Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 90: BD Book...Top 3 Tactics from Alison Mullins' new book, “Beyond Order Makers”

Transcript

Episode 90: BD Book...Top 3 Tactics from Alison Mullins' new book, “Beyond Order Makers” · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? And Boy, I'll
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: tell you, wouldn't it be great if you had a
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: way to really boost your sales? I mean, what if
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: business development wasn't about chasing leads? What if it was
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: about attracting the right clients? What if you could transform
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: your BD strategy from reactive to proactive and make intentional
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: engagements that align your brand with your audience. Well, we
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: have a fantastic guest today to talk about that. But
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: before we jump into it, why don't you grab yourself
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: a copy of the Business Development Body of Knowledge. And
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: that body of Knowledge is what we use to enable
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: business developers to become Business Development Professionals certified through the
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Global Business Development Association, And grab your copy of the
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: book and be able to take the exam, the BDP
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Certification Exam And one other thing. If you're listening to
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: this podcast, give us a like, give us a review
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: on the podcast socials. I'd love to get that it
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: enables us to allocate resources to bring more great shows
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: to you and more great books and book authors like
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: we're going to do today. Today we're talking about this
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: new book Beyond Order Makers, and it's how target marketing,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: branding and business development can enable entrepreneurs for success. And
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  Speaker 2: it's written by our guest today, Alison Mullins. Now, let
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: me tell you a little bit more about the book.
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  Speaker 2: It helps you learn how to shift from reactive selling
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  Speaker 2: tactics to proactive and creating genuine connections and increasing sales,
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  Speaker 2: and includes secrets to crafting a killer brand strategy, the
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  Speaker 2: foundation of sales and manifestation selling. Now this sounds really interesting,
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  Speaker 2: a powerful new perspective on setting sales goals to create
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  Speaker 2: an infallible pipeline. And finally, it talks about the role
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  Speaker 2: of the human element and selling. And we have a
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: wonderful human here joining us today, Alison Mullens, the author
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  Speaker 2: of the book. She's a seasoned sales marketing and business
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  Speaker 2: development professional specializing in the natural stone and surfaces industry,
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  Speaker 2: with deep expertise across trend analysis, sales strategy management, product
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  Speaker 2: development and brand positioning. Alison Mullins, Welcome to the show.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Tony, you give their best introductions.
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  Speaker 4: That's a naze.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Allison. It's easy to give great introductions
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  Speaker 2: when we have such fantastic authors like yourself. You're a
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  Speaker 2: practitioner and a scholar in business development. You've been doing
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  Speaker 2: this for a while and so I'm really excited about
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  Speaker 2: jumping into the details of the book. But first if
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: you could share some details about your origin story. How
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: did you get into business development and why did you
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: write the book.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, my origin story really started out in
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  Speaker 3: sales and also with a passion for marketing. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: I have a degree in market a degree in marketing
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  Speaker 3: from Radford University and fashion merchandising, and you know, I'm
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: one of those people that is really trial by fire,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: so you know, I'm certainly not the best planner in
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  Speaker 3: the world, but through my work experiences over the years,
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  Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen, I got an opportunity to go work
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: for a large company in Verona, Italy. That really changed
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  Speaker 3: the trajectory of outside selling for me and what it
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  Speaker 3: means to.
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  Speaker 4: Be in business development.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't know I was getting really into business development
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  Speaker 3: at the time, but what I realized very quickly after
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  Speaker 3: working in that contract for a while, said I was
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  Speaker 3: so much more than just a salesperson because there really
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  Speaker 3: were no transactions happening in that position. I was considered
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  Speaker 3: a marketing consultant, and everything that we did was developing
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  Speaker 3: the business throughout my territory was the entire eastern part
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  Speaker 3: of North America, and even helping to grow and train
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  Speaker 3: some people in Mexico. So the adventure that I like
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  Speaker 3: to call it of business development just sort of evolved
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  Speaker 3: from taking jobs, working jobs, working as hard as I could,
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  Speaker 3: realizing the deep connection between sales and marketing and how
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  Speaker 3: much branding takes a huge play in how we sell.
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  Speaker 3: And then honestly, the boots on the ground experience of
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  Speaker 3: tracking customers, finding people, organizing data, analyzing data, you know,
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  Speaker 3: executing meeting requests in person, selling techniques, co opting, and
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  Speaker 3: brand advertising.
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  Speaker 4: You know, all of that came from literally boots on
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  Speaker 4: the ground experience.
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  Speaker 3: And so I couldn't wait to try to help people
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  Speaker 3: who are like me entrepreneurs and want to kind of
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  Speaker 3: branch out and maybe start something of their own and
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  Speaker 3: get started. And I feel like I got all the
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  Speaker 3: tools from simple experience.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that sounds like the common pathway for a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people who are in business development these days.
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  Speaker 2: They just kind of figured out a way to get
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  Speaker 2: into it, whether it was through marketing sales. Your pathway,
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  Speaker 2: I think is unique, and so many different business developers
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  Speaker 2: have unique backgrounds, and it's interesting to see that now
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  Speaker 2: we're finally getting to a place with folks like yourself
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  Speaker 2: and other thought leaders really pulling together knowledge and things
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  Speaker 2: like your book Beyond Order Makers that really enable business
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  Speaker 2: developers to learn the deep tactics to be able to
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  Speaker 2: succeed in our profession. And I always tell people, look,
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  Speaker 2: you can you can read the business development body of
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  Speaker 2: knowledge that will give you competency. But that three hundred
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  Speaker 2: page book when I wrote it could have been six
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  Speaker 2: hundred pages if I include all the deep tactics that
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  Speaker 2: you need to succeed in BD. So let's let's talk
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: tactics here. Let's jump into your book. And I know
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  Speaker 2: it's divided into three primary sections, so this might stack
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  Speaker 2: nicely for our talk about the different tactics today. But
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  Speaker 2: what's the tactic number one that you'd like to talk about?
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  Speaker 3: So tactic number one is to map your customer and
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  Speaker 3: map your market.
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  Speaker 4: So I'm a firm believer in mind mapping.
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  Speaker 3: That's going to be a solid trend that you'll hear
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  Speaker 3: me repeat kind of over and over again. I'm a
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  Speaker 3: visual learner, I'm a visual analyst, and I need visual
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  Speaker 3: mediums in order to see my path and I think
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  Speaker 3: that most of your audience might align with that perspective.
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  Speaker 3: So mapping, my mapping is one of the things that
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  Speaker 3: I started with my first book, and then in this book,
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  Speaker 3: I really took it to a whole other level of
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  Speaker 3: how a young entrepreneur could truly map out exactly how
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  Speaker 3: they're going to sell this service, this product, this invention,
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  Speaker 3: this tactic that they have decided to come to market with.
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  Speaker 3: So first and foremost, I have to give credit where
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: credit is due. I also had a coach early on
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  Speaker 3: starting the REP Methods business who.
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  Speaker 4: Took me down.
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  Speaker 3: Another level of language in marketing. And I want to
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  Speaker 3: say Katie White. She owns a company called Strong Brand Social.
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  Speaker 3: And I always give credit because some of the tactics
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: and I give credit in the book about the finding
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  Speaker 3: your target persona and establishing your UVP, those were not
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  Speaker 3: things that I learned with my marketing degree in college.
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  Speaker 4: These were things that that were not discussed.
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  Speaker 3: Social media was not around when I was in college,
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  Speaker 3: and analyzing from a social perspective in marketing really came
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  Speaker 3: from me having a coach and someone helping to direct it.
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  Speaker 4: And then it was like the light bulb came.
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  Speaker 3: On for me because that completely aligned with the octopus
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  Speaker 3: diagrams and the items that I was already doing when
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: it comes to finding customers and building a sales portfolio
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  Speaker 3: and helping.
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  Speaker 4: To establish that pipeline.
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  Speaker 3: So the short answer is define as deeply and as
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  Speaker 3: amicably as possible to the deepest psychographic level, not just demographics,
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  Speaker 3: but psychographic level of that who is your customer, What
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  Speaker 3: did you create this product for?
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  Speaker 4: What service are you offering?
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  Speaker 3: And when I say Katie taught me to get down,
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  Speaker 3: I'm talking about where do they eat dinner on Friday nights?
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  Speaker 3: Do they go to some kind of an organized religion
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  Speaker 3: on the weekends, Where do they spend their quality time?
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  Speaker 4: Do they have a family.
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  Speaker 3: It's that technique of actually the definition of one persona not.
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  Speaker 4: A category, This is not a group.
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  Speaker 3: But finding that one persona is a huge element in
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  Speaker 3: truly creating a vision on how you're going to sell
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  Speaker 3: and market your business.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I really like that one, and let's just
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  Speaker 2: deep dive it just a little bit here. I'm curious
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  Speaker 2: to know what you mean by octopus diagrams.
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  Speaker 4: But you know.
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  Speaker 2: I do this as well. I think this is extremely
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  Speaker 2: profound and it demands I think a lot of empathy
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  Speaker 2: to Ryle. Really try and put yourself in your prospects shoes,
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  Speaker 2: your ideal customer profile personas shoes. And I assume when
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  Speaker 2: you're talking about that persona, you're really thinking about the
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  Speaker 2: decision maker, right like, because some people are in consumer
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  Speaker 2: you know, low intent threshold product areas, summer in high
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  Speaker 2: intent threshold areas. High intent threshold means they need a
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  Speaker 2: lot of trust because it's a complex suit, so solution,
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  Speaker 2: it's a complex product, it's perhaps probably pretty risky, so
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  Speaker 2: they need a high degree of trust before they make
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  Speaker 2: a purchase. But I think what you're saying is identify
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  Speaker 2: your decision maker and really put yourself in their shoes, right.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, you know, putting yourself in the shoes envision,
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  Speaker 3: get involved with who that customer is and what they
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  Speaker 3: do for a living, and it is a primary decision maker.
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  Speaker 3: It's also just really what I call the singular perfect client.
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  Speaker 3: So if you have a process, if you have a
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  Speaker 3: multi purpose sales tactic, you know, many different devices within
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  Speaker 3: your business and how you actually achieve revenue. So picturing
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  Speaker 3: how does that target persona walk through the sales process
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  Speaker 3: with you. How are they going to buy your product
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  Speaker 3: and services? Is it multiple things? Is it a one
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  Speaker 3: time transaction? You have to kind of envision the perfect
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  Speaker 3: consumer that's going to eat up everything that you have
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  Speaker 3: to offer, and in my case, you know, it's a
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  Speaker 3: multiple purchase process over the course of a year or
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  Speaker 3: two years or three years, it's a lifelong customer. So
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  Speaker 3: really walking that line and finding all the details about
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  Speaker 3: that person because.
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  Speaker 4: Those details matter.
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  Speaker 3: They really help you map where are you going to
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  Speaker 3: be spending your marketing dollars.
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  Speaker 4: You know, where are you going to.
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  Speaker 3: Be placing visual aids so that they see you, so
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  Speaker 3: that they hear you, so that they find your business.
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  Speaker 3: You know, how do you craft your sales pitch, which
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: is the next part a big technic number too, But
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  Speaker 3: so deep diving into that customer is the beginning of everything.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love this deep diving and mapping your ideal
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  Speaker 2: customer persona so critical and I really like what you said, Allison,
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  Speaker 2: because so many people just stop at well, we'll figure
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  Speaker 2: out where they read their content, we'll figure out where
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  Speaker 2: they go to dinner. Right, But they don't think. So
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  Speaker 2: many people don't think like business developers. And you're talking
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: just like a business developer. You're playing through the entire
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  Speaker 2: customer journey, not just going up through prospecting in the
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  Speaker 2: conversion phase, you're going through. Okay, So, once I have
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: that relationship with them, what do they really love for me?
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  Speaker 2: And what will they need? And then what will compel
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: them to buy more from me? And giving credit to
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: one of our guests that we've had on the show
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: a couple of times, Andrew Z. Brown, is will they
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: give you ideal referrals to other ideally?
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  Speaker 3: Right?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is folks, business development. Here's the textbook definition.
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  Speaker 2: It's customer and community advocacy that creates corporate growth. We
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  Speaker 2: advocate for them. We have the empathy to understand everything
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  Speaker 2: about them. You know what they need, what they want,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: where they eat dinner, and in turn, they will advocate
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  Speaker 2: for us and give us the referrals that lead to
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  Speaker 2: exponential growth. So wow, so exciting, Allison, I can't wait
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  Speaker 2: to jump into tactic number two here.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so tactic number two for me is teaching about
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  Speaker 3: crafting the right message. Practicing the sales pitch is a
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  Speaker 3: topic that I went down deeply in my first book,
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  Speaker 3: and in the second book when it comes to entrepreneurship,
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  Speaker 3: it talks a lot more and deep diving into the
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  Speaker 3: art of storytelling. So I don't believe in sales pitches
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  Speaker 3: that are dry and simply about the highlights of a
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  Speaker 3: product or a service I identify and I try to
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  Speaker 3: teach people who follow my path about the art of
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  Speaker 3: storytelling and how really the relatability between that consumer purchase
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  Speaker 3: and or service purchase or long term customer retention policy
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  Speaker 3: is going to be based on the aligning of some
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  Speaker 3: kind of a story of a passion of hitting someone
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  Speaker 3: in their mindset and so mapping your message, taking some
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  Speaker 3: time to really craft, not only through some of the
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: diagramming techniques, but once you have that target persona, you
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: can then begin to identify networking groups, co opting opportunities
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  Speaker 3: with other businesses, the marketing dollars and the advertising spend,
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  Speaker 3: and then at that point you can create the messages
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  Speaker 3: and really streamline you know, what is my value proposition.
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  Speaker 3: What is it that I'm offering to this different group
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  Speaker 3: person consumer level?
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, I love the power of stories. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: mean craft. It's not a pitch, it's a story. You're
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  Speaker 2: telling a story. And we've talked about this a number
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  Speaker 2: of times. It's in the business development body of knowledge.
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  Speaker 2: Is a fundamental skill for all business developers. It's storytelling.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: Somebody asked me the other day, what do you think
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: is going to happen with AI and what will humans
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  Speaker 2: be when it does? Everything humans will do? And I said,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: we'll end up doing what we've done for millennia. We
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: will be sitting around a campfire and what we've been
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: telling stories, covering each other's back.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: I trust storytelling. This is how we learn. Humans love storytelling.
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  Speaker 2: I mean there's tremendous science, neuroscience in this, you know
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  Speaker 2: where storytelling is fundamental to human learning. It triggers neurochemicals
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  Speaker 2: that boost recall, that boost excitement. Uh and and we're
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: telling stories about what their journey can look like. But
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: we're also telling stories about what others have achieved. And
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: we call those use cases. But if you do the
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: use cases correctly, you're you're telling a story, right, Allison.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, case studies are incredibly important because if I feel
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  Speaker 3: like whenever I speak in front of an audience and
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: I use my case studies in that particular element of teaching,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: you know, whatever message I'm trying to convey at the time,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: that's when the light bulb comes on for everybody in
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: the audience because once they actually can apply and see
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: the practical principles that you're that you're you know, trying
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: to sell them on through the eyes of an actual use,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: I feel like the relatability is just magnified at that point.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: And they also wanted to throw in that storytelling and
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: mapping your message.
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  Speaker 4: It's not just about words.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: It's also about colors, logos, icons, It's about those visual
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: elements that really tie your brand to your message. And
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: I feel like, again, if this is step two in
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: your BB process, it perfectly aligns with what you've already
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: achieved through tactic number one. Yeah.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Well, and you know you talk about things that sometimes
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: business developers find a little bit you know, it's come on,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: why do I always have to follow the brand guidelines?
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: You know, use these colors, use this logo? Can't I
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: just grab it off of the website and use it. No,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: you can't, because, as you just said, Alison, those are
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: fundamental to creating the entire story. Imagine your favorite story
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: book and each time it's different characters and different colors
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: and everything else. You just you won't remember it, right,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: You won't remember.
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  Speaker 3: It absolutely, absolutely, So it's really about creating that lifelong
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: and memorable process and keeps you aligned, It keeps you
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: getting those referrals. It's what is going to stick in
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: the customer's brain for the longest amount of time.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and when you're aligning the pitch, your unique value
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  Speaker 2: proposition with the story, how do you how do you
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: actually do that? Are you? Are you crafting the UVP
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: first and then the story? How do you how are
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: you doing that?
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: That's a really great question because I talk about that
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: in section one of the book. Honestly, it's a it's
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: a bounce back and Katie, Katie's team taught me that
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: that you really have to work on one and then
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: you got a bounce to the other and then you
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: might uncover some nuances that maybe you didn't see before.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: Then you can go back and bounce.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: So it's really a play, a very careful dance between
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: the two items, and it takes a while, I offer,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: you know, to write business development strategies and brand strategies
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: for people through through another business model, and you know,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: I often tell people that it can take up to
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: six months to really do this process correctly because you
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: have to also chalk in some competitive analysis of what
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: else is in the marketplace. So, as a true BB person,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: that isn't something that is going to be I don't
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: think you're going to have the right answer in five minutes.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: You know, you have to plan to craft this, to
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: work on it, and to also do a lot of
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: analytical assessment of what exists in the marketplace, especially that
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: competitive advantage. Super important to take those things into perspective
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: before you say, okay, hands off, I've at this answer
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: now and you can roll with it for probably one
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: to two years. You know, the way that business evolves,
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: people evolves. I mean you mentioned AI. That's a great
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: example of like, oh my gosh, like five years ago,
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: AI was not something that I was even thinking about
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: incorporating into some of my BB strategies, right, you know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: so as the people and the human race is evolving
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: very quickly, a good brand strategy theoretically should last you
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: two to five years, but honestly it depends on that
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: product or the service. Because we seem to be a
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: very fast moving society.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah we are. And you know, I like what you
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: said about it's evolutionary and you're taking in other factors
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: that often people don't consider, which is competitive intelligence. And
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: who better than for business developers who are talking to
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: prospects every day, telling the story every day, you can
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: give feedback the marketing team to say, hey, look that
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: story's not resonating anymore. That's right, people are tired of it,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: or it's not different. It's not different than what others
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: are telling. So really exciting stuff, Allison, Okay, let's roll
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: right into number three.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Sure, so number three really has to do with more
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: on the sales process. So I'm sticking with the mapping
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: trend and I'm saying that my tactic number three is
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: to find and map your sales process. So if you're
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: NBD or you're an entrepreneur listener who's just trying to
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: get some great ideas, if you want to start a business,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: you've got to have an understanding of what all of
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: this information is then going to translate to an adequate
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: sales process. And that starts from the lead generation, you know,
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: from the marketing from like the early stages where you're
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: trying to attract, and all the way through the pillars
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: of the closing of the sale, the retention referrals, and
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: even through the problem solve it.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: I like that. I like that. And so you're talking
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: about mapping out the entire prospect journey from awareness when
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: marketing catches their attention, and you know, through the activation
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: phase where we typically call that prospecting phase where business
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: developers are starting to engage and communicate with the prospectors,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: to the sales conversion phase where typically a sales team
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: gets involved with the business developers and you convert them
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: into a client. So you're talking about mapping out that
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: entire prospect journey, right, yes.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: And I like to.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Also talk about like a customer decision tree. That's a
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: very helpful mind mapping tool to kind of get you
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: started in the frame of reference that I'm referring to.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: So a customers decision tree, you've mapped out who that
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: customer is, You've mapped up how you're going to talk
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: to that customer, how you're going to reach that customer
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: where you're going to align with that customer. But then
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: you've also got to decide, well, well, what is it
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: going to look like when I finally either have somebody
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: on the hook and they're considering purchasing for me. You know,
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: if the answer is yes, what do I do? Then
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: if the answer is no, where do I go from here?
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: This is going to help a true be the professional
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: a line. You know, their follow up process, their rebuttal process.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: Their.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Transactional process, they're billing procedures.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Mapping out the sales process is like for MENA the
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: gateway into truly activating and rolling.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: You know, that's when I call it, like, you're ready
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: to roll, You're ready.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: To spend the time, map your time and you know,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: to be honest, I talk a lot about time management
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: in all of my books.
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: And if you don't have.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Some of these clues and some of this decision decisiveness
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: mapped out in advance, and you're gonna get lost, Right,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: We're gonna get lost in the day to day and
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: the week to the week, and so time management elements
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: are something that's going to come in and this is
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: going to help you have a clear perspective of where
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: you should be spending your time and making sure that
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: you're spending some of that time in sales, because I
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: hate to tell you this, but that is one of
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: the many, many mistakes that I see between most both
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: salespeople who are in that reactive cycle and also business owners. Right,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: you've got this amazing product, but there's so much more
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: to owning a business, and you have to actually carve
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: out time for prospecting, for lead generation, for keeping that
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: pipeline rolling.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you definitely do. And I really like what you
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: said about mapping out those next best actions, the decision
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: tree you talk about, so that you can you can
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: help guide your prospects through the journey. Some times they
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: say fortune is in the follow ups, and you know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: some follow ups are just well lame, right, it's well, well,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: we'll follow up with you in two weeks. Why why
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: why are you following up with me in two weeks?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: As opposed to exactly what's the ask is? You know?
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: And I always like to say, Okay, well here's what
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: we're going to do, here's what I recommend we do next. Okay,
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: we're going to do X, y Z, and well we're
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: going to come back, I need a decision or I
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: need further information from you in two weeks, and this
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: is exactly and then after that the next step. And
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: here's the reason why we're taking those next steps steps
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: and that's and this is why it will be beneficial
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: to you. Wow, Allison, there is so much packed into
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: your book. I can I can talk hours with you
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: about this. This is and I really like how you
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: laid it out into three key components. And just to
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: summarize for folks listening here, the key number one tactic
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: or takeaway from Alison's book is map out your ideal
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: customer persona. Understand everything about them. Be very empathetic about
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: what they need, what they want, what they do, where
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: they live, where they think, what they where they eat,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: even really put yourself in their shoes to understand them.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Be as empathetic as possible. Tactic number two is, you know,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: map out that not the pitch, but the story. Map
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: out the stories that you will tell, because someday they
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: will become a story that you can tell other prospects. Hey,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: let me tell you this story about how I helped
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: one of your competitors do x y Z.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: That's interesting. I remember that story. I want to be
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: the hero of that story. Great, and you know what,
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: I will walk you through that story in tactic number two,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: which is map out your prospect's journey next best actions
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: every step along the way, so that you can be
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: proactive as opposed to reactive. Map map map Tactic number one,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Tactic number two, tactic number three. Hey, those listening. If
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: you want to map out a way to improve your
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: business development game, then check out Allison's book. It's Beyond
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Order Makers. It's available on Amazon. Let's see right now,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: it's on Kindle for nine ninety five. You can get
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: it on paperback and hardcover. Grab yourself a copy there.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: And Alison, how can folks follow your work and connect
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: with you?
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: Thank you?
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: And I also just want to mention there's an index,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: which is like the best part of the book.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: I love it. I love an index.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: Index.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Where did those go?
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: I just didn't have the time or the discipline to
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: put an index in the BD box, So heads off
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: to you for doing that.
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: Yes, anyway you can find me.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: I have a website, REP methods, r ep M, E,
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: t hods, and that's where you can find a lot
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: of information, books, anything that I'm doing in the community,
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: and I'm also on most social media channels Instagram, Facebook primarily.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: I do not participate in TikTok unfortunately, but it's at
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: rep Methods, So I'll see you on the inside and
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: please feel free to reach out to me at anytime.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Well, Allison Mullins, thank you so much for everything you
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: do for the business development profession and sharing your incredible
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: insights with us today.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Tony, Thank you for listening to the Business
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Development Podcast. Join our free community of corporate partners and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: business development professionals advancing the art, science, and ethics of
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the business development profession at Gbdassociation dot org.