Are Good Business Developers Lucky?

                  "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. "
                                                                      Thomas Jefferson


What has luck got to do with it?  Business development is a combination of many skills, but not many want to associate luck with the other skills.  Luck is something that happens to someone who is not prepared.  Business development, if it is anything, is about preparation.  When I was leading business development and feasibility studies for Walker Parking Consultants, the president once asked an associate whether I was that good or just lucky.  Leading the company in sales for 11 of 12 years takes more than luck.  That is one reason I was appointed Chairman of the Corporate Marketing Committee and the leader of sales training within the organization. However, I can't say that luck was never involved. 

What is your opinion of business development within your organization? Business development is an end of the day proposition where you either win the work or you lose. What happens in between is often not recognized by management.  Results should not be the only area measured when judging business development success.  This is why business development is the most uncertain of business disciplines.  Do you believe luck must be involved?

Is it a mystery in your firm or to your principals?  Do they think the rainmaker is just lucky?

At worse, business development is basically viewed as an adjunct of the everyday business activity.  If it was integral, luck would have no room to operate.  The location within the business structure is another wild card in the professional services industry.  Sometimes it is part of marketing, an outside consultant can lead the effort or a department of it’s own is created. In our industry, I believe marketing and business development are flip sides of the same coin.  How does your firm win business?  Flip the coin.

A simple definition of business development would look like a balancing act of skill, persistence, boldness and luck. So what does that mean and how can you  and your firm do it well or raise the desired outcomes to another level?

To be successful in business development you need to: 

1.  Learn the BD dance. This does not suggest telling people what they want to hear, rather, it is the graceful use of guidance, suggestion and targeted communication that brings all              elements    (your internal company, external partners, contractors and market players) from point A to point Z at the same time.

2.   Have a deep understanding of all business functions, and able to work outside the norms.

3.   Be able to leverage all firm strengths and have them stand behind you in support.

4.   Recognize organizational weaknesses to avoid, and capabilities to build upon.

5.   Operate outside the normal boundaries of typical functions such as sales, marketing, operations, etc.  

Like Liam Neeson in the movie, Taken, marketing services professionals have a very specific set of skills; skills they have acquired over diverse careers.  Everyone comes to business development from different perspectives.  Principals and project managers often have it thrust upon them because they are good at managing projects and people. Some firms promote marketers into the role of business development because it seems to be the natural progression. Some firms select business development specialists who have already acquired sales skills.  They do this so they are not tempted to take a good business development person away from that function in order to increase billable hours. Has your firm ever fallen into this trap?

Business Development allows an organization to not only grow but also improve business activity by modifying something it already does well.

Training is essential for this to happen. However, there are all kinds of trainng programs being offered in the industry. Our Beyond Boot Camp: Business Development Training for industry professionals goes beyond simply old school and embraces these five critical components:

Build a Deep Understanding of Trained Skills

Sales, Marketing, Project Management, Leadership and Finance are all areas where processes, tools and techniques can be learned, and where training is available. By creating a deep understanding of these areas, you will develop a well-rounded approach to business development.

 Here are some tips that you can incorporate into your efforts.

Marketing – Define your company, goals, market challenges, competitors, threats, social media exposure, branding and opportunities.

Conduct extensive market intelligence before creating a positioning strategy for your firm.

Do not only collect & regurgitate existing data. Make a contact list of industry professionals and develop real relationships with them. If needed, hire a consulting group to conduct industry and technical research specific to your requests. Understand all industry best practices and regulatory/public policy drivers. Don’t generate a generic ,theoretical plan.

Marketing Advice (The other side of the coin):

 Define your market and make sure you target the right segment within the market that relates to core competencies/services/capabilities.

·    Always identify who the end user is and know everything about them,even if you are not selling directly to them.

·     Conduct target company and industry research so you can tailor your message to them and get them to open up to you.

·     Have a complete understanding of who you are as an organization, all relevant competitors in the market and potential customers…be able to articulate it and train others on it.

·     Create a very professional company overview presentation that can be given to each potential business partner. Of course the intro and finish should be customized for each meeting.

 Become a Conceptual seller:

Sell a story that executives will want to invest in.

Be prepared to tell a story of how you company provides solutions with a specific example.  Tell the client  where the market is and where it is heading, where opportunity exists, what unique position you see as opportunity,  and what the their business will  look like when you are engaged to produce solutions.  Leave no question unanswered and use your own experiences to prove you have confidence in what you are presenting is a great idea.

Establish, develop and document an extensive contact network.
You should become the go-to person and industry expert in your organization where it pertains to the business area you are trying to develop. By establishing a formal extensive network in the industry you are focusing on, you will not only be your company’s expert, you will become an industry expert, gaining you credibility and ultimately setting you up for success when pitching your new business plan to executives.

Keep an open mind ensuring your ability to decipher and use information to develop a unique strategy.
Remember that you don’t have anything to sell at this point; your role is to investigate.

Imaginative Sales Advice:

·   Alawys deliver what you commit to, and if you’re not sure you can, don’t try to offer it!
·   Get out there in front of people – go into your industry to get yourself, and your services, heard. The more buzz you create, the better the chances people will buy into your value proposition.
·    Get your foot in the door through associations, they are a great place to develop your network.
·    Have something compelling to offer, build relationships. You should assign a single point of contact/accountability for each company to align all moving parts.
·    Business development is not about selling a product or service, it is about presenting concepts and creating unique solutions in collaboration with your potential partner.
·    Develop a meaningful business introduction and put it into presentation format. Your initial meeting is usually a cross presentation, including company overview, strategic goals and potential opportunity concepts.
·      Make sure there is a real demand that currently exists. Ask yourself: Are you solving a problem that justifies your solution? Can you define and communicate the value proposition?·     Understand your industry and all the relationships that exist in it. Know where your company fits into the industry today and the position you are trying to achieve in a specific time frame.
·     Build ideas through partnerships. It is about taking something that you already do and leveraging it into something bigger.

Master Soft Skills

Soft skills are about personality, influence, creativity and long-term relationship building.

Your path to success includes:

·    Be ready to help and don’t be afraid to give free advice, make introductions, and provide resources if possible. This shows that you are more engaged than just trying to sell an idea You have their interests in mind when you do it, and you build relationships that way.

·    Spend time weaving in and out of organizations, leveraging relationships to bring everything and everyone together.  A conductor brings electricity from one point to another.  Act as a conductor of energy between relationships.

·    Personality is important. Stay positive even when the feedback isn't. Keep yourself focused on finding solutions and building relationships for the long-term.

·      Be charismatic, respectful, quick to follow up, outgoing and enthusiastic.

·     Create a list of stakeholders for each opportunity. This should include details about them that you want to remember, as well as their personality types. Identify both decision makers and influencers in this process. By determining what motivates each individual, you can define the best approach to gain buy-in. Focus on listening and being aware: Ask questions first, then tell people about what you do. By having good listening skills you can mold your message in a context that translates to each individual.

Make Bold Plans and Hope For Luck

The reality of business development is that most of your efforts lead to knowledge gained, not success. That is why you should always pursue multiple opportunities at once. By using what you learn, being creative, and consistently pushing your message, you will see success over time.

 Suggestions for  keeping  luck on your side:

·         Most opportunities never produce fruit, so do not give up.

·     Continuously build your funnel or opportunity pipeline. Opportunities are strategic.

·    Don’t be afraid to say no and communicate that message early. You will be respected for it.

·    Be Humble

·    Focus your efforts. As you build your opportunity funnel don’t spread yourself too thin, if you identify a huge opportunity early. Focus relentlessly on the that opportunity until you have managed to fully investigate it.  Avoid focusing on too many opportunities at the same time if a great opportunity is glaring you in the face.

·    Follow up with clients on a consistent basis. Once a week, once a month; it does not always have to be a call. It can be a lunch, a meeting, or an email. The client’s personality will usually determine which means of communication is more comfortable for him or her.

·    Bring team members along to meetings. Expose others on your team to what you are working on by bringing them along.

·    Follow up within 24 hours on each communication.

·    Debrief every loss and every win with a documented lessons learned meeting.

We are back to that end of the day thing where winning and losing are no longer the only criteria for determining the success of your business development efforts. Tenacity and acceptance of failure are the final ingredients you will need to succeed in this arena. Anyone can learn the other elements and they don't have to be lucky.

Why Your Firm Must Have a Client Experience Strategy

Reviewing the mission and vision statements in the industry will show an overwhelming number of references to client satisfaction, completing projects on time and under budget, and outstanding client service.  However, client service is more than a sentence in your mission statement.  Client service is not a bumper sticker.

In addition, the reference to completing projects on time and under budget says more about your bottom line than it does client service.  For example, what happens to the client who discovers their dream building must have dramatic changes?  Or, what happens when you discover that the client’s dream project needs dramatic changes?  Client service is not about the status quo which is usually how clients interpret most mission and vision statements.

Developing a specific approach to a client service strategy requires an intentional commitment from management and buy in from all staff.  It is not unlike the industry’s quest for improved quality in the late 1980’s and 90’s. 

When quality became the point of differentiation between firms, many jumped on the bandwagon with Crosby’s ,Quality is Free, bestselling book. This was the foundation for the Total Quality Management process that was adopted by hundreds of industry firms.  The key to a successful process based upon a zero defects mentality was not only management’s buy in, but also a commitment not to punish failure.  Design defects can occur at many places in the process.  When someone who is working on a tight deadline sees a problem that will cause the project to miss a milestone, the person must have the power to blow the whistle.  The key outcome was improved communication between departments and management.

This was the classic top down and bottom up formula for success.

Developing the Client Experience Strategy requires the same mindset.  I have always been a firm believer in the idea that a good project becomes great when the client’s experience is outstanding.  The hiccups that happen with every project and often seem overwhelming at the time fade in the client’s memory if their experience is outstanding.

The outstanding client experience does not happen by accident.  Although the project is front and center, the outstanding client experience is about how the people assigned to the project interact with the client.  Even the person back at the office who never sees the client in the field has a part to play.

This brings us back to the beginning of the ingredients for a successful client experience strategy.  Without the unwavering support of senior management, the process will never work.  The problem with the outstanding client experience is that most people think they know what it is and what it will take to implement. They don’t.  If they did we wouldn’t have to endure the types of experiences we do today:

Experiences that sometimes lead to court.

Knowing what you don’t know is the best way to explain the situation for upper management in this area.  Management needs to ask themselves what they know about their client’s experience.    The results of this exercise might be surprising.

Whatever your firm says about the passion for outstanding client experience, you won’t achieve it, if it is just words in a mission statement.  Don’t believe them when they say they know everything about outstanding client service.  Many firms are held back because they don’t know what needs to be done.

Maybe we can take a page out of the retail playbook and look at the companies creating great experiences for their customers.  Recently a survey by the National Retail Foundation and American Express came up with a list of the top 10 companies.

So which companies did they say really put customers first? The findings, in order:

 1. Zappos.com

2. Amazon.com
3. LL Bean
4. Overstock.com
5. Land's End
6. JCPenney
7. Kohl's
8. QVC
9. Nordstrom
10. Newegg

Do these firms have anything in common with our industry?  The common thread is people.  Their customers are people and our clients are people.

While we tend to segment the client experience into a single category, it is really three.  The actual experience is what we tend to measure, but there is also the emotional experience and the subconscious experience.

While most firms survey clients to determine the experience of their most recent project, how often do the questions delve into the emotional and subconscious areas?   Therefore, at minimum the questions on a client survey need to be updated.

What are the components of a Client Experience Strategy?  We have presented the first which is within the leadership of the firm and requires their intentional commitment.  Employee engagement is next.  Since managers won’t be the ones who deliver the client experience, the engagement of employees is critical.  Improved client experiences don’t happen by decree.  Management can’t simply tell employees that the client experience will improve.  Employees watch actions before they listen to words.

A Client Experience Committee should be formed that includes employees from all departments.  This is a way to capture the input of people within the organization who have the knowledge and information of what the current client experience consists of and how it could be improved.  Just like the Quality Committees that involved all levels of employees, this committee will boost morale when word gets out that management is sincerely interested in their ideas.  The rubber hits the road when their ideas are taken seriously.

Measurement

Like any other process in your business, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.  Therefore once the employees have been engaged and a strategy is developed, the results need to be measured.  A key area of the measurement is to link year end reviews and bonuses to the outcomes.

Client Feedback

Client feedback for the process is essential for a couple of reasons.  First, you want to know whether it is working.  Feedback can determine whether changes are needed and show which employees need to be engaged.  The one thing you don’t want to have happen is for the feedback to sit on a shelf and not be acted upon.  The system alone will not solve any problems.  Clients need to know they are being heard.  Employees need to know they are being understood.  You need to know there is a return on your investment.

Finally, how do you get started?  That is as easy as beginning a conversation.  An independent facilitator might be helpful in starting the process.