Driving in the Right Direction

One of the simple things that is often overlooked when I've talked to some of the younger partners [about business development] is, “Have you asked your client for their business plan for the next one to three years?” Just asking the simple question, “Could you share with me your business plan, how your department's being evaluated, what your goals are over the next year, two, or three?” sets you apart from your competition. I have found over the years that clients often say, “Well, nobody's ever asked me that question. Of course, I'll share that with you.” But I've never had anybody say, “Well, that's a confidential matter. I'm not going to share that with you.” It's really more of, “Well, I'd love to walk you through how we're being evaluated and what our plans are and some thoughts around that.”

—Chuck Walker, Partner, Global Leader of Asset Management, Tax, KPMG

In order for a prospective client to be interested in spending much time in getting to know you, you have to be perceived as being relevant to them. Our work must have the potential to solve a perceived problem or advance an agenda for a prospective client. If it doesn't, our work isn't relevant.

Say, for example, you're a turnaround specialist—someone with deep experience in reviving troubled manufacturing companies with serious financial issues often involving bankruptcy. Your work is relevant to a relatively small number of companies at any given time.

You've just taken your seat in first class on American 2309, heading home from Chicago to Dallas on a Wednesday evening.

“It's been one of those days,” your seatmate sighs. “I need a drink.” You start to chat as he orders Jack on ice. You order a coffee because you've got to run some more numbers on the injection molding company you've been working with in a Chicago suburb that is going through Chapter 11.

As the conversation continues, you learn your seatmate is the owner of a company that makes industrial fasteners, and his bankers have just cut off his five-million-dollar line of credit. The company his father founded in 1962 won't have enough money to make payroll this month. He's on his way to visit another banker in Texas to see about some new financing. He knows things are getting dire. His ears perk up when he learns that you're a turnaround specialist who works with privately held manufacturing companies. By the time you get off the plane at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, you've scheduled a meeting in ten days to see about helping his company. Your expertise is highly relevant to your new friend who has suddenly found himself at risk of losing it all.

Harder, though, is when a prospective client doesn't even know they have a potential problem with which you can help. In IT services, for example, you may know more about the problems a prospective client faces than it does. You are selling a credence good after all. You diagnose and offer the cure. You offer a cyber-security solution, but if the company has never had a cyber attack or isn't aware their systems are particularly vulnerable, you face an uphill climb as you work to create interest in what you do. That is until the chief information officer gets a call at 4 a.m. telling him his company's customer credit card database just got hacked.

Harder still is that, for many of us, our offerings are discretionary. Our clients don't have to work with us; they elect to engage to work with us because it is consistent with their strategy. Harry Wallace, who started the firm Tom runs, is fond of saying, “If you're a doctor and someone falls down on a plane, you have an obligation to help.” That's true but more common are clients who need our help but who don't know it. What's the doctor to do then?

Making a Meaningful Difference

You might recommend that your client move its call center from India to Nebraska to save the company two million dollars. This is a significant savings for a five-hundred-million company, but not necessarily to a fifty-billion-dollar company. Your work or expertise must make a meaningful difference on a prospective client's success because value is relative.

If your prospect is the head of business development for a Fortune 100 firm, the question to ask is does your work have the potential to bring in tens or hundreds of millions in new revenue? The difference is material. That doesn't mean your services aren't useful. It just means that they don't have the potential to have a meaningful impact on the progress of those goals on which the business development chief is measured.

Part of being material is to have a point of view. Saying what you see is a form of listening and establishing relevance. You observe a company and report back on what it looks like to you.

The [goal] is to be a problem solver, creating solutions for clients. If you can tell them a solution before they recognize they have a problem they need, you're best positioned to win the business.

—Jimmy Rose, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (retired)

In the end, a potential client is either interested in what you offer, or they are not. It fits with their priorities or it doesn't. This can be hard to hear, but always remember that a client can really want to work with you but just have more pressing objectives on their plate. Never mistake lack of interest with readiness. They are very different. Interest means you are focused on problems that make a difference in your buyer's life. Not being ready can be an issue of resources or politics. If someone is not interested in your service, you should leave them alone. If they are not ready, you should stay in touch.

If they are not interested, don't just walk away, though. Ask for a referral. “We'd love to work with your firm, but I understand what we do is not a fit for your priorities. Who do you think might be interested in something like this? Would you mind if I said you suggested I reach out to them?”

Second, concede but quickly recast. “We understand. You're busy redoing your website and can't think about developing a custom CRM platform right now. Maybe there is another way to think about this. Not us as a vendor to be managed, but more an outsourced partner that is making progress on a platform so that after the website is done, you have something to consider.”

Tactics—What Works

Getting the second call or meeting is an important component in building a relationship. It signals that what you have to offer is of value. Here are concrete steps to up the odds of getting a second call.

1. Communicate clearly. Clearly articulate two key items: Why you are relevant to your customer's world, and how you can have a substantial impact on their agenda.
2. Research. Communicating clearly presupposes you know your customers' objectives. The truth, however, is that most of the time you don't have any clue what your client is focused on. You might speculate that they should be interested in raising revenues or cutting costs, but you don't know if that is their focus or if they are worried about a downsizing, getting a new boss, the feedback they got on the last project they managed, a speech the CEO just gave, or a host of other factors that drive how they define their objectives in any given quarter. Assuming a human being is driven by a single motivation is also silly. Every one of us is a stew of different motivations. Your job is to unpack those motivations as they are revealed to you. “Seeing-eye dogs” inside of organizations can help. If you know people in the industry or, better still, at the company you are trying to serve, they can give you color on the person you are trying to help. Interviewing for information in this way can help you learn the backstory on a company that, as much as anything you say or do, will determine interest. Reading what has been published is also helpful. One thing we like to do these days is to watch YouTube videos of interviews or speeches by the executives we are trying to serve. Nothing helps you get into your prospect's head better. Or watch a company's CEO speak. They are often very forthcoming about where they are trying to lead the company. Chances are they are telling your prospect the same thing. Finally, look at the case studies a firm puts on their website. This is the work of which they are most proud. You can be sure they want to do more of it.
3. Stop talking and listen. Remember when we said it's best to start from your customer's perspective, not from your own? To think about the buyer's journey, not the seller's journey? News flash, that's hard to do. It's like we are programmed to tout what we do, not listen to some middle manager prattle on about their issues. Yet, listening is precisely what we need to do most. When presenting, limit yourself to ten minutes. After that, ask questions. “When I spoke just now, I suggested you might be interested in how we have helped other companies lift their procurement process into the cloud, but I was guessing there. How is it that you see your procurement operation?” Asking questions starts a conversation that helps both parties work toward an eventual goal. You start by suggesting something that might be helpful. Your client quickly comes back and says you're off substantially. “We've been doing cloud-based procurement for two years now. What worries me now is security.” That response gives you an opportunity to ask more questions. “Are you mainly worried about cloud security, or is it the lack of security on your end that is the problem?” Again, you proffer a thesis and then give them a chance to come back to you. “On our end, mostly. I have to collect data from five business units spread across sixteen countries, and I worry we're not completely protected. I told myself this year I'd audit the network and take measures to make sure we don't drop the ball.” Now you're getting somewhere.
4. Add value first. Just as we are tempted to talk to our clients about how we can help them and not listen to how they want to be helped, it's also true that in our rush to demonstrate our prowess, we fail to add value and instead we just advertise our skill. The problem with that approach is that people don't like being sold to. They don't mind having a conversation with people they don't know, but they have to feel like they are getting something in the exchange. A partner in a Big Four accounting firm described how she thinks about meeting with would-be clients: “I tell them one thing they don't know about their competitors, one thing they don't know about their own company and one thing they don't know about us. I don't want to just ask for information when I visit them. I want to bring them information.”

If you're a private equity firm or a venture capital firm, you may have various assets in your portfolio that are relevant to us in the healthcare capital markets group. We find ways to sit down and have meetings, or phone calls, or just send emails with content that's relevant to them. This serves as a way to deepen a conversation on a given company—really, anything we can do to continue a dialogue, whether it's something that's a near-term action item or not, helps build that relationship. [The goal] is to be the person they call when they're ready to actually do something.

—Jack Bannister, Goldman Sachs

In the world of consulting and professional services sales, “Always Be Closing” is out. Now it's “Always Be Listening.”

When a prospective client is aware of you, understands exactly what you do, and is interested in the services that you provide, things really begin to get interesting. This is when an important mental transition occurs; prospective clients begin to ask themselves not just what you do and if they need you, but “is this person really good at what they do and will they deliver on their promises?”