Lots of good practices there, for sure. This is wrong though: I'm of the mindset that when you go to the castle, see the king. (Or queen)C level intros,“I know the CEO/ CTO/ CIO of X” – unless it’s a very small company these intros usually consume lots of resources and don’t lead to the right person. You have a great meeting with the CTO, he refers you to someone else, who refers you to someone else who is usually, well, mmm, how to put it, not the busiest guy in the company. Or, in other words, after 3 meetings you get to someone who is not your ideal user but is basically someone who has the time to meet other companies.
-in most cases you always "sell" top down. If the CFO/CEO is not the person to make that decision they will push you directly to who is. That is an endorsement you want. Plus if the sales cycle stalls you can go back to the "C" level and say, "Mr/mrs CEO, I've not been able to get Brian in accounting to action this proposal, is there somebody else within the organization that I should be dealing with?" -It's risky stuff, but you've got to challenge your prospects or you'll get nowhere.