You spent hours researching the company, rehearsed your answers, and asked smart questions. You walked out of the interview feeling like you nailed it.
Then you sent a thank-you email. Something like: “It was great to meet you. I’m very excited about the opportunity and look forward to next steps.”
And just like that, you missed a huge opportunity to close the deal.
Too many executives treat the follow-up as a courtesy to signal interest and show you know the social script. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: at the senior level, everyone who makes it to the final round is prepared, credentialed, and poised. The interview itself is often not enough to separate the winner from the runner-up. Your follow-up can make the difference and be your most powerful persuasion tool.
Set Yourself Up During the Interview
The power of the follow-up depends on information-gathering during the interview. Bring a detective’s mindset, where curiosity is key. Ask great questions – those that both help you understand what they need and give you an opening to share how you can help them.
And, as the interview is wrapping up, use these two questions to surface any issues with your candidacy:
- Just so I’m clear about what you’re looking for, I’m curious as to how I compare with the other candidates.
- How do you feel about moving my candidacy forward in the process?
These questions make some candidates uncomfortable. But there’s a well-worn sales principle that applies here: the sale doesn’t begin until you find out what their objections are. If you don’t know their doubts, you have no shot at addressing them.
Hiring managers respect executives who ask for and can handle candid feedback. If they share a concern, you’ve just been handed the most valuable information. In fact, many of my clients have turned a “no” into a “yes” based on this feedback.
Write an ‘Impact Email,’ not a Thank You Note, to Gain Advantage
A well-crafted Impact Email demonstrates the ability to synthesize a complex conversation, identify what matters most, and communicate it clearly. These are core executive skills. Second, it tells them you’ll bring that same rigor and follow-through to the role itself.
Address their objections directly. If they express any hesitation about your experience, motivation, or fit, respond in a positive way, without reinforcing the objection. If they wondered whether your experience translates to their industry, explain why it does. If they questioned whether you’d be satisfied with the role’s scope, reinforce your motivation.
Reconnect your experience to their specific problems. Show them how a particular challenge maps directly onto something you’ve solved. Bring up things you forgot to bring up, or that you didn’t emphasize enough. Show them you heard them – use words like “You…” and “Your…”
Tell a short version of your best story. If you shared a strong example in the interview that landed well, you may want to reinforce it, as this repetition helps your message to stick.
Reinforce your enthusiasm for them – the organization, team, or mission. If something they said genuinely moved or interested you, say so. Show them you “get” them. Authentic enthusiasm addresses one of the most common concerns about executive hires: whether they will be engaged or out the door in a year.
Case Study
My client Ben had a great series of interviews for a Chief Commercial Officer role. He was feeling good about his chances. In the final round, he met with the CEO, Sarah. Ben thought the conversation was going well, so he was surprised by Sarah’s answer to the “How do you feel about moving my candidacy forward?” question. Sarah said, “Frankly, I’m not going to move you forward. The CCO needs a strong analytic background to steer the business development team, and I don’t feel yours is strong enough.” Caught off-guard, all Ben could say was “I’ll address this in my follow-up.”
In his Impact Email, Ben emphasized his analytic skills and the data-driven decision-making that led to many career successes. He also did something else: he proposed analyzing a dataset they would send him and delivering recommendations. A week later, the CEO responded with a spreadsheet filled with sales data. Ben delivered the analysis and then got on the CEO’s calendar to discuss the results.
In this next meeting, they had another very positive conversation. At the end of it, Ben asked the same question, “How do you feel about moving my candidacy forward?” This time, the CEO said she felt great about it. Ben then asked: “How do I compare with the other candidates?” Sarah said, “You’re one of the top candidates, but I have another candidate who’s done this exact same job before, so I’m leaning towards her.”
So, Ben wrote another Impact Email. In it, he couldn’t say he had held the CCO role before. What he did instead was emphasize a specific competitive advantage he possessed, which more than compensated for this.
He got the offer.
The Bottom Line
In a good interview, you learn a lot: what’s keeping them up at night, what they’ve tried that hasn’t worked, gaps they’re hoping to fill, skepticism about your candidacy, and where they’re genuinely excited about what you could bring. You’ve gathered a detailed brief on what they need. And then you say, “Thanks for your time”? No. Influence their decision-making with an Impact Email.