Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 151: “Define Value, Drive Growth” with John Ravaris

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Episode 151: “Define Value, Drive Growth” with John Ravaris · 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.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Hello, BD pros, and welcome to the BD Podcast, the
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: official podcast of the Global Business Development Association. And folks,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: wouldn't you like to have a proven roadmap to differentiate
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: your business, delight your clients, and achieve industry-leading growth? Well,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: we're going to talk about that today with our guest author,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: John Rivera, and his new book. But before we get
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: into John's book, let's talk about the Business Development Body
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: of Knowledge. This is the official Universal Guide from the
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Global Business Development Association walks you through the entire customer
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: journey and your role as a business developer in each phase.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: And this helps you boost your career in business development.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: And then when you're done reading the book, you can
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: go to the GBDA website at gbdassociation.org and find out
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: how you can get your business development professional certification. Okay, well,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: today we're going to talk with our guest and his
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  Speaker 2: new book. It's called Define Value and Drive Growth. Now,
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  Speaker 2: for more than 35 years, John's helped businesses grow by
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  Speaker 2: defining the value that truly sets them apart. His mission
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  Speaker 2: is to help organizations stop blending in and start winning
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  Speaker 2: through differentiation, client value, and intentional growth. Now, this book
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  Speaker 2: is packed with a lot of great guidance, and it's
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  Speaker 2: based on decades of hands-on experience, and it features real-world
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  Speaker 2: examples of organizations implementing what John calls the 4D roadmap.
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  Speaker 2: This book delivers the framework, insight, and tools you need
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  Speaker 2: to do things like uncovering what truly differentiate your business
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  Speaker 2: and turns that insight into meaningful relevance for for your clients.
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  Speaker 3: So with no further ado, let's welcome John to the show. John, welcome.
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  Speaker 4: Hey, Tony, how are you? Super fired up to be here.
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  Speaker 4: Nothing better than to spend a little time talking to
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  Speaker 4: business development professionals who are trying to always improve our skills.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's great to have you on the show, John,
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  Speaker 2: and talk to us a little bit about how did
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  Speaker 2: you get into the business development profession and why did
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  Speaker 2: you write the book?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. It's funny. When you look back at your career,
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  Speaker 4: how did you end up where you ended up? So
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  Speaker 4: I was a marketing major in college. Always loved the
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  Speaker 4: thoughts and process around understanding clients and understanding buying behaviors.
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  Speaker 4: And as I went through my business studies, I just
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  Speaker 4: kind of kept coming back to wanting to be close
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  Speaker 4: to the client. And What really kind of set me
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  Speaker 4: in the direction of business development was I've been a
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  Speaker 4: lifelong curiosity guy. I've always had this curiosity around people
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  Speaker 4: from a genuine perspective is I want to know Tony Gray.
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  Speaker 4: I want to know what Tony's trying to accomplish. I
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  Speaker 4: want to know what makes Tony click. And I want
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  Speaker 4: to know. when you have a goal or a client
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  Speaker 4: has a goal that they're trying to accomplish, how the
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  Speaker 4: product or service that I was selling helped them achieve
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  Speaker 4: those goals. So really my entry was a general curiosity
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  Speaker 4: about clients and then kind of having a little bit
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  Speaker 4: of an outgoing personality and curiosity around trying to solve needs,
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  Speaker 4: solve problems for clients ended up being the two things that,
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  Speaker 4: as you know, make us salespeople. people successful, curiosity and solutions.
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  Speaker 4: And they just happened to be in my wheelhouse. And
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  Speaker 4: ever since, that's where I've spent my career and had
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  Speaker 4: a great, great career in, call it marketing and sales.
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  Speaker 4: The book came out of that passion, really, Tony. There's
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  Speaker 4: a Greek proverb I love. It says, society grows great
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  Speaker 4: when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
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  Speaker 4: will never sit in. And through my whole career, I
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  Speaker 4: have had this thing where my first sales job, if
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  Speaker 4: you can imagine, was the sales job from Utopia. I
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  Speaker 4: worked for an organization that had very well-defined unique value propositions.
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  Speaker 4: They had amazing training around sales and sales execution. And
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  Speaker 4: then they actually said, if you bring this value proposition
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  Speaker 4: and you match it with that sales training we gave you,
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  Speaker 4: and you bring it to a client that looks like
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  Speaker 4: this healthcare, for example, and you ask these probing questions,
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  Speaker 4: and then you connect the answers to those probing questions
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  Speaker 4: to our unique value proposition, you'll be successful. And lo
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  Speaker 4: and behold, I was super successful. Ironically, For the 35
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  Speaker 4: years after that, after that first role, every place I
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  Speaker 4: went to didn't have that beautiful utopia toolkit for me
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  Speaker 4: to sell. And I just got really good at building
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  Speaker 4: it because I knew the success that I could have
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  Speaker 4: at doing that. The book is an outcome of that.
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  Speaker 4: The book is really the utopia of you had all
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  Speaker 4: the pieces together of what makes you different as a business,
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  Speaker 4: different as a seller. if you have your unique value
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  Speaker 4: propositions well articulated and know how those help your clients
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  Speaker 4: be successful, and then you go out and you articulate
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  Speaker 4: and communicate it this way, you'll be super successful. So
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  Speaker 4: the book is a culmination of all that and I
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  Speaker 4: love the question because I've never kind of put it
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  Speaker 4: all together like that from career to passion to book
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  Speaker 4: to next generation, leaving legacy to the next level of sellers.
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  Speaker 4: But having it all together sounds pretty cool.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I love it.
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  Speaker 2: And it does sound cool because your intentions are right
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  Speaker 2: in line with what really drives, in my experience, great
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  Speaker 2: business developers.
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  Speaker 3: It's that curiosity.
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  Speaker 2: And most importantly, it's that desire to help people. And
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  Speaker 2: so I really like that about your background.
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  Speaker 3: And the Greek proverb.
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  Speaker 2: Is especially touching, particularly for folks like us who have
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  Speaker 2: written books, trying to contribute to the world and our
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  Speaker 2: community and our profession. I really appreciate that. I always
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  Speaker 2: like to say that a genius only lives once, a
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  Speaker 2: teacher lives forever. And so it's exciting to have you
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  Speaker 2: on the show and I can't wait for you to
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  Speaker 2: tell us a some, some interesting lessons that you've, you've
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  Speaker 2: presented in your book.
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  Speaker 4: So let's say one thing. Cause I, what, something you
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  Speaker 4: said is really important to me and I know it's
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  Speaker 4: important to your audience and, and, and especially the folks
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  Speaker 4: who are coming up in our profession. You've used it
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  Speaker 4: a couple of times in our intro and now here
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  Speaker 4: talking about sales as, as a profession. And sometimes I, I,
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  Speaker 4: I like to hammer on that because you're exactly right there.
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  Speaker 4: It is a profession. There is competencies around it. It
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  Speaker 4: is as important of a function of any function that's
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  Speaker 4: in a business. I used to have a mentor who said,
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  Speaker 4: you know, growth and sales is the oxygen of the organization.
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  Speaker 4: Everything else is fed through the growth of that business.
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  Speaker 4: And especially for young folks coming up, I'm mentoring some
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  Speaker 4: guys that just graduated from from college and they're on the,
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  Speaker 4: they're on the dial tone, right? They're working for companies
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  Speaker 4: that are making those 50 calls a day. And they're like, John, really,
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  Speaker 4: this is what it's all about. And I said, but
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  Speaker 4: every time you pick up that phone and every time
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  Speaker 4: you make that, that call, you're learning something about our
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  Speaker 4: profession and use it that way. So I just wanted
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  Speaker 4: to call that out because I love the, what you
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  Speaker 4: do here on the podcast. I love the association and
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  Speaker 4: I love the professionalism you're bringing to, to what we
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  Speaker 4: do because it's, it's meaningful and it's important.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and like you said, oxygen feeds the growth
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  Speaker 2: of the business. No oxygen, no growth, no survival. And
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  Speaker 2: so it's so critical. So, John, give us some oxygen.
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  Speaker 2: Give us some great insights. Let's talk about the top
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  Speaker 2: three themes from your book. So let's just start off
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  Speaker 2: with number one.
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  Speaker 3: What do you have? What's the first one you have
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  Speaker 3: for us?
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  Speaker 4: So one of my favorites is value management. isn't invented,
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  Speaker 4: it's discovered. So people always talk about, when I talk
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  Speaker 4: about unique value propositions, when I talk about understanding the
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  Speaker 4: strengths of your organization and understanding the pain points and
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  Speaker 4: success factors of your client, because when you put those together,
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  Speaker 4: when the strengths of your organization eliminate pain of your
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  Speaker 4: client and help them be successful, value is created and
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  Speaker 4: We as sales professionals, the more value we can create
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  Speaker 4: for a client, the more successful we're going to be.
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  Speaker 4: So I like to make sure that people understand before
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  Speaker 4: you ever leave the office to go make a call,
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  Speaker 4: it really is about discovery. It's about understanding what you
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  Speaker 4: have to sell and how that solves problems. and putting
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  Speaker 4: those together as kind of the beginnings of the unique
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  Speaker 4: value proposition. The second piece that I really, really like,
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  Speaker 4: and I think this is important for sales professionals to
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  Speaker 4: amplify within their organization. Some businesses don't have necessarily sales
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  Speaker 4: minded people running the business. I would go as far
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  Speaker 4: as to say there's some people running the business that
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  Speaker 4: don't think sales or marketing is that important, right? It's
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  Speaker 4: that creative right brain stuff and their left brain technical people,
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  Speaker 4: and they don't really understand what we do or how
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  Speaker 4: we do it. The second piece for me that I
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  Speaker 4: like for sales professionals to articulate to their organizations is
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  Speaker 4: that growth enablement Growth as a strategy for the business
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  Speaker 4: is an organizational activity. It's not just a sales activity.
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  Speaker 4: You cannot hit your stride as an aggressive sales professional.
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  Speaker 4: Growth at speed for your organization, unless your whole organization
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  Speaker 4: thinks about that from an organizational perspective. We need to
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  Speaker 4: do a better job as sales professionals advocating. We're talking
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  Speaker 4: about it again, right, Tony? Advocating for our profession within
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  Speaker 4: the business. It doesn't do any good if we're selling
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  Speaker 4: a value proposition and we can't get the billing right.
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  Speaker 4: If we're selling a value proposition that we have great
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  Speaker 4: customer service, but nobody calls back the client. So the
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  Speaker 4: second point, growth enablement, successful growth as a strategy is
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  Speaker 4: an organizational initiative. And we have to be the proponents
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  Speaker 4: of that within our organization. The third one, and this
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  Speaker 4: is one that sits right in our lap as sales professionals,
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  Speaker 4: client advocacy. Our best clients who are experiencing the outcomes
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  Speaker 4: that they want and that we're doing really well are
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  Speaker 4: our best opportunity to amplify our message. Satisfied clients can
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  Speaker 4: talk about us as sales professionals and our organization in
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  Speaker 4: a way we simply cannot. And I believe it's one
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  Speaker 4: of the most underutilized components of selling at scale that
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  Speaker 4: our sales professionals have to do a better job at
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  Speaker 4: grabbing that information from clients who are satisfied and helping
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  Speaker 4: us amplify it, especially now because social selling is becoming
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  Speaker 4: such a big part of it, amplify it as well.
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  Speaker 4: So how do you discover your value? One, How do
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  Speaker 4: you make sales and growth enablement an organizational strategy? And two,
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  Speaker 4: how do you use advocacy, client advocacy to amplify your message?
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot in there that I'd love to unpack
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  Speaker 2: with you, John. And folks, if you're just tuning in,
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  Speaker 2: we're talking again about John's new book. It's Define Value
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  Speaker 2: and Drive Value.
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  Speaker 3: It's available on Amazon. I just bought my copy.
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  Speaker 2: And John, let's go into your first key theme here
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  Speaker 2: because I like that one. It's understand your unique value proposition.
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  Speaker 2: And it's one of those things that's almost personal, I think,
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  Speaker 2: for business developers.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, your company.
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  Speaker 2: Needs to have a solid, unique value proposition. I would
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  Speaker 2: make that one of the things during the interview process
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  Speaker 2: that you walk in. knowing or at least having a
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  Speaker 2: good understanding about that company's unique value proposition. I'd also
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  Speaker 2: challenge them on, guys, tell me what the unique value
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  Speaker 2: proposition here, because let's face it, almost every business out
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  Speaker 2: there has a competitor. And so that's going to be
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  Speaker 2: that solid linchpin that really sets you apart.
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  Speaker 3: And then I think as business developers.
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  Speaker 2: We often end up kind of customizing it to our
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  Speaker 2: unique personality, our unique style, because The customer is buying
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  Speaker 2: from you. They're buying from you, the business developer. You're
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  Speaker 2: the one building the relationship. And so it's good to
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  Speaker 2: have that corporate unique value proposition. And if it's not solid,
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  Speaker 2: if it's not working in your conversations, I think it's
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  Speaker 2: incumbent upon you, the business developer, to push back on
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  Speaker 2: leadership and say.
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  Speaker 3: This isn't working.
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  Speaker 2: This isn't an effective unique value proposition.
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  Speaker 3: We need something stronger here. What do you think about that, John?
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  Speaker 4: You hit it right on the head. There's two components
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  Speaker 4: of the unique value proposition. There's the personal side from
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: the seller and there's the corporate. You're absolutely right. You
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  Speaker 4: have to understand your own elevator speech of why you
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  Speaker 4: should trust me, Mr. or Mrs. Client, because of my experience,
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  Speaker 4: my background, how I understand you. what you're trying to
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  Speaker 4: accomplish at a very high level, and then marry that
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  Speaker 4: you personal unique value proposition with the strengths of your organization.
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  Speaker 4: And that's really where those two pieces come together. So
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  Speaker 4: I love the way you said it. You, you said
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  Speaker 4: it really so perfectly and so compellingly that, that it, it,
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  Speaker 4: it really is those two kinds of components. The other
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  Speaker 4: piece that I will, will, um, say just about this
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  Speaker 4: because it goes back to that curiosity component, right? It's
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  Speaker 4: that needs assessment piece around once you establish your credibility,
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  Speaker 4: once you establish who your organization is and some of
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  Speaker 4: those strengths, right? That first 30 seconds to get Tony
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  Speaker 4: to say, tell me more. It really is then upon
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: us as sellers to tell take that breath and say,
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  Speaker 4: right before Tony, I can tell you more. I'd really
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  Speaker 4: love to know a little bit about you, right? It's
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  Speaker 4: that switch. It's that to say, I think we have
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  Speaker 4: built a relationship, but for me to really talk about
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  Speaker 4: the value that I believe myself and our organization can
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  Speaker 4: bring you, I want to get you talking about what
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  Speaker 4: you really care about. And that curiosity, because That's that
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  Speaker 4: needs assessment, right? That changes and really switches the paradigm
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  Speaker 4: because you know that client is already thinking like, I
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  Speaker 4: took this meeting with Tony. Is he going to be
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: like all the other ones? And is he just going
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  Speaker 4: to keep talking or do I get to put a
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  Speaker 4: word in edgewise, right? And when you actually do needs assessment,
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  Speaker 4: when you actually, once you build that credibility, try and
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  Speaker 4: start now asking that client what they're, what they care
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  Speaker 4: about right away, you're differentiating yourself from 80 to 85%
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  Speaker 4: of the, of the, of the sellers who just start,
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  Speaker 4: sorry for the term, my term puking on the customer.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And let, you know, let's face it. It's easy to
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  Speaker 3: do that.
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  Speaker 2: It's easy, especially if the customer or the, excuse me,
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  Speaker 2: the prospect is they have a personality where they're probably
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  Speaker 2: not extroverted. And so they may defer to you as
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  Speaker 2: the business developer to kind of drive the conversation. And
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  Speaker 2: it's easy to fall into that trap. And you have
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: to sometimes consciously slow yourself down to say, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: I'd like to learn a little bit more about you.
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  Speaker 2: This is what I know about you.
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  Speaker 3: Am I right?
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Am I wrong? And let's explore a little bit more together.
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  Speaker 2: So great advice, John. And then I like what you
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  Speaker 2: said about theme number two, which is this growth enablement.
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  Speaker 2: And I think what you're saying is way more than
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: just simply a sales enablement, business development enablement. You're saying,
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  Speaker 2: look at the entire customer journey. Everybody in the company
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  Speaker 2: across the enterprise is responsible for growth. And whether you're
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: in customer success, whether you're in even the back office,
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  Speaker 2: everybody everybody is involved in business development.
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  Speaker 3: Not everybody's a salesperson. That's different.
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  Speaker 2: That's converting prospects into clients. Those are specialists that do that.
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  Speaker 2: You need years of training. You've got to be really
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: good to do that. I'm saying everybody is in business development.
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  Speaker 2: It's important that people understand that. That's why at the
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Global Business Development Association, we have our business quality level
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: certification that ingrains that business growth mentality at every level.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: We have our business growth practitioner certification. It's only 30
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: minute video, but everybody in the company has to watch it.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: And they only watch it once, but it teaches them
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  Speaker 2: the importance of understanding that we must support the customers.
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  Speaker 2: We must support the prospect. And if you're not directly
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: engaging with the customer or the prospect, then you support
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  Speaker 2: the person who is.
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  Speaker 3: And I really love that leaders.
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  Speaker 2: Like you in our community, in our profession, you've been
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: in senior growth roles. You're really driving that home. And
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  Speaker 2: it also addresses one of my pet peeves in corporations
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: when they say, well, a business developer, yeah, just go
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: get us the leads, go close some accounts, bring them in,
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  Speaker 2: and then that's it.
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  Speaker 3: You just keep doing that.
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  Speaker 2: Don't stay involved with the customer relationship afterwards. And I say,
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  Speaker 2: that's a recipe for disaster. Because As the business developer,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: we're the ones that set the expectations. Who better to
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: execute on those expectations and continue that relationship than the
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: business developer? We don't have to be in everything, but.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: keep us involved in the conversation. Wouldn't you agree, John?
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  Speaker 4: There's an hour of conversation on what you just said.
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  Speaker 4: There's so many pieces to it. You're exactly right. Let
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: me start at the beginning. I love the way you
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: said it, right? Those customer success person, accounting, all those things,
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: they don't necessarily aren't the ones delivering the message around
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: the selling piece. But what they have to understand is
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: their role in supporting the unique value proposition that the
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: organization is selling. That client journey, right? That's different than
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: delivering the message. It's actually backing up the message by
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: your functional role. So if you're responsible for getting the
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: bills paid, right? Getting the invoices out. You have a
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: role to get them out correctly because in that customer
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: life cycle, client life cycle, we understand that one of
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: the biggest pain points that they have is vendors that
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: can't get the bill right. So you didn't sell that client.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: You're exactly right. But that doesn't mean you're not responsible
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: for supporting the unique value proposition that we sold as
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: an organization. It's just, it's, it's just super, super well said. Um,
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  Speaker 4: And again, the other kind of component that I love
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: about this, and so I spent a lot of time
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: in the industrial cleaning space, literally selling cleaning services in
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: large downtown office buildings. And I came in, I was new,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: I was leading sales, EVP, the whole bit. And for
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: the first six months or so, I.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: Came in, I had my operations team, I had my
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: customer success team next to me. But John was the
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: best guy who could deliver this pitch, right? So I
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: delivered the pitch. I would talk about who we are
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: as an organization. And then I would go into the
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: operational piece of how we deliver our services. And what
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: I learned really quickly was every client asked the service
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: execution question to the operator sitting next to me. And
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: for a while I got mad, right? I'm like, hey,
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: I'm doing the pitch, you ask me. I finally realized, right,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: that if I could get that operator to understand our
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: unique value proposition as well as I can, if I
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: could help them with their sales acumen around how to
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: answer a question without talking for 20 minutes, right? If
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: I could give them some of those soft skills that
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: I have, oh my goodness, wouldn't our credibility at the
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: table be so much better? And you know, Tony, salespeople
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: are hard headed, right? But I learned, and I took
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: our sales team from five sellers who carried the sales
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: bag to 25 sellers, my five plus our 20 operators
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: who are really professional and really good. And oh my goodness,
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: when we got them trained, they were at the table.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: And And it was amazing how our growth accelerated because
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: they could articulate the value proposition as well as I could.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: And oh, by the way, when I left and got
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: back on the airplane, the client prospect loved the fact
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: that Tony, who pitched the deal with me and understood
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: the expectations, was the one who was responsible for service execution.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: So again, all functions, got to know the value proposition,
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: especially those drive functions that are at the table, with
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: you have to know it. You know, sales engineering is
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: becoming a big deal now, right? There's the salesperson and
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: then there's the engineer, so to speak, at the table
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: who is there for the technical expertise of the product
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: or the solution. That whole team needs to be as
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: well versed and as well wired on the UVP as
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: the sales organization. So again, I just cut an hour
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: into four minutes, but that was a meaty question. There's
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: a lot there and maybe time for another episode if
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: you're up for it.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: I would love that.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Hey, BD is a team sport. We play to win.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: And let's finish up with the final winning theme that
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: you had from your book, John. And that was your
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: topic about really enabling your customers to be strong advocates
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: for you to drive those referrals, which convert higher than
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: any other BD tactic in the industry. And so I
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: really like what you said about giving your customers a
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: all of the information, all the value that they need
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: so that they can be strong advocates for you, right?
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: It's, and in the book, we talk about client advocacy.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: I love the word, right? I love the word. It
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: doesn't necessarily typically associate it. You hear case studies and
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: testimonials and you hear all these things, you know, video and,
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: but it really is advocacy. It's taking somebody who loves
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: your product, loves your solution, and helping them amplify it.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: This is one of those ones where I come after
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: our profession a little bit, right? This isn't laying on
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: the marketing team. This isn't you as a salesperson saying, well,
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: if my marketing team could do that for me, then
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: I would use them. This is us looking at ourselves
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: in the mirror as sales professionals, understanding if we went
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: out and asked our top five customers five simple questions
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: about our service, about the problems we solve, about why
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: you like doing business with us. And you brought that
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: raw information in one page back to the marketing team
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: and said, could you create a case study around gray
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: industries with our logo, with their industry pictures, and make
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: this look pretty. Could you do that for me? Because
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: what I would like to do is I would like
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: to take that because I'm going to go call on
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: black industries and they look a lot like gray industries.
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: And I bet you they would be impressed because gray
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: industries is the market leader that we're doing business with
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: gray industries and we help them solve the exact same
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: problems that we're doing. Could you help me do that?
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: It's the most amazing thing to me that, you know,
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: we advocate that back to somebody else in the organization
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: who isn't as close to our customers as we are.
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: So why? I don't even understand it. So I get
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: fired up. I'm sorry I'm getting fired up at the end,
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: but client advocacy, the amplification of the great service that
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: we provide is up to us as sales professionals to
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: go out and get for our organization, to help the organization,
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: put it together in a way we can amplify it.
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: And then back to point number two, you make sure
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: that you're Organization is amplifying that on all of our
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: social feeds, on our website, everywhere that that client is
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: looking at our organization to see if we're a potential
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: supplier to them. We want that advocacy out there in
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: the biggest and boldest and brightest letters we can get it.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, advocacy is so important. So, John, let me kind
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: of summarize the top three themes from your book. The
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: first one was understanding the corporation's unique value proposition and
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: also understand your personal unique value proposition you bring to
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: the relationship. The second thing was growth enablement. That's way
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: more than just giving the tools and the capabilities to
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: your business developers, your sales team. It's ingraining that business
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: development mindset across the entire company, across the entire team.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: And then finally, it's advocating for your customers. And so
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: they can ultimately advocate for you. And I think that's
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: a great way to finish talking about your fantastic book, John,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: because that's exactly how the business development body of knowledge
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: starts off. The definition of business development is customer and
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: community advocacy that creates corporate growth. That's the textbook definition.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: And John, That's exactly what we talked about today. It's
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: been great having you on the show, John. And can
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: you tell folks a little bit how they can connect
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: with you, follow your work and get a copy of
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: your book?
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So easiest way, John Rivera's on LinkedIn. Great presence.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: The book is on Amazon, as you said, Define Value,
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: Drive Growth. Our website, just launching a new website today. Actually,
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: we're really proud of it. UVP, Ursula Victor Paul Solutions
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: with an S. Make sure the S dot com. Love
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: to have people go and look at it and give
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: us some feedback. But yeah, easy to find me. And
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: back to that Greek proverb we've started. I love helping
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: people around being better professionals, as I said earlier. So
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: If any of your audience viewers have questions, I know
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: you and the association are always there to answer them.
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: I'd love to be able to support you, Tony, and
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: the team on how you do that. So I'm here,
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: as you guys are, for the benefit of our industry,
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: of our profession, and for those up-and-comers who are ready
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: to take the torch.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, John, you know, some in our profession could
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: be accused of being full of hot air, but you're
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: full of pure oxygen.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Oxygen is growth.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing all of that oxygen, those hard-earned
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: lessons that you share with all of us in our profession.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us on the show today, too.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: I appreciate you having me.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: our free community of of corporate partners and business development
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: professionals advancing the art, science and ethics of the business
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: development profession at gbdassociation.org.