Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 156: “Buyer Sense Conversations” with Petra Wagner

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Episode 156: “Buyer Sense Conversations” with Petra Wagner · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development Podcast, brought to you by
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  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello, BD pros, and welcome to the BD Podcast. It's
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  Speaker 2: the official business development podcast of GBDA, the Global Business
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Development Association. And today we have our guest author, Petra Wagner.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: who's here with us today. And folks, let me ask
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: you a quick question. What happens when modern selling no
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: longer matches how decisions are actually made? Well, in complex
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: B2B environments, decisions rarely fail in the meeting. They fail afterward.
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  Speaker 2: Inside internal conversations, sellers never see. The stakeholders disagree and
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: risk feels personal. Information overwhelms rather than clarifies. And even
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: strong solutions collapse. under the weight of uncertainty. Well, you
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: know what's not uncertain is the data and the information
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and tactics, operations, and strategy we have in the business
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: development body of knowledge. This is the official guidebook for
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the business development profession. Once you read the book, you
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  Speaker 2: can then go to the GBDA website at gbdassociation.org to
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  Speaker 2: learn more about how you can get your business development
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  Speaker 2: Professional Certification. Okay, so let's talk about our guest author's
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  Speaker 2: new book. It's called Buyer Sense Conversations. And a little
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  Speaker 2: bit about Petra. Petra Wagner has two decades inside enterprise organizations,
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  Speaker 2: including leadership roles at IBM and Microsoft. And in those roles,
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  Speaker 2: Petra found herself sitting on the other side of the
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  Speaker 2: table as the buyer. And what she experienced there reshaped
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  Speaker 2: how she understands B2B sales. Buyers are not stalling because
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  Speaker 2: they lack information. They are stalling because no one is
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  Speaker 2: helping them make sense of it. And so in Petra's book,
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  Speaker 2: Buyer Sense Conversations, how founders help buyers make confident decisions
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  Speaker 2: in complex B2B deals. It's not another sales methodology book.
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  Speaker 2: It's a shift in role. In this book, Petra introduces
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  Speaker 2: a practical structured framework built around one core idea. Progress
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  Speaker 2: happens when buyers feel clear enough to move. She outlines
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  Speaker 2: the seven buyer sense stages, and I'm sure we'll talk
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  Speaker 2: about that here in the podcast. And those stages help
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  Speaker 2: show how B2B sellers can stabilize decisions instead of pressuring them.
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  Speaker 2: It offers a way to lead conversations that create confidence,
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  Speaker 2: Because clarity is not a feature of the sale. It
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  Speaker 2: is the condition for it. So with no further ado,
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  Speaker 2: let's welcome Petra Wagner to the show. Petra, welcome.
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  Speaker 3: Hello. Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's great to have you on the show, Petra.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. And Petra, I always like to
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  Speaker 2: start off with the first question for our authors, which
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  Speaker 2: is how did you get into the business development profession
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  Speaker 2: and why did you write the book?
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  Speaker 3: Basically, I entered through IBM. So my career started with
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  Speaker 3: IBM as a student. And then I was having, like
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  Speaker 3: you said, the leadership and different other roles. I was
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  Speaker 3: also participating in IBM Global Sales Schools and so on
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  Speaker 3: and so forth. So then I moved to Microsoft, another
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  Speaker 3: big corporation, having all the sales programs and leadership programs
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  Speaker 3: and mentorship and, you know, talents and so up and
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  Speaker 3: so down. So basically through the corporations. And I was
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  Speaker 3: a sociologist by education and pedagogue by education. So I
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  Speaker 3: was somehow always through the experience trying to combine knowledge,
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  Speaker 3: to transfer this knowledge, to educate, let's say, newcomers, new hires.
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  Speaker 3: I was also leading some program for social selling. So
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  Speaker 3: this teaching or transforming part was always in my DNA.
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  Speaker 3: So that's why business development as well.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, that's great. That's great. And so I like the
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  Speaker 2: fact that you were always in this kind of a role,
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  Speaker 2: a mindset of what kind of processes, what kind of
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  Speaker 2: support mechanisms, what kind of methodologies can you implement? And
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  Speaker 2: so I like that because as business developers, we're not
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  Speaker 2: just the doers, we're actually the folks that help implement
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the processes and improve those processes on
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  Speaker 2: the back end. That the buyer never really sees. And
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  Speaker 2: so I'm excited about getting into the book and let's
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  Speaker 2: talk about it, folks. And again, the new book from
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  Speaker 2: Petra is Buyer Sense Conversations. It's available on Amazon. Why
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  Speaker 2: don't you go over there while you're listening to us
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  Speaker 2: talk and grab yourself a copy. And Petra, why don't
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  Speaker 2: we start off with the number one top takeaway from
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  Speaker 2: your book? What's the first takeaway?
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  Speaker 3: So basically, I wrote this book for founders, right? Because
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  Speaker 3: they were never trained to sell, yeah? And while working
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  Speaker 3: with all those corporations, I was also on the buyer side.
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  Speaker 3: So after those IBM, I have to give a little
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  Speaker 3: bit of context, then I will go to the tactics.
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  Speaker 3: So basically, I moved from corporation to being an enterprise buyer,
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  Speaker 3: to take decision, being part of the board. So I
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  Speaker 3: saw how buying happened. And again, I aligned the structures
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  Speaker 3: and system, as you said previously, to what I knew
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  Speaker 3: from 18 years of selling, to how the buying actually happens.
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  Speaker 3: And then I had a lot of meetings with people
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  Speaker 3: who want to sell me something, also startup founders. And
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  Speaker 3: they were never trained to sell. They know their product
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  Speaker 3: because they're in love with it, but that's it. So listening,
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  Speaker 3: having those meetings, presenting me features and functions and not
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  Speaker 3: really taking care about how I will defend this solution,
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  Speaker 3: how I will implement this inside my organization, how they
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  Speaker 3: can help me shape stakeholder insight and this common sales
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  Speaker 3: knowledge that is there already. I was thinking, okay, how
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  Speaker 3: can I bring this knowledge to people who were never
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  Speaker 3: trained how to sell and they don't have opportunity to
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  Speaker 3: go to IBM Global Sales School or whatever experience to
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  Speaker 3: take 18 years. So that's why I wrote, let's say,
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  Speaker 3: the book for them when I was listening to them.
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  Speaker 3: So now I work for four years almost practically on that,
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  Speaker 3: how to help them make their business grow. And the first, actually,
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  Speaker 3: the first giveaway that is practical for them is actually
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  Speaker 3: don't map the pain. Yeah, we were always learning, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's a pain, give them the pill, you have to
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  Speaker 3: find the pain. Map the workflow. Yeah, this is the
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  Speaker 3: one thing because the pain is like you come to
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  Speaker 3: the doctor, you give them the pill for the pain,
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  Speaker 3: but the workflow behind the organization so political exposure or
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  Speaker 3: personal risk of the person it's somewhere there it stays
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  Speaker 3: so i said don't ask questions like or don't respond
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  Speaker 3: to the sentences like the process is too slow or
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  Speaker 3: we need automation that's true that's just the symptom yeah
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  Speaker 3: what is the system thinking behind that it's like all
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  Speaker 3: right if the process is too slow then Let's find
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  Speaker 3: out which three disconnect steps cause this delay. So let's
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  Speaker 3: go back and try to diagnose. Now, not only with
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  Speaker 3: the champion that you have in front of you, but
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  Speaker 3: also with the other stakeholders because they have pains too
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  Speaker 3: and they are interconnected because we read, you know, 17, 18,
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  Speaker 3: 1 to 18 stakeholders or decision maker will make a decision.
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  Speaker 3: One is not enough. So let's go and work through
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  Speaker 3: the workflow to map the system, not only this one symptom.
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  Speaker 3: So not just release the pain, but try to understand
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  Speaker 3: the workflow, the business behind, the stakeholders behind. Don't match
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  Speaker 3: features functions, but that's not enough. So the first actually
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  Speaker 3: tactic would be map the workflow, not the pain. And
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  Speaker 3: in the book, I also explain how. So with the questions,
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  Speaker 3: what triggers the process, where does the first breakdown occur?
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  Speaker 3: Let's say, what happens next? Tell me step by step,
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  Speaker 3: dear my customer. What happens downstream? Who will absorb the friction?
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  Speaker 3: What becomes unpredictable? So try to understand the process overall
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  Speaker 3: and connect the dots before.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I like this, Petra. I like what you're saying because, well,
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  Speaker 2: let's first back up. Some of the folks listening to
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  Speaker 2: this show, they're business developers and they're thinking, okay, this
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  Speaker 2: is a discussion about founders and how founders can do
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  Speaker 2: a better job of being successful in business development. And
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  Speaker 2: I'll say that a lot of founders came from business development.
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  Speaker 2: So if you're a business developer there right now, maybe
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  Speaker 2: you're in a large organization, someday you probably will become
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  Speaker 2: an entrepreneur. You will probably become a founder. And so
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  Speaker 2: what you learn in business development will apply, but there
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  Speaker 2: are slight differences when you actually become the founder. And
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  Speaker 2: the other thing too, is there may be business developers
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  Speaker 2: out there who are in a startup and they are,
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  Speaker 2: or they are just hired into a startup or an
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  Speaker 2: enterprise that was really founder-led growth. And so helping coach
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  Speaker 2: that founder to, first of all, understand that they have
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  Speaker 2: to be process-oriented and that process orientation needs to be
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  Speaker 2: founded in the problems. And so many folks say, start
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  Speaker 2: off with your ideal customer profile and then move on
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  Speaker 2: from there as kind of their first takeaway. But I
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  Speaker 2: like what you're saying is focus on the process. And
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  Speaker 2: now we should also add that this is in the
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  Speaker 2: context of complex B2B enterprise business development. This is not
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  Speaker 2: high volume, say software as a service where you're doing
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  Speaker 2: a lot of cold outbound calls. These are relationships, complex
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  Speaker 2: discussions where you're engaging with your prospects in thoughtful discussion
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  Speaker 2: and really trying to understand that buying committee, what's important
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  Speaker 2: to them, where their problems are in the process. And
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  Speaker 2: so I like where you're starting off with all of this, Petra.
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  Speaker 2: And folks, again, we're talking about Petra's new book. It's
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  Speaker 2: called Buyer Sense Conversations. Grab this copy for yourself on Amazon. Okay, Petra,
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  Speaker 2: let's move to the takeaway number two. We talked about
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  Speaker 2: process orientation with a focus on the problem. Where do
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  Speaker 2: we go to next?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the next that I also saw from the practice
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  Speaker 3: when I was a buyer and also now I'm working
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  Speaker 3: with different sellers, giving up new products in big enterprise
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  Speaker 3: organization as well, you know, because it's something new in
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  Speaker 3: the market. It's actually they would like to go with
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  Speaker 3: features and functions by default. Yeah, let's reveal the consequences
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  Speaker 3: without creating some pressure. So how can we, you know,
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  Speaker 3: talk about risk of doing nothing, the cost of doing nothing?
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  Speaker 3: What breaks next? Who absorbs the impact? When this happens,
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  Speaker 3: what breaks first? What becomes, let's say, harder or more
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  Speaker 3: expensive if you don't do nothing or if you continue
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  Speaker 3: to do so, or if you will bring the manual
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  Speaker 3: solution or some other, not ours, let's say, solution? Which
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  Speaker 3: business or leadership deadline does not, let's say, eventually will
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  Speaker 3: be affected by that? So there are different angles of
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  Speaker 3: questions not to be pushy. I know that we are
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  Speaker 3: in a global world, so cultural ideas and culture is
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  Speaker 3: really important. Maybe you can be more pushy on one
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  Speaker 3: part or one industry and less on the other. I
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  Speaker 3: saw this while working in the corporations. So that's why
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  Speaker 3: I always say, okay, feel the customer, but try not
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  Speaker 3: to be pushy because we are all offended. So reveal
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  Speaker 3: the consequence for them, the impact that they will have
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  Speaker 3: without creating that pressure. And then you will, as a
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  Speaker 3: business development manager, you will be actually released because people
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  Speaker 3: have a negative connotation and we are afraid to challenge
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  Speaker 3: or disturb the customer, how I call it, because we
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  Speaker 3: have this connotation. I don't want to be pushy. I
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  Speaker 3: don't want to be pushy. You don't need to be pushy.
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  Speaker 3: Just reveal the consequences. It's their business. You are helping
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  Speaker 3: them grow. So you are a good person.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I like this. And I often mention on this
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  Speaker 2: podcast kind of the concept that business developers, we're like lifeguards.
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  Speaker 2: We're not there running around the beach where people are
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  Speaker 2: calmly suntanning and enjoying their time on the beach with family.
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  Speaker 2: We are looking out on the horizon. We are looking
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  Speaker 2: out for people in distress and we swim out there
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  Speaker 2: and we save them. This is what we do.
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  Speaker 3: We're lifesavers.
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  Speaker 2: And so having that frame of mind, I really like
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  Speaker 2: what you're saying here, because in the initial takeaway, it's
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  Speaker 2: understanding the process, understanding where the pain is. But in
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  Speaker 2: key takeaway number two, it's really quantifying it, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and really coming to a sense of agreement with your buyer,
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  Speaker 2: with your prospects, sitting down with them and all the
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  Speaker 2: different members of the buying committee, the decision maker, the
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  Speaker 2: economic buyer, the champions, the influencers. and really understanding what
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  Speaker 2: does this mean? Well, let's take a step back. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: We took, you guys agreed that these are your problems,
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  Speaker 2: but it's costing you a million dollars a year. If
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  Speaker 2: you don't fix this, does everybody agree? It costs a
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  Speaker 2: million dollars.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody agrees. Okay. So, you know, now we've all come
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  Speaker 2: to an agreement on where the problems are and What
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  Speaker 2: does that mean for the organization? Now, it could be
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  Speaker 2: dollar value. It could be time lost. It could be
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: loss in quality, customer experience. All of these things, right, Petra,
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  Speaker 2: you're saying, let's just get those on the board and
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: come to a consensus on where these problems are, right?
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  Speaker 3: Exactly, exactly. And let's align them. Yeah, we need to
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  Speaker 3: align them.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, and that's a great point, too, is
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  Speaker 2: the alignment. Because oftentimes, the members of the buying committee say,
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  Speaker 2: are in their own silos. The decision maker may not
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  Speaker 2: see what the influencer sees. The influencer may not have
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  Speaker 2: visibility into what is in the mind of the decision maker.
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  Speaker 2: So I really like what you're saying here is bring
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  Speaker 2: them all to consensus. Get them on the same sheet
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  Speaker 2: of music. And folks, I've been in this situation before,
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  Speaker 2: and that is value add that you're providing to your prospects.
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  Speaker 2: You're essentially... providing free consulting to them. You know, there's
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: value there where they all, the light bulb comes on
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  Speaker 2: for all of them and they go, oh my goodness,
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  Speaker 2: we never discovered this problem before. We never actually sat
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  Speaker 2: around the table and realized this. Thank you, Petra, for
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  Speaker 2: coming to, you know, getting us to all understand that
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  Speaker 2: there's a problem here. They start to realize that you're
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  Speaker 2: delivering value to them just in the prospecting process, just
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: in the engagement process. They haven't even paid you for
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: anything yet, but you're actually delivering a lot of value, right?
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  Speaker 3: And that's why in the name of business development manager,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: it's not just developing the business you are selling. Business
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  Speaker 3: development can be also helping them develop the business. So
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  Speaker 3: it's a holistic name.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it is. I love that. Yeah, business development. There's
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  Speaker 2: a double entendre there, and I like how you identified that.
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  Speaker 2: So great. Okay, let's keep doing business development here, Petra,
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  Speaker 2: and let's move on. to the third key takeaway. And again, folks,
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about Petra's new book, Buyer Sense Conversations. All right, Petra,
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  Speaker 2: let's bring it home here on takeaway number three. What
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  Speaker 2: do you have?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have prepared the buyer for the meeting you
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  Speaker 3: will never attend. Meaning, yeah, your buyers in majority were
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: never trained to sell, right? So the CFO, the IT,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: the HR, I don't know to whom is your primary buyer.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: they were never trained to sell, but inside organization, my,
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  Speaker 3: my biggest, let's say reveal when, when I was a
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: buyer was when I had to sell to my CFO,
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  Speaker 3: a project that we will do in my, under, under
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  Speaker 3: my jurisdiction. Yeah. And after 18 years of selling, I thought,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: come on. And I was in, you know, I was
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: above him. He was reporting to me somehow because I
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: was a board. He was a director, but it's, I
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: didn't approach like that, but this is the logic behind.
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  Speaker 3: I still have to sell to him. That's the point
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  Speaker 3: I want folks to remember, yeah? To sell or to
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  Speaker 3: get them aligned with me. So I have to tell
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  Speaker 3: him in the way that he will be fine. There
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: must be something in it for him. That's why I
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: say this is the double sell. And our outside VDMs
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: needs to rethink that their champion will need to sell,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: however we call it, yeah? Justify it. their project. So
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: prepare this buyer for the meeting you will never attend
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  Speaker 3: because buyers give you, I don't know, I read somewhere
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  Speaker 3: 70% of their time or something like that. All the rest,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: they are firing, hiring, doing their business, having their other priorities.
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  Speaker 3: You are somewhere there, like it or not. So you
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  Speaker 3: better prepare them to take this as their own. Know
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: what means to take them from point A to point B.
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  Speaker 3: What consequences these have for the full surround and to
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: be able to align them. So the tactic number three
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  Speaker 3: is prepare the buyer for the meeting. You will never attend. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. So this is great because we've rarely talked about
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: this tactic or takeaway on the podcast and it's so
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: critical and it's about enabling your champions to do the
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: selling for you really. And the internal discussions, So that
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: they can really be effective champions for you as a
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: fellow business developer, somebody that advocates for you. And again,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I've said this many times on the show, folks, the
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: textbook definition of business development is customer and community advocacy
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: that creates corporate growth. And that's a double entendre. The
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: obvious meaning of that definition is we do business development
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  Speaker 2: in the community and We convert those prospects into customers.
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  Speaker 2: The flip side of that is that when you deliver
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: great value to your prospects and your customers, they become
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  Speaker 2: advocates for you. And when they do that, they're essentially
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  Speaker 2: selling and they're telling their friends, they're telling their colleagues
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: at work. And so this is great, Petra, because it's
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: a perfect example of that double entendre is enabling those
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: champions to be advocates for you. Can you just, we
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: have a few more minutes left. Can you just tell
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: folks a little bit about how do you actually enable
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: those champions to be strong advocates for you inside those
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  Speaker 2: discussions that you're never present at?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, actually, there is a methodology or how we call
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: it steps that are connected to somehow emotional states that
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: we see buyers going through because we have fear of
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: failure as a buyer. Some stuff are going on as
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: a person because we are all human beings. So there
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: are seven steps process. First, of course, you orient when
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: you do the prospecting. Then you decode this problem with them.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: So you come to the same understanding of the business
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: from his side and your side. Then you start disturbing
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: or maybe, you know, you heard the word challenge yourself,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: challenging them. Just disturbing is a little bit softer. And
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: it's on the third step because I don't want to
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: be pushy and it's a little bit more psychological. So
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: it's this disturbing attitude. Do you think it's this happening
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: to you as well? We see this around, we saw
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: this and this and this impact and so on. So
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: you disturb to move them, to move them to innovate.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: And then you have the reframe. So we align and
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: we will go. And now we are at the stage
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: that we need to align all the others. Of course,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: it's good that this happening side by side, not separate,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: only with one champion. But it has to be through
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: each step with each of the champion that you have
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: or each of the persona, each of the stakeholders, however
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: we want to call it. So once we reframe what
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: we are solving, actually, for this workflow, for this system,
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: not just symptoms, we now go and align our people.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: So aligning them in personal meeting, face-to-face, of course, always
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: the best. Online with video, second best. You know, answering
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: while demoing, trialing, showing super great, spending time with each
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: of them separately, connecting, reading what other people are doing.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: And of course we can do this with AI. We
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: can check what Claude, Chad, GPT, Gemini, I don't know,
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: whoever is telling us about their business. So there are
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: so many signals that you can get and prepare yourself
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: before walking into the company or before having information. Also,
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: one important thing to prepare is what they know about
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: you already, you and your organization and your product. Even
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: though you may not agree what they found on Reddit
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: or what ChatGPT will tell them, you will be at
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: least able to handle those objections properly. So do that
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: because now buyers are even more knowledgeable. So you have
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: to do this prep as well. And once you align
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: all those stakeholders, together, so you see what pain has
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: a CFO, what pain has, let's say, the IT director,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: the controlling, the HR, depends who needs to decide, in
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: their own words, then you have to mobilize them and
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: move them so the deal will close, the project will
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: start and end, that they will see consequences because this is,
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: you know, the change, the transformation, if you want to
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: call it. And even though we come to the closing
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: of the businesses in the consumption economy, they need to
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: consume still. In SaaS business, even more. So you have
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: to be present there as well. So I would start
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: with Orient and Decode and then Disturb. Reframe everything together.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Align them with different signals we have available. Depends on
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: the business you are. And then make them prioritize why now,
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: not somewhere else. you know, somewhere in the future and
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: mobilize them to do and show the value all the time.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: That's it. In short.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. That's great. So again, folks, those seven
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: buyer sense stages are orient, decode, disturb, reframe, align, prioritize,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: and mobilize. And you may be thinking, wow, okay, that's
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: so much. I need to learn more about each one
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: of these. Well, if you do, then go to Amazon,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: get yourself a copy of Buyer Sense Conversations. And Petra,
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to summarize the top three takeaways we
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: talked about today. The first takeaway was map the workflow,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: not the pain. All right, you'll understand how the decisions
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: are being made, what's going on inside that business. That
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: eventually does cause the pain, but that's where we move
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: into key takeaway number two, which is, revealing the consequences
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: without kind of being pushy and creating that pressure that
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: people really just don't feel strongly about on both sides
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: of the table. But when you bring them to consensus
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: on the consequences, that delivers so much value to them.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: And it also gets them all in the same understanding,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: that same frame of mind. And then finally, Preparing that
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: buyer for the meeting you'll never attend. It's working with
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: your champions, enabling them to understand their problems and how
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: they can best advocate for you, the seller. Petra, did
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: I miss anything?
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: No, you are perfect.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, Petra, you are perfect today. I'm sure
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: everybody's going to want to grab a copy of the book,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: but how can they connect with you, follow your work,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: and access other services and capabilities that you have?
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the best thing is to connect on LinkedIn. Yeah,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: I'm almost daily there. And everything other is from the
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: LinkedIn there on. There are different. I have a hub
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: of the Academy for Buyer Sense. I have some do-it-yourself
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: stuff as well. But you will find everything on LinkedIn.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: You can write me a DM and I will make
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: sure to respond in the normal time. And yeah, that's it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: So I'm looking forward to see you, to get some
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: reviews on the book and to get some reviews from
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: the field, you know, because being on the field is
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: emotional for me. And I want all the BDMs to
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: enjoy being on the field and helping their customers grow.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, folks, find Petra Wagner on LinkedIn. She has great
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: content that she's posting. And if you want a copy
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: of her book, it's available on Amazon. And Petra, thank
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: you so much for everything you do for the business
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: development profession and particularly entrepreneurs out there that are just
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: trying to figure this out on their own and trying
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: to do business development the best they can so they
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: can succeed. So thank you for all those contributions that
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: you give to our business development profession.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: Welcome. I'm happy to. Thank you for having me again.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: our free community of corporate partners and business development professionals
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: advancing the art, science and ethics of the business development
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: profession at gbdassociation.org.