Business Development Activity Ratios And How To Interpret Them
By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan
There is a serious epidemic in the business world today. Some markets more, some less, but to certain extent all markets have a fair share of rats. And by rats I mean tyre-kickers, freeloaders and obsessive compulsive brochure collectors who take anything for free, and expect sales professionals to put up dog and pony shows, but are not willing to make buying commitments. Basically, they are hunting for free information, so they can implement the solution in-house by essentially stealing other companies' intellectual property.
Governments are notorious for this. Hey, we all know the all so famous bidding process. Here is an equation for you:
- Governments all over the world are hunting for the lowest bidders
- Governments all over the world are in deep financial, moral and ethical shit
So, complete the equation.
everyone kows that the major NASA space shuttle disaster were cause by the lowest bidders. And so people along the way lines their pockes with the money they saved by risking other people's lives and killing some of them.
Here is a chart that that demonstrates how much waste is going on in most companies' Business Development departments.
The blue area represents about 72% of all "doing business" time. This huge percentage is spent on retarded activities like cold calling, knocking on doors and chasing tyre-kickers, plate lickers and freeloaders who can drag you along and fool you into believing that one day they will do business with you. For the sake of your own sanity, don't believe them. These are the people who believe that it is perfectly all right to lie to salespeople.
The maroon area is about 26% of all "doing business" time. This segment represent a collective activity, including marketing planning, writing ads, designing websites, brochures, designing scripts, content copy, actual selling, administration, sales meetings and everything else, including the kitchen sink. It is sad how small this segment is.
The white area is about 2% of all "doing business" time. This tiny segment represents the time invested in of prospecting to and following up with real prospects that are serious about doing business with you.
So, how can we change this miserable situation?
First we have to understand that whatever you can achieve through manual prospecting, you can also achieve through automated prospecting. You are not needed in person until and unless prospects are willing to come to you with a conditional commitment to do business with you if you can meet their buying criteria.
Don't give in to dog and pony shows and don't waste your time on rapport-building chit-chat. Have deep meaningful discussions only with prospects. We teach a pretty unique process of getting clear on the prospects' values, so after 30 minutes in the first meeting they are ready to give you a commitment deposit, so you get paid before writing your proposal.
What do you think this does to your proposal acceptance rate? It is not even a proposal. It is actually a "Memorandum of Understanding" (Thanks for the great name, Robin [Elliott, Joint Venture Guru Mentor and Overall Great Guy]), a written summary of an already made conceptual agreement.
What could you have more of if you automated your prospecting? Maybe more time for billable work? Maybe more time with your family? Maybe more time to grow your business?
I don't know. All I know is that you can't grow a business by engaging in sweaty prospecting manual labour grunt work by chasing suspects all over hell's half acre. There is a smarter and more profitable way.
So, How to Avoid Tyre-Kickers
Well, one way could be to declare permanent hunting season on them, and gradually they would be killed off. But this approach may be a bit harsh, so let's try something softer.
Here are some of the typical warning signs:
1. They want you to romance them without their making any commitment. They expect proposals from you with multiple re-writings, and lots of dog and pony show.
2. They expect you to go to their offices, so they can impress you how powerful they are. Oh, if the poor bastards knew what that behaviour really means.
3. They want to communicate the terms of the prospecting process, and expect you to do all the work. They refuse to collaborate.
4. They try to push you into small talk, that is, rapport-building. Hint: Pros build trust. Amateurs build rapport. Besides building rapport is usually used as a slimy method to manipulate prospects. Unfortunately, traditional selling is based on scumbag methods, like using guilt, shame and fear to make people buy. Does it work? Yes. I just find it revolting.
5. They send a their flunkeys to meet salespeople, grab proposals and information and then get rid of them. The rotten swine don't even have the balls to meet the person.
6. They make themselves less and less available the closer you come to decision time. They don't want to decide. They don't want to admit that they are just using sales professionals to do some extra work for them.
7. They become unclear about dates and times, so they keep re-scheduling meetings. They keep reviewing things again, and again and again.
So, What Can You Do?
You have to toughen up your prospecting. That's all. You have to automate your business development as much as possible, so you can carefully filter out everyone who don't match your ideal client profile.
You can even charge for initial in-person meetings. Why not. Time is money, and most salespeople offer value from the first minute. So, they deserve some dough, don't they?
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.
