Avoiding the Workhorse Syndrome: Automating Business Development In Information Technology Companies

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

Do you remember the type of car the Flintstones drive? What was it powered by? Yes, it was powered by 20 toes (Barney and Fred's total contribution). And what was it stopped by? Well, by the same 20 toes.

Where is the problem here? Barney and Fred are working far too hard to reach their destinations much more slowly and inefficiently then they could with an automated system, what we can call in plain English, the engine.

And this is how business development works in so many companies.

So, let's use the car gearbox analogy here. That is a system on which you can't skimp. You must start in first gear. If you are awkward, the car will shake you up a bit. If you try hard you can start in second gear or for some lucky and delicate souls even in third gear, but the engine won't appreciate your stupidity. The car will sneeze and cough a few times, and finally you just mess up your clutch.

When we split up business development into stages, we can easily compare it to the gear set of a car.

First gear: Starting the business development process. You have positioned your company, packaged your offer and now you are out to get attention for your promotional message. This stage can be fully automated.

Second gear: Great. You have gained attention to your message and now you do your best to keep prospects' interest. This stage can be fully automated too.

Third gear: You have gained their interest and obtained their consent to send repeated messages to them. However, they agreed to receive valuable information from you, not endless pitches. You have to learn how to package your messages that it is both of interest to prospects and gently moves them in your business development funnel towards becoming paying clients. This stage can be fully automated too.

Fourth gear: Prospects are considering projects with you. At this point you may offer some personal time in preliminary meetings, but I suggest you still automate the process. When you are about to switch into fifth gear, that is when buyers commit seriously. A fair part of this gear can be automated too.

Fifth gear: This is commitment time. At this point you sign agreements and start doing business together.

Reverse gear: This gear has two roles. 1) At the end of the engagement you switch here, pull back and disengage. 2) You switch into reverse gear to dump undesirable prospects.

So where is the problem. Well, most companies want to bypass the first two gears, and just send out their people to pound the pavement selling the company's amazing solutions no one has ever heard about. of course, at this point executives all say, "Our stuff is so good is that it sells itself." There lies the next problem. If it is so good, then why do you need an army of salespeople to peddle it.

Foregoing the first two gears and just condemning your sales force to cold-calling, pavement pounding and door knocking is just as futile as trying to outsell Amazon through peddling books door-to-door using more and more salespeople. You can never "out-peddle" Amazon?s seamless automated book distribution system that sells millions of books but operated by only a few people.

So, you see you can free up lots of your people's time by automating the first three gears, so your salespeople can meet only prospects who are ready and willing to buy. Instead of chasing, it is prospects who will contact you asking for an appointment with one of your people.

But then knowing all this, what is the reason so many companies just keep hiring more salespeople chasing more suspects? It is really like trying to outsail the fastest cruise ship by hiring more crew members, giving them bigger oars and forcing them to work overtime.

You need an engine with fuel not more slaves with oars. So, what to do next? Keep reading the stuff in the resource library, and if you need further help, don't be shy to ask.

Attribution: "This article was written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan who helps privately held information technology companies to develop high leverage client acquisition systems and business development teams in order to sell their products and services to premium clients at premium fees and prices. Visit Tom's website at http://www.varjan.com.