Founders & C-Suite Convert 3x Faster Than Mid-Level Managers
- Cormac Repman
- Aug 14
- 2 min read
We spent the last quarter analyzing 50+ cold calling campaigns across B2B SaaS, home services, and motorsports partnerships. One finding stood out: founders, CTOs, and C-level executives (COO, CRO, CFO) booked meetings at a 100% rate when we reached them directly. Mid-level managers converted at 60%.
The gap isn't subtle. It's structural.
When we called a CEO about a product that solved a problem they owned, they made a decision on the call. Yes or no. When we called a marketing director, sales manager, or operations coordinator about the same solution, we got "let me check with my manager" 40% of the time. Even when they liked the pitch, they couldn't commit.
Decision-making authority lives at the top. The founder of a home services company controls who gets contracted. The CTO picks the software tools the team uses. The COO owns operational bottlenecks. They answer to themselves. A regional marketing manager answers to a VP. A mid-level ops coordinator answers to the manager. The further down you go, the more you're asking someone to do your job for you by convincing their boss.
We saw this across verticals. A CEO at a motorsports sponsorship firm said yes to reviewing a pitch deck immediately. A marketing manager at the same type of company said "that's outside my wheelhouse." A founder building SaaS said yes to a follow-up meeting on payment terms they wanted to negotiate. A mid-level manager asked us to "send something to review" and said they'd have to loop in leadership. Translation: we lost the thread.
The homeowners we reached were the decision-makers. They booked consultations at 100%. They owned the problem. They owned the budget.
This changes your calling strategy. Stop filtering for titles and companies first. Filter for authority. A founder at a small company will outconvert a director at a Fortune 500. A CTO will outconvert their engineering manager. A COO will outconvert the head of their department if that department isn't core to their function. Look for people who own P&L, product decisions, or strategic initiatives. Look for people who would implement the solution themselves or directly own the outcome if they bought it.
Your messaging changes too. With decision-makers, you sell the problem and the outcome. With gatekeepers, you're either pitching them to pitch someone else, which rarely works, or you're creating work for them. Decision-makers hate gatekeepers in their own buying process. They'll route you around them.
We also found that when you reach a founder or C-level executive and they're not the buyer, they'll either say so immediately or route you to whoever is. They unblock you. A mid-level manager will queue you with everyone else going through their process.
The math is simple. 100% booking rate times one conversation per call is 1 booking. 60% booking rate means you're making 1.67 calls to get one booking, plus follow-ups, plus decay as deals stall in organizational layers.
Reach founders and C-suite directly. Skip the organizational hierarchy. You'll book faster, lose fewer deals to committee decisions, and spend less time waiting for someone to check with their boss.
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