The Seinfeld Rules of Business Development

Jerry Seinfeld is one of the wealthiest Hollywood stars mainly because he participated in a popular sitcom about nothing. Every producer has a formula for making a profitable sitcom and none of them until Larry David, the producer/creator of Seinfeld, thought they could be successful doing a 30 minute weekly sitcom about nothing.

I am not saying that because business development in professional service firms is the most ambiguous business discipline your plan can be about nothing. Business development at a very basic level must be defined in your firm and your people must know how it works. Since business development is different in scope from everything else your firm does, it is important to define it. For example, does everyone in your firm know the difference between marketing and business development? Every firm in the country will benefit if they understand and employ the Seinfeld Rules of Business Development.

What are the Seinfeld business development rules?

1. Just because it used to work doesn’t mean it will work in the future.

2. Every leader needs a committed team.

3. Skill alone can only take you so far.

4. Rely on bold ideas to separate yourself from the competition.

5. Sell a story people can relate to.

Successful firms in our industry have a deep understanding of all business functions and often try to put the square function of business development into the round hole of other business functions. Inherent in successful business development is the ability to leverage all your firm’s capabilities so a client will see success in selecting your firm. Not only a successful project, but also personal, team and organizational wins.

The reason business development efforts lose effectiveness over time is because most firms simply keep using the same tactics that worked in the past for the challenges they are facing today. Although there is a need for old school thinking in a business development strategy, keeping tactics because your don’t need to “recreate the wheel”, is the first step to failure. If you understand the concept of zero-based budgeting, you will understand my concept of zero-based business development planning. Management has a hard time forgetting what has worked in the past. Therefore, it takes a confident business development/marketing group to move management away from proven strategies to something new and different. When was the last time you took a bold business development idea to management?

 

This brings us to the second rule: Every leader needs a committed team. Jerry Seinfeld had an above average stand up career before he took off with Seinfeld. Suffice it to say that he would not be worth $800 million today, if he had relied on a touring standup comedy career. Although Seinfeld was about nothing, the characters had depth and had interesting interactions between each other. The actors were grood comedians in their own right, but Jerry was the star. When the leader starts out with humility and is not worried about who gets the credit, the team excels. The team is committed. The problem for firms with uncertain business development success is a management and/or a business development team that is not committed or a leader more interested in self-promotion.

After Jerry Seinfeld was committed to the show, Larry David could have sought out other highly talented, established comedians to fill the roster. However,he understood that skill alone can only take you so far. There is a chemistry needed for success in business development as there is a chemistry needed for comedy to work. Too much of any individual ingredient spoils the whole thing. How is the chemistry working in your firm?

 

Does your firm promote project managers to business development because they are good with clients? Many firms do this and are disappointed when goals are not achieved. Skills can only take you so far, especially when the skills are not connected directly to business development or marketing. This is where training can reap huge results.

In small firms, marketing and business development might be managed by one person. It might be a firm principal rather than a marketing services professional. Larger firms are capable of supporting separate departments. These are the firms where team chemistry is extremely important. However, even small firms need to look at the chemistry connection.

Can you imagine when Larry David pitched the network about a sitcom that was about nothing. The executives knew David and Seinfeld, but a show about nothing, really. One executive took a chance on 13 episodes and the rest is television history. Do you have a bold idea that is just as big, but you are afraid to present it to your management. There are four things that can happen to your idea: You sell it to management, it is successful and your firm profits. You sell it to management and they don’t see your vision and vote against it. You decide not to sell it to management and nothing happens ( I mean even what worked in the past no longer works). A competitor comes up with the same idea, gets her management team to run with it and they win the big project. Would you even tell your management team you had the same idea but you were afraid to tell them about it. Of course, if they turned you down, you could say, “I told you so!” The latter is probably not a good response if you plan to work for the firm for an extended period of time. However, if they turned you down, they might have a better appreciation of your ideas and vision in the future. Follow the advice of Daniel Burnham, “Make no little plans; They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make bigplans; aim high in hope and work…” Big ideas worked in Chicago.

Finally, the most important rule is to sell a story. For Seinfeld it was a story that average people could relate to. It wasn’t just New Yorkers who understood the relationship issues between Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine, it was everybody.

Your firm’s story is a little different. Your story must be one that a client will invest in. If your firm has industry experts, use them to tell the story. Tell project stories from the client’s perspective. Understand market conditions, how well your firm is prepared for current conditions, your client’s industry and how the client’s history is connected to yours. Then, tell the story.Nothing made Seinfeld the most profitable sitcome in history. The Seinfeld rules might be just what your firm needs to make its own history. When you make the bold step, please let us know how we can help by contacting us at tryst@businessdevelopmentpros.org

 

Change: Taking Control of Your Future through Connection Priority

Change is often difficult to predict in our industry.  One reason is because our industry spans across

multiple industries where change often occurs at different intervals.  The healthcare industry is an example of constant changes over the last 25 years. Every 10 years or so, the pundits tell us the industry is going through revolutionary change.  Yet, the industry continues to grow and need our services. 

Firms selling services in this market have learned how to keep up by being connected to institutions and developing relationships with leaders.  Hospitals have gone through acquisitions and mergers during this time.  These changes alone have made it difficult to stay on top of who is in charge of what.

The oil industry is one of the biggest change agent industries in the world.  They make multi-billion dollar investments on exploration that will not pay back for 20 years.  They use a method called scenario planning.  Yet, there are firms in our industry that stay connected despite the constant changes in oil and energy markets.

Of course, there is volatility in other markets as well. But, the examples listed above should suffice for the purposes of this article.  The butterfly affect in weather explains how even the flapping of butterfly wings thousands of miles away can cause disruptions in weather patterns here at home. What can cause disruptions in your firm and your firm's clients?

Marketing services professionals respond to thousands of clients requests each year.  In a world of constant change, they need to understand how and why those requests have come to them.  To be successful in this climate, you need to understand the competitive nature of the markets your firm works in, the corporate culture of the clients you want to work with and internal strengths and weaknesses of your firm.  In other words, you need to be connected.

Questions that need to be answered in order for you to be really connected include: Can you see patterns in a story your client is telling you?  What is your firm’s mission and how do you find common ground in your role as marketing services professional?  There is a cause and effect.  What if everyone in your firm is not on the same page?  Some people in your firm might not be clear about your purpose.  We are hard wired to have a need to have a purpose. You are the change agents connecting your people to clients and often management to frontline staff.  You must build bridges.

When was the last time you thought of yourself as a bridge builder. Bridges make life better when there are connections between two shores with a body of water flowing underneath.  What gives you the power and edge is the ability to build bridges between people, people and clients, clients and vendors and even clients and clients.  The world in turmoil flows underneath the bridges built by marketing services professionals. When the dots have been jumbled by change, it is your ability to connect the dots that will bring success to your career and your firm.

In addition to bridge builder, you must be seen as an advocate, seeker, counselor, interrogator and communicator.

When you give clients perspective and guidance, you are also giving them hope.  Not the simple hope that tomorrow will be a better day but the realistic hope that the project they are planning will be a success with your firm at the helm.  Do you look at yourself as someone who can bring stability to your clients when things are changing all around them?

When you work strategically with a client are you prepared to ask, “What if and if then?”  Vince Lombardi is often misquoted as saying, “Winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing,” when he actually said, “Preparing to win is everything.” 

In a world of change, preparation is the key to success for every marketing services professional.  Improving how you connect with everyone will integrate preparation into all of your actions.  Integrated preparation with true connections will build client trust and acceptance of your firm’s superior ability to complete their project. That is an outcome everyone is looking for, even in a world of change.

What Do Clients Really Want, Really!

Every professional selling services in the industry seeks to know what their clients really want.  It is essential for success.  In fact, they are almost guaranteed to lose business, if they don’t know.  The problem is basic: We all deal with two types of clients.  We have entities like owners, developers, institutions, agencies and governmental bodies.  This type of client is only interested in the specifications of their project or need.  They create elaborate requests for proposals with all of the scope of work required.  Some award low bid while others accept responsible bids.  Professionals selling only to entities rarely achieve a 50% success rate, even if they are bottom feeders of the low bid variety.

The second type of client is people working for the entity and given authority to award contracts. What do these clients really want? Do not confuse this with need. This is not about Maslow's hierarchy. Professionals wanting to improve their hit rates need to concentrate on these five wants:

1. Personal Success

2. The Experience

3. Company/Project Status

4. Team Chemistry

5. Family/Outside Interest

Obviously, the entity client is obligated to filter the proposals and create a short list based on criteria that has been put together by various affected committees, including users, finance and technical departments.  Therefore, professionals wanting to win must begin discerning the human needs prior to the issuance of an RFP. This process, if done correctly, can also lead to the contact asking for help in writing the RFP.

Can you describe what success means to each of the client representatives you have contact with?  This is not simply what success within the company looks like but what personal success looks like.  This often requires deep investigation.  Well worth the time and effort. When you meet with this person you need to understand what happened on previous projects.  What was the experience like?  You need to know how this person defines the experience.  What kind of experience does your firm leave behind?

Can you see the leverage you would have if the person tells you the last project finished on time but the experience was dreadful?  Trust and the relationship you are building will eventually reveal answers to this question and much more. Many trainers will call this the understanding of the client's pain.

As you move forward with this person you begin to learn what is coming up on the company’s radar.  What types of projects will actually be funded in the next five years.  Which projects are priority and which ones could make or break the company or your contact.  You can now start a dialogue as a trusted adviser and suggest your client meet with a few people from your project team.

After the meeting where your contact sees how the chemistry between your team and his works, you dig deeper into the next project.  In the meantime, you learn more about the contact’s hobbies, outside interests and family.  Perhaps you have children the same age as your contact and you suggest a family-oriented outing together.  Golf is always a possibility as well as invitations to professional sporting events. The family/outside interests component could begin on day one and is not necessarily the last piece of the puzzle.

Another way to find out what clients really want is to check off the things they don’t want.

Clients don’t want to be taken for granted

Clients don’t want to be humiliated (low risk tolerance)

Clients don’t want to be treated like an outsider (Different than being taken for granted)

Clients don’t want to live through a terrible project experience

Clients don’t want to experience “back door” approvals

 



  

If you have not built a strong enough relationship with your contact to allow him or her to give you approvals, it is not a good idea to go around that person to a higher authority.  It will mark the beginning of the end.  You can ask if someone else needs to be part of the process.  You can suggest someone higher up join you in the next meeting.  This could be a reality check for your contact and result in positive movement on the project.  It could also reveal other issues that have not been resolved. You can mend the problems that might be associated with a negative response.  However, when you go behind the contact’s back, you might never see the response coming.

My firm was pursuing a multi-million dollar contact with a Midwest university and we had made all of the right moves to win the job.  Since the project was being run by the medical center with the university in partnership, we worked on the medical center contacts instead of our regular university contacts.  We never saw the error until the short list was to be announced.  A leading architectural firm was the lead because the medical center was in charge and they were respected by the medical center.  They received a call the day before the short list and were told to take our firm off their team or they wouldn’t be short listed.  We had 50% of the project and lost it because we had not taken care of this client.  The university client was upset they were not in charge of the project, but she was upset with us because the last project we had worked with her on was not a good experience. She didn't have authority to choose a firm but she had veto power on who would be interviewed.  No one from the firm had taken the time to learn about the issues. 

Finally, you need to remember you are dealing with people.  People want to be connected, feel appreciated, part of a team and needed.  When you learn how to cover these, your project hit rates will rise significantly.