'Hard of Hearing?' Great news for Business Development!
I am often asked how I have been able to establish a successful and sustainable business in such a relatively short period of time. It is said 50% of new businesses fail within two years, and over 75% have gone after five. We are soon starting our ninth year looking forward to continuing growth and lots more fun, building upon the success we have already established.
What’s the secret?
It’s having the ability to not hear the word ‘no’ when it comes to business development, and when you do, to not take it personally.
Your fears
Most people hate selling simply because they have three key fears:
1. Rejection
2. Failure
3. Leaving their comfort zones.
When you’re a professional i.e. an expert or specialist in your field, you’re not used to any of them. You’re the expert. People come to you for one reason only – to solve a problem that has arisen for them. If they could do it for themselves they would. None of us would ever go to the doctor, dentist, accountant, lawyer or other professional unless we have to. When you’re in your office facing your clients, you are in your comfort zone, and subsequently no fears of either rejection or failure are ever thought about. But times, they are a-changing.
Business Development - New Thinking
In today’s competitive world, if you want to succeed and get to the top (you choose your ‘top’) not only have you got to be technically good at what you do, but it’s expected you contribute to the marketing, selling and promotion of your company’s services.
‘But I’m a professional, I don’t do selling’
With this attitude, you’re never going to become a modern-day, all-round professional. The key to having a new mindset is to stop thinking ‘sell’ but think ‘help’. When you have this rethink, business development becomes very simple as you should now be thinking ‘I’m a professional and my objective is to find lots of opportunities to help people with my particular area of expertise. After that, I will receive fees for solving the problem’.
Your hearing fault
If you are enthusiastic and are keen to help prospects and clients with your skills, then don’t think about rejection, ‘the word no’, or the fact that you’ve failed. Just think ‘not yet’ if they don’t say yes in the first instance. When there is silence hear ‘they’re not quite ready to take us on’.
Rejection
If you go to business related events such as networking, and spot an opportunity, you need to follow up with a call to arrange a meeting. It’s only at that meeting that you are likely to build on the initial relationship and then eventually advise. Guess what? After that you earn fees. That’s modern day business development. When you attend business events you can’t do serious business there, the networking is the platform for creating the opportunity to follow up and then arrange a serious business meeting at a later stage. When prospects say no at any stage in the follow up process, they’re not rejecting you only the offer of your help. Unless you con people, your area of expertise will add value, so it’s the prospect who is losing out, not you! When people don’t return my calls, I tell myself ‘I’ve not yet reached the top of their priority list and they’re still thinking about it.’ Everybody who wants new business is simply a prospective supplier of services or goods. It’s only when the prospect is ready, willing and able, will they take you on as their advisor. When I hear ‘no’, I think ‘they are still considering me for some future date.’
Pest or Persistent?This is the dilemma. How do we make ensure we go East and not West? It’s simple. Throughout any follow up remember three strict rules:
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Ask permission At every stage of your follow up we ask: ‘I know you’re very busy with lots of other things – if we’ve not heard from you in (say) four weeks, will it be in order if we contact you again?’ Ask them which is the best way to contact them, whether it’s phone or email, and if it’s phone always ask is there any particular time of day they’d rather you didn’t call. From our vast experience people always (well, 99% of the time) say yes, they’d be happy to hear from you at an agreed time. They say yes for two reasons. The first is because they genuinely know they want to use your services and realise they do have lots of other things on their plate, so use you as their alarm system. The second is because they’re not sure, or don’t want your services but are too polite to say no. On the one hand we don’t like hearing no, but on the other we don’t like saying no to others. Most prospects think ‘they’ll never phone again so that’s the end of it’. Unfortunately, in the professional, financial and business services world that’s all too prevalent. Once you have an agreement to contact them again, always diary forward and e-mail confirming that they have given you permission to contact again. After following up a few times (how often- that’s down to what size of lifetime income there could be, how ambitious you are, or what aspirations you have?) either say in a call or e-mail ‘if you’d rather we didn’t contact you again, please say, as I don’t want to waste your time (and your own of course) and thought of as being a pest.’ Even when we get ‘it’s been great meeting you, but if we need your help we’ll call you’ that’s called rejection. Can you cope with that without needing counselling?! We still contact prospects again six months later. Why? Because situations, people and circumstances change. One of my biggest and most regular clients came when I called six months after an e-mail saying ‘we don’t need your services’. When I called six months later they said ‘Will we’re glad you called, we would like some networking skills training, let’s meet up’. At the end of the pitch or meeting, you’ll often get – ‘promise I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks’ or False words and empty promises are all too prevalent in the arena of business development. Now don’t get me wrong, when people say the words, at that moment they are being genuine and truly mean it, but ‘things get in the way’ between the words and the action. As previously mentioned things change all the time and this includes peoples’ minds. It all depends on the speaker’s commitment. Commitment? Doing what you’ll say what you’ll do long after the mood has taken you - it’s just natural human failure. You are a potential new supplier, and unless you’re the only person in the world that can solve their problem at that moment you’re not going to be top priority of the ‘to do’ list. That’s why you have to keep popping up reminding them you’re still around and available for hire to sort out the particular problem they’ve got. When you don’t you soon get forgotten and any information you may have sent to them eventually ends up in the bin. When you’re being ignored it often isn’t because they don’t want your services. If you follow up, offer the escape route and they still ignore you, we always think, and I want you to do the same, either they’re happy with their existing suppliers or they’re wanting you to stick around as they may well need your services soon. When we get ignored, we use an escape route fax back (better than email, they have to read it, and there is no delete button on it!) Here’s an example of what we use. Be Different Change the way you follow up. Be distinctive in doing things your competitors don’t do - stand out from the crowd. Give Away Give away free and valuable advice when you’re in the services business. Businesses selling products call them samples, so prospects can touch, see and experience them first hand. In our business we send books, CDs and DVDs on a carefully spaced out follow up programme. We send special reports and if there is something interesting in the press about their particular industry, we send that too. We have a mantra in our business ‘the more you tell the more you sell’. Occasionally when we write to prospects we’ve not met before we invite them as our guest, free, to one of our networking programmes. Similarly to selling products, that way the prospect experiences our presentations before deciding to buy – or not – as the case may be. I had been trying to arrange an appointment with a very senior person in a massive law firm. Normally I wouldn’t even have bothered, even I’m realistic, but I had known this person who had moved from a firm we had worked with previously, so it was hardly a cold call. When this person moved to the new company I left it three months (for them to settle in) then started my campaign. I tried all ways in, and then in the end what worked? A hand written note in an envelope with a stamp on it. In today’s e-based world all written communication is done using a keyboard. Be different, try pen and paper. Yes, it’s old fashioned, but it sets you apart from the crowd. Within 24 hours we got a call from our prospect’s PA, and we’ve arranged to go and see them. We have our own corporate card which we use for all sorts of reasons. Apart from chasing up prospects, we use them mainly to thank them for referrals, giving us new work etc.
In Summary Think of business development as looking for opportunities to help others rather than sell. Don’t take ‘no’ personally, they’re only rejecting the offer of your services. Don’t hear ‘no’; only hear ‘not yet’. The only time it’s ‘no never’ is when someone doesn’t like you. After all, people buy people first.
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