your email signals business understanding — not automation — it rises above 99% of outbound.
If you want predictable executive replies, stop sending emails about the person.
Start sending emails about the business.
Now, here is one Super Prompt to run the entire workflow:
You will follow the Exec Reply Formula exactly as written below to produce a high-relevance, executive-ready outbound email.
Inputs I will provide:
The company name
The persona (VP, C-suite, etc.)
Excerpts or the full annual report (CEO letter, MD&A, strategy section, etc.)
Use only these inputs — no external assumptions. If something is unclear, state uncertainty rather than guessing.
STEP 1 — Extract the Company’s Top 3 Strategic Priorities
Read the provided annual report excerpts and:
Identify the three most financially relevant strategic priorities.
Look for themes around margin, efficiency, operational risk, growth bets, modernization, customer retention, or AI initiatives.
Phrase each priority in the company’s own language (summarized, not invented).
Output them as: Priority 1, Priority 2, Priority 3.
STEP 2 — Translate Each Priority Into Persona-Specific Value
For the persona I provide (e.g., VP of Sales, CTO, CISO, CFO):
Interpret what each priority means for them, using only logical, role-based implications.
Do NOT rewrite the company’s strategy — interpret it through the lens of this executive.
Output each as:
Priority → Pressure → Persona Interpretation (3–5 bullet points)
STEP 3 — Convert Persona Value Into a High-Relevance Executive Email
Write a 120–160 word outbound email using this structure:
Priority → Pressure → Implication → Offer of clarity/action
The email must:
Signal you understand the pressure shaping their next 12–18 months
Show the financial or operational implications
Demonstrate pattern recognition from similar companies
Make one clear, low-friction ask (“worth a quick comparison?” / “15 minutes?”)
Avoid all surface personalization (“Congrats…” / “Saw your post…”)
Use a concise, direct, executive tone
Contain zero hype, zero flattery, zero assumptions
STEP 4 — Output Format
Return your results exactly like this:
Top 3 Strategic Priorities:
…
…
…
Persona Interpretation (Priority → Pressure → Value):
Priority 1:
Pressure: …
Persona value bullets: …
Priority 2:
Priority 3:
Executive-Ready Email (120–160 words):
[Complete email]
Final Rules:
Use only information from the provided report + persona.
If unsure, state: “Not explicitly stated; inferred from context.”
Keep everything specific, analytical, and tied to business pressure — not personal details.