Latest / What is Business Development? / BD-BOK Deep Dive...Chapter 11 How to Personalize and Not Be Creepy

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BD-BOK Deep Dive...Chapter 11 How to Personalize and Not Be Creepy · What is Business Development?

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep dive. All right, so let's
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  Speaker 1: just jump right in. For years, I mean, for as
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  Speaker 1: long as I can remember, every business development pro has
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  Speaker 1: lived by this one core principle.
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  Speaker 2: That personalization is the absolute bedrock of trust.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, you have to tail your outreach a generic message.
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  Speaker 1: It's basically done on our rival. But what if that
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  Speaker 1: foundational belief, you know, that really personalized outreach, what if
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  Speaker 1: that's precisely what's turning your buyer off.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that is the core conflict, isn't it. It's what
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  Speaker 2: we're calling the personalization paradox. Prospects they demand customization, they
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  Speaker 2: won't engage with spam, but they have this incredibly sensitive threshold.
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  Speaker 1: And it's a poorly defined one very and if.
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  Speaker 2: You cross that line, you don't just lose a prospect,
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  Speaker 2: you actively repel them.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. So our mission in this deep dive is
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  Speaker 1: to really synthesize the hard data, the frameworks, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: the specific behaviors that draw that line between helping and
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  Speaker 1: being creepy and being outright treepy. We're trying to give
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  Speaker 1: you the blueprint for walking that tightrope.
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  Speaker 2: And this isn't just some theoretical thing. The stakes are, well,
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  Speaker 2: they're quantified. When your personalization feels manipulative, it doesn't just
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  Speaker 2: lower interest, it actively crushes trust.
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  Speaker 1: And when trust drops.
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  Speaker 2: Your PWI in your probability of win, it just takes
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  Speaker 2: a massive hit. This is about protecting your funnel by
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  Speaker 2: avoiding that feeling that you're watching them rather than helping them.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's start by defining our terms, because personalization
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  Speaker 1: it's a pretty big spectrum. We're talking everything from you know,
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  Speaker 1: just using someone's name all the way up to hyper personalization.
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  Speaker 2: Which people also call contextual marketing or conversational commerce. And look,
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  Speaker 2: the ultimate goal, the ethical goal should be empathy. It
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  Speaker 2: should be showing you understand their pain points. But the
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  Speaker 2: second your content feels like it's just exploiting their data
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  Speaker 2: or pandering to some cognitive bias you read about, the
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  Speaker 2: perception flips instantly.
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  Speaker 1: From helpful to manipulative, and that can.
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  Speaker 2: Just torpedo a deal before it even begins.
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  Speaker 1: The data on this is really it's kind of stunning.
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  Speaker 1: Let's look at the demand side first. A twenty eighteen
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  Speaker 1: Accentri study found that a massive ninety one percent of
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  Speaker 1: buyers ninety.
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  Speaker 2: One that's almost everybody are more.
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  Speaker 1: Likely to shop with a corporation that tailors their experience.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a mandate you have to do it.
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  Speaker 2: But here's where the paradox just slams into you. Take
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  Speaker 2: a look at the rejection sent A Gardner's study from
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  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen showed that a majority of buyers will just
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  Speaker 2: unsubscribe okay, and thirty eight percent, a huge number will
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  Speaker 2: stop buying entirely from a company they feel is providing
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  Speaker 2: and this is the quote too much personalization.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, So ninety one percent demand it, but thirty eight
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  Speaker 1: percent will fire you if you overdo it. We have
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  Speaker 1: to figure out where that line is. What what does
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  Speaker 1: the research say triggers that creep factor.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Accentric gave us some really clear examples of what
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  Speaker 2: buyers found intrusive. So, for example, forty one percent of
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  Speaker 2: people said text ads popping up on their phone when
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  Speaker 2: they were like physically walking past a.
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  Speaker 1: Store, Oh that's creepy.
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  Speaker 2: It's creepy. Yeah, And thirty five percent found it invasive
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  Speaker 2: when ads on social media appeared after they had just
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  Speaker 2: you know, looked at a product on a website.
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  Speaker 1: So it's about tracking real time location or browsing history it.
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  Speaker 2: Seems to be, but the tracking itself isn't universally hated,
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  Speaker 2: and this is key. We know personalization is welcome when
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  Speaker 2: it's based on expected behavior, like what a study by
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  Speaker 2: Cheetah Digital found that eighty two percent of buyers welcome
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  Speaker 2: a personalized product recommendation if it's based on their past purchases.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so that makes sense. It's historical, explicit data. They
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  Speaker 1: know they gave it to you.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. The creepiness seems to be linked to that inferred
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  Speaker 2: predictive or you know, surveillance based stuff, and that distinction
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  Speaker 2: explicit versus inferred. It forces us to be more structured.
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  Speaker 2: Business developers really need a framework here, and.
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  Speaker 1: That's where the personalization pyramid comes in.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. It structures the depth of your personalization based on
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  Speaker 2: the data you're using, from the very basic to the
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  Speaker 2: well the extremely invasive.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's do tell those four levels. What's at
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  Speaker 1: the bottom the foundation.
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  Speaker 2: Level one, the base of the pyramid. This uses the
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  Speaker 2: broadest data contact info, demographics, firmographics so.
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  Speaker 1: Company size, industry, that kind of thing.
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  Speaker 2: Right, or GOVA graphics. It's all simple, accessible and it's
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  Speaker 2: very low.
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  Speaker 1: Risk then we move up to level two. This is
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  Speaker 1: where I think the jargon can get a little thick
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  Speaker 1: for some bad teams.
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  Speaker 2: It can. Level two starts adding nuance. It's based on infographic,
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  Speaker 2: psychographic or technographic information.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, break that down for us.
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  Speaker 2: We're talking about understanding their attitudes, their interests, their motivations.
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  Speaker 2: That's psychographics or technographics, which is, you know, the specific
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  Speaker 2: software and tools they already use.
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  Speaker 1: So it's moving beyond just who they are to how
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  Speaker 1: they operate precisely. And Level three that really ramps up
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  Speaker 1: the information you need right. It relies on immediate signals absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: Level three uses real time online and offline intent signals,
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  Speaker 2: so social media comments, likes, shares, these is usually triggered
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  Speaker 2: by engagement and event data. You're reacting in the moment
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  Speaker 2: to something they expressed.
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  Speaker 1: And then level four, the top of the pyramid, the
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  Speaker 1: biggest data investment.
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  Speaker 2: Level four is based entirely on the prospect's real time
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  Speaker 2: behavior triggers.
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  Speaker 1: So what they click on, what they download.
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  Speaker 2: How they scroll, where they spend time on a page.
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  Speaker 2: It's the deepest, most individualized data.
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  Speaker 1: Which also makes it the riskiest when you're trying to
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  Speaker 1: avoid that creep factor.
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  Speaker 2: It's the highest risk highest reward level.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so we have four levels, how do we decide
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  Speaker 1: which one is right for a given prospect. This is
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  Speaker 1: where intent thresholds become so critical.
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  Speaker 2: Right, the amount of personalization that's actually beneficial, it's directly
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  Speaker 2: proportional to the complexity of your product and the prospects intent.
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  Speaker 1: Threshold an intent threshold, think of.
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  Speaker 2: It this way. A simple, low complexity product that's a
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  Speaker 2: low intent threshold ORLIT.
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  Speaker 1: Decision, so low risk, easy to adopt exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't require a ton of personalization to justify the spend.
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  Speaker 1: So the big takeaway here is if it's a simple tool,
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  Speaker 1: a LIT to, we should probably stay at levels one
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  Speaker 1: or two.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, if you're selling, say straightforward fifty dollars annual subscription
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  Speaker 2: spending weeks, gathering level four behavior data is a complete
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  Speaker 2: and total waste of effort.
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  Speaker 1: But on the other hand, on the other hand.
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  Speaker 2: High intent threshold or HIIT products, so major enterprise software,
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  Speaker 2: high risk contracts, they demand level three and four personalization.
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  Speaker 1: Because the prospect needs that level of detail to justify
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  Speaker 1: the investment and the risk they're taking on.
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  Speaker 2: You got it.
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  Speaker 1: So the business insight is really twofold. You save resources
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  Speaker 1: by not over personalizing simple deals, and you lower your
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  Speaker 1: creep risk.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you stop wasting your time. Investing too much reduces
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  Speaker 2: your total sales capacity, and even worse, you risk actively
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  Speaker 2: alienating people by making them feel like they're being watched.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so trust is the keyword here. It's the multiplier.
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  Speaker 1: How can a business developer actually model where that preepy
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  Speaker 1: threshold is for someone? We can turn to a framework
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  Speaker 1: McKenzie pre ended back in twenty seventeen, the personalization value
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  Speaker 1: equation or PvE.
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  Speaker 2: This is such a powerful mental model, even if you
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  Speaker 2: can't quantify every variable perdicctly. The equation is PvE equals
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  Speaker 2: relevance plus timeliness. Okay, that whole sum is multiplied by trust,
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  Speaker 2: and then the whole thing is divided by the loss
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  Speaker 2: of privacy.
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  Speaker 1: That structure immediately highlights the tension, doesn't it. Relevance and timeliness,
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  Speaker 1: those are the positive things we control. My message is useful,
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  Speaker 1: it derives when you need it, but that's all dependent
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  Speaker 1: on two other huge variables.
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  Speaker 2: Right, first look at the multiplier trust. If a prospect
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  Speaker 2: has zero trust in you or your brand, that entire
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  Speaker 2: numerator becomes.
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  Speaker 1: Zero, which means the PvE is zero.
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  Speaker 2: Zero PvE means any outreach I don't care how relevant
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  Speaker 2: it is, is automatically perceived as creepy.
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  Speaker 1: And then you have that massive threat in the denominator
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  Speaker 1: loss of privacy.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, if my super relevant timely level four outreach is
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  Speaker 2: seen as requiring a massive breach of privacy, that.
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  Speaker 1: Denominator gets huge and it derives the whole score down
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  Speaker 1: into the negative.
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  Speaker 2: That's why McKinzie said, it's not an exact science. How
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  Speaker 2: do you quantify perceived loss of privacy?
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  Speaker 1: Right?
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  Speaker 2: It's hard, but the equation proves that technical skill will
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  Speaker 2: never ever save you from a crisis of trust.
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  Speaker 1: This whole dance then around data and relevance and trust.
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  Speaker 1: It's all governed by what we call the social contract.
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  Speaker 1: The Oxford definition is the desirable and usually mutually accepted
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  Speaker 1: forms of interaction among individuals and groups in their social.
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  Speaker 2: Environment and in a sales environment. That prospector prospect social
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  Speaker 2: contract gets activated the moment a prospect shows intent, the
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  Speaker 2: moment they enter the activation phase.
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  Speaker 1: And it governs every single interaction all the way through conversion.
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  Speaker 2: Right until they sign the actual business contract and get
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  Speaker 2: to the success phase. You are not governed by business rules,
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  Speaker 2: you are governed by social norms.
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  Speaker 1: So we've established that breaking that corporate social contract drives
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  Speaker 1: the PvE score down. But who delivers the message the
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  Speaker 1: salesperson the salesperson, and that's where the psychology comes in.
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  Speaker 1: When that PV score goes negative, it triggers a really
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  Speaker 1: primal personal alarm.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. There was a twenty eighteen study that hypothesized that
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  Speaker 2: feeling creeped out is and I quote, an emotional response
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  Speaker 2: to ambiguity about the presence of a threat.
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  Speaker 1: Ambiguity about a threat.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, when your actions are ambiguous about your intent, you
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  Speaker 2: force the prospect into the state of heightened vigilance. You
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  Speaker 2: basically triggered their survival mechanism.
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  Speaker 1: And that study went even further. It identified specific personal
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  Speaker 1: attributes that increase the perception of creepiness. This is so
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  Speaker 1: crucial for bead folks who are the face of their company.
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  Speaker 1: What was some of the standout findings there about just
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  Speaker 1: you know, basic personal conduct.
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  Speaker 2: There were clear behavioral things that ranked highest in increasing
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  Speaker 2: that creep factor, which directly violate the social contract of
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  Speaker 2: a professional meeting.
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  Speaker 1: So what are the biggest red flags on that list
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  Speaker 1: that a rep might accidentally show.
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  Speaker 2: Well, anything that signals poor self regulation or or unpredictability.
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  Speaker 2: The list have things like poor grooming, odd clothing, but
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  Speaker 2: also peculiar facial expressions like licking lips or unpredictable laughing. Wow,
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  Speaker 2: but critically two behaviors that show up in bad sales
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  Speaker 2: calls ranked very highly standing too close when.
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  Speaker 1: Talking okay, personal space, and.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe most importantly, an unwillingness to stop talking.
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  Speaker 1: That inability to read the room. It's not just rude,
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  Speaker 1: it's literally increasing the perceived threat level.
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  Speaker 2: That's the takeaway for business development. A prospector has to
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  Speaker 2: make sure their own personal behavior sticks to those norms.
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  Speaker 1: So if you show up looking or acting unpredictably your
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  Speaker 1: amazing relevant level four personalized pitch, it's just dead on arrival.
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  Speaker 2: The ambiguity of the messenger completely overrides the relevance of
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  Speaker 2: the message.
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  Speaker 1: That was a really critical look at this paradox. Let's
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  Speaker 1: try to synthesize our top three most actionable takeaways from
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  Speaker 1: all this.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, number one, embrace the paradox and know the stats.
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  Speaker 2: Personalization is absolutely mandatory. We saw the ninety one percent
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  Speaker 2: number Yeah, but you have to remember that thirty eight
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  Speaker 2: percent will walk away if you overstep, so your focus
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  Speaker 2: has to be on being helpful and relevant, not manipulative.
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  Speaker 1: Got it? Take away?
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  Speaker 2: Number two, Match personalization to the intent threshold. Use that
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  Speaker 2: pyramid strategically. Don't deploy resource heavy level four behavioral triggers
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  Speaker 2: for a simple, low risk product.
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  Speaker 1: Save your deepest data for the complex, high intent threshold
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  Speaker 1: deals where that value is really needed.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, and number three, trust is your PvE multiplier. Always
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  Speaker 2: always frame your success with the personalization value equation. Trust
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  Speaker 2: is paramount. A great message is worthless if the prospect
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  Speaker 2: feels a massive loss of privacy or if they just
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  Speaker 2: don't trust you to.
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  Speaker 1: Begin with the denominator and the multiplier will always decide
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  Speaker 1: your fate.
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  Speaker 2: Always.
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  Speaker 1: We know this social contract is constantly being redefined by technology.
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  Speaker 1: We're spending so much effort on value creation, on relevance
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  Speaker 1: and timeliness. But we want to leave you with this
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  Speaker 1: final provocative thought to chew on.
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  Speaker 2: When level four personalization based and time rarely on these
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  Speaker 2: complex behavior triggers, when that becomes the industry standard, how
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  Speaker 2: do we even begin to accurately measure that perceived loss
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  Speaker 2: of privacy, and maybe more fundamentally, can a superior value
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  Speaker 2: proposition ever truly overcome a core psychological breach of that
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  Speaker 2: underlying social contract?
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  Speaker 1: Something to think about for your next sales interaction. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you for joining us on this deep dive into the
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  Speaker 1: true cost of personalization. We hope this helps you find
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  Speaker 1: that perfect balance between engaging and well alarming your next prospect.