Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 114: Top 3 Tactics with Ken Harms

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Episode 114: Top 3 Tactics with Ken Harms · What is Business Development?

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
0:07
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? All Right? Folks,
0:32
Speaker 2: let me ask you, how did you guys get into
0:35
Speaker 2: the business development profession? I bet you a lot of
0:37
Speaker 2: you came in from project management. I did, and I
0:41
Speaker 2: know a lot of project managers entered the business development profession.
0:46
Speaker 2: A lot of project managers are expected to do business development,
0:51
Speaker 2: and so are other professions like engineers, superintendents, firm leaders
0:55
Speaker 2: in the construction industry. If you're listening, you know what
0:59
Speaker 2: I'm talking about, and if you're in a different industry,
1:02
Speaker 2: you know what I'm talking about too. And everybody, everybody
1:06
Speaker 2: wants to learn how to win more work and deepen
1:09
Speaker 2: client relationships without compromising authenticity. And today we're going to
1:14
Speaker 2: talk about that in a fantastic book. But before we do,
1:18
Speaker 2: let's talk about another book that's also fantastic. I say
1:23
Speaker 2: that because I wrote it, and it's also the defining
1:26
Speaker 2: guide for business developers. It's the Business Development Body of knowledge.
1:31
Speaker 2: You can get it on Amazon and when you read
1:34
Speaker 2: the book, you can then take the Business Development Professional
1:37
Speaker 2: Certification exam that's available at the Global Business Development Association
1:44
Speaker 2: at GBD Association dot org. Okay, let's get back to
1:49
Speaker 2: this other book that I was talking about. It's called
1:51
Speaker 2: Building Trust, Winning Work, How Construction Professionals can master business
1:57
Speaker 2: development without selling out. Now, let me tell you a
2:02
Speaker 2: little bit more about this book. It's drawing on over
2:05
Speaker 2: four decades of leadership experience across the architecture, engineering, and
2:11
Speaker 2: construction industry, and it introduces the doer seller model, a
2:18
Speaker 2: proven approach that blends technical excellence with genuine business development
2:23
Speaker 2: through real world examples, field tested frameworks, and actionable insights.
2:29
Speaker 2: And the author that of this book we're talking to
2:33
Speaker 2: today is Ken Harms, and Ken has forty years of
2:37
Speaker 2: leadership experience in executive, advisory and sales processes. He focuses
2:42
Speaker 2: on empowering organizations to achieve operational excellence and strengthen client relationships.
2:50
Speaker 2: As a principal, he leverages his expertise in presentation coaching
2:54
Speaker 2: to deliver strategic insights and tailored solutions for business growth. Well,
3:00
Speaker 2: let's welcome Ken to the show. Ken Harms. Welcome to
3:05
Speaker 2: the What Is Business Development? Podcast? So Ken tell us,
3:10
Speaker 2: tell us how did you enter into the business development profession?
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Speaker 3: Well, Tony, first, thank you so much for having me,
3:18
Speaker 3: and I'm going to go get your book as soon
3:20
Speaker 3: as we're finished, and I appreciate having you here. I
3:24
Speaker 3: got in the way you kind of described. I had
3:26
Speaker 3: no idea that that's what I was going to do.
3:30
Speaker 3: I started my career in project management, and I quickly,
3:35
Speaker 3: you know, I had an acumen for dealing well with
3:39
Speaker 3: people and you're being curious and trying to exceed expectations,
3:45
Speaker 3: and you know, somewhere along the line, they said, let's
3:50
Speaker 3: give you a shot into business development. And I never
3:54
Speaker 3: went back to project management. So I've really found a
3:58
Speaker 3: home and a niche that was for me and my personality,
4:01
Speaker 3: my skill set.
4:03
Speaker 1: Yeah.
4:03
Speaker 2: I think so many people enter the profession that way.
4:05
Speaker 2: They just kind of find their way into it. It's
4:08
Speaker 2: not a deliberate choice, but once they do enter the profession,
4:11
Speaker 2: they absolutely fall in love with it, like you did,
4:14
Speaker 2: like I did. And if you're a project manager, you're
4:17
Speaker 2: in the aec vertical, you're an engineer or whatnot, and
4:21
Speaker 2: you're thinking about entering the business development Well, hey, welcome,
4:25
Speaker 2: we'd love to have you with open arms. No better
4:29
Speaker 2: people to work with than business developers. It's a team sport.
4:32
Speaker 2: We all work together to succeed. So I can tell
4:35
Speaker 2: us a little bit about why you wrote the book.
4:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, great question, and thank you, Tony. So you know,
4:42
Speaker 3: first of all, I got to give some credit to
4:45
Speaker 3: my family, my wife and particularly my middle daughter, who
4:50
Speaker 3: kept pushing me saying, you know, Dad, you should write
4:52
Speaker 3: a book. I think that's kind of a cliche. Everybody
4:55
Speaker 3: says you should write a book. Why should I write
4:57
Speaker 3: a book? And I think over time they were looking
5:00
Speaker 3: back over my career and those stories at the dinner
5:04
Speaker 3: table or with their breakfast table, like that's that's pretty
5:07
Speaker 3: interesting that you should write a book. And so finally,
5:10
Speaker 3: at this stage of my career, I said, you know what,
5:12
Speaker 3: you guys are right? I am because of a couple
5:15
Speaker 3: of things, primarily Tony, and I think you'll this will
5:19
Speaker 3: resonate with you. One is, many people fall into the
5:23
Speaker 3: industry or being told okay, you're a project manager or
5:27
Speaker 3: a project executive. Now you must help us sell. Okay,
5:30
Speaker 3: so now you're a doer seller, and no one actually
5:35
Speaker 3: gave them any training. They just said, here are the keys,
5:38
Speaker 3: go learn how to drive. And so I thought I
5:41
Speaker 3: had something to say about mentoring that new generation coming
5:45
Speaker 3: up and helping them with tips.
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Speaker 4: And you know, I'm sure you've looked through my book.
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Speaker 3: There's an awful lot of templates and guides, and there's
5:55
Speaker 3: a little bit of storyline and narrative, but there's it's
5:57
Speaker 3: also kind of a manual on how to do it right.
6:01
Speaker 3: So that was the story behind the book, was I
6:05
Speaker 3: think I've got something to say. I've got forty years
6:07
Speaker 3: to share, forty years of experience to share, and not
6:11
Speaker 3: enough people are doing that. And the younger, younger folks
6:15
Speaker 3: need to be mentored and some training needs to be
6:17
Speaker 3: available so that they can be successful.
6:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I love that story about why you wrote
6:23
Speaker 2: the book. I think I wrote the book the same
6:25
Speaker 2: for the same reason. You know, my daughter encouraged me
6:28
Speaker 2: to write a book. She actually said, Dad, you should
6:31
Speaker 2: be a professor, and initially I took it as a compliment.
6:35
Speaker 2: In retrospect, I now realized that was just her passive
6:37
Speaker 2: aggressive way of telling me to shut up about b
6:40
Speaker 2: D and stop boring her. So either way, it was
6:47
Speaker 2: an altruistic outcome just like yours. And thank you for
6:51
Speaker 2: your contributions to coaching and mentoring the next generation of
6:56
Speaker 2: business developers. No doubt when they read this book, they
6:59
Speaker 2: will be well on the way to great success and
7:01
Speaker 2: learning how to do it right. And by the way, Ken,
7:03
Speaker 2: I am going to officially nominate your book for the
7:06
Speaker 2: Best b D Book title of the Year in twenty
7:09
Speaker 2: twenty six because I love the double entendre here of
7:12
Speaker 2: building trust winning work. And of course you're in the
7:17
Speaker 2: construction industry and this is a construction industry business development
7:21
Speaker 2: guide and of course building trust. Clever title.
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Speaker 4: Love it, Thank you, Thank you?
7:27
Speaker 2: Yeah? So, Ken, tell us what your Let's talk through
7:30
Speaker 2: the top three tactics or takeaways from your book. What's
7:34
Speaker 2: number one? What can we get started with?
7:36
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think.
7:39
Speaker 3: Number one is about being what I think, or let's
7:45
Speaker 3: say curious. Let's I think being curious is really important.
7:51
Speaker 3: I mentioned that about myself. People saw that in me.
7:55
Speaker 3: And why do I say being curious Because when you're
7:59
Speaker 3: curious in these roles, you tend to think about what's
8:04
Speaker 3: going to make the owner excited about working with me,
8:09
Speaker 3: what you put yourself in the owner's seat and wonder
8:13
Speaker 3: what keeps him or her up at night, what are
8:17
Speaker 3: their risks that they need to manage or eliminate as
8:22
Speaker 3: a result of us working with them. So I would
8:26
Speaker 3: say it helps if you are curious. That is part
8:30
Speaker 3: of the framework to make a business developer, I think
8:34
Speaker 3: very purposeful. You know too many times business development folks
8:39
Speaker 3: or door sellers that are in a new role, they
8:42
Speaker 3: get that first meeting with a client and they go
8:45
Speaker 3: in with a lot of collateral materials, like they talk
8:48
Speaker 3: a lot about them and their company, and I do,
8:52
Speaker 3: and I coach that you do the exact opposite, go
8:55
Speaker 3: in with very specific, well referenced, researched questions and allow
9:03
Speaker 3: that client to talk and to share what's really important
9:07
Speaker 3: to them. So that would be number one. I think
9:09
Speaker 3: Tony is being curious.
9:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like what you said there, Ken, And I
9:13
Speaker 2: think it's important too to characterize what we mean by curiosity.
9:17
Speaker 2: And I think you said that, but I'd like to
9:19
Speaker 2: elaborate it on a little bit more. I think what
9:22
Speaker 2: you're saying is, look, be curious, but don't be a caricature.
9:28
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is, don't be the
9:31
Speaker 2: classic business developer. Of yesteryear from the nineteen nineties with
9:35
Speaker 2: your pre can questions of hey, mister or missus customer,
9:38
Speaker 2: what keeps you up as night? Okay, folks, I'm sorry,
9:42
Speaker 2: this is the twenty twenties. If you don't know what
9:44
Speaker 2: your prospect is, worried about their major competitors when they
9:50
Speaker 2: were started, what they do, what their weaknesses are, where
9:53
Speaker 2: their opportunities are before you had that first conversation, then
9:56
Speaker 2: shame on you because there's an abundance of information out there,
9:59
Speaker 2: probably too much, but they need to be questions that
10:05
Speaker 2: are insightful, right, Ken, that's what you're talking about.
10:08
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, and you're one hundred percent right, Tony.
10:13
Speaker 4: If you go in and waste.
10:15
Speaker 3: Somebody's time, they're going to like particularly as you know
10:18
Speaker 3: in today's day and age. All you have to do
10:20
Speaker 3: is go go to the internet or go to chat
10:23
Speaker 3: and say, I'm going into this meeting. You know, here's
10:26
Speaker 3: the client, what should I be talking about? And we
10:29
Speaker 3: used to just do that brainstorming on our own, right,
10:32
Speaker 3: but now you've got some technology that can assist you
10:34
Speaker 3: in a moment's time to go in there and really
10:37
Speaker 3: ask very important questions to learn more about what the
10:41
Speaker 3: client cares about.
10:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's great. I always like to go in
10:45
Speaker 2: and say, hey, look, this is where I think there's
10:47
Speaker 2: an issue. I might be wrong here. I did a
10:50
Speaker 2: lot of research on you guys, but this is what
10:52
Speaker 2: I'm seeing. Is this true? And then that way, you're
10:55
Speaker 2: not coming in as a presumptuous supposed expert. It shows
11:00
Speaker 2: that you did your homework, you care about them. They
11:04
Speaker 2: are front and center in the discussion, and you're being
11:06
Speaker 2: empathetic and you're being vulnerable. You're saying, you know, I've
11:09
Speaker 2: done my research, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Speaker 2: And I think when you do that it just opens
11:14
Speaker 2: up amazing discussions. Okay, well, let's continue the discussion onto
11:18
Speaker 2: tactic number two from your book.
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Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, thanks.
11:21
Speaker 3: So you just said a really good word about being vulnerable. Right,
11:26
Speaker 3: and so I think the second key term for me
11:33
Speaker 3: is kind of interchangeable, but.
11:35
Speaker 4: Being very.
11:37
Speaker 3: Candid or very being very authentic. Authenticity I think is
11:42
Speaker 3: really important. Right. So you know, when I when I
11:47
Speaker 3: meet somebody, I want them to come away with I'd
11:52
Speaker 3: like to talk to ken again. Right. My end goal
11:56
Speaker 3: is that I want to be your trusted advisor or coach,
12:01
Speaker 3: and so If I am not authentic, if I don't
12:04
Speaker 3: show that vulnerability and candidness, I'm not going to get there.
12:09
Speaker 3: Now it may seem odd or it may seem challenging
12:13
Speaker 3: for somebody to say that, particularly into in our industry.
12:15
Speaker 3: It's like, I really want you to be open and empathetic.
12:19
Speaker 3: But these soft skills, the emotional intelligence, is so so
12:24
Speaker 3: important to connect with people on that one on one basis.
12:28
Speaker 3: And the more you can just be yourself, like you know,
12:31
Speaker 3: candor authentic words like that, I think that's just super
12:35
Speaker 3: super important. We don't have all the answers, and construction
12:39
Speaker 3: is really a messy industry, but if people trust you,
12:43
Speaker 3: you know you're you can get so much further ahead.
12:45
Speaker 3: So my endgame is always going to be I want
12:48
Speaker 3: to be a trusted advisor for this client, and I
12:52
Speaker 3: can only get there if we have a very authentic
12:55
Speaker 3: and candid relationship.
12:58
Speaker 4: That makes sense.
12:59
Speaker 2: It does make sense, And I know the word authentic
13:02
Speaker 2: gets used a lot these days, seems to be the
13:04
Speaker 2: popular word doujouur. But folks, it just comes down to truth.
13:08
Speaker 2: And we've already talked about this in the Business Development
13:10
Speaker 2: Body of Knowledge chapter two. It's right there front and
13:13
Speaker 2: center about trust is built on purpose, empathy and truth,
13:18
Speaker 2: and that's based on neuroscience. So you know what I
13:23
Speaker 2: hear you saying, ken, is it just be truthful? And
13:26
Speaker 2: you know, when as I was listening to you talk,
13:28
Speaker 2: I remember the five things we learned as pleads at
13:30
Speaker 2: the Naval Academy. We can only give five answers when
13:33
Speaker 2: we were at the Naval Academy. It's yes, sir, no sir,
13:36
Speaker 2: I'll find out, sir, no excuse sir, and ayi sir
13:41
Speaker 2: or man and I do not understand. So you know,
13:45
Speaker 2: if it's no excuse, it's hey, we screwed up. I'm sorry,
13:47
Speaker 2: no excuse, I'll fix it, okay. And if we don't
13:52
Speaker 2: know the answer, legitimately, look b D people, you don't
13:55
Speaker 2: have to have all the answers. We're not the subject
13:57
Speaker 2: matter expert. Your engineers are your sales engineer. You have
14:01
Speaker 2: a whole team of people. You should have a whole
14:03
Speaker 2: team of people behind you who have answers. And it's
14:06
Speaker 2: just you can justice clients and prospects will respect you
14:10
Speaker 2: more when you go you know what, I don't know
14:12
Speaker 2: that answer. I'm going to go find out and I
14:15
Speaker 2: will report back to you very quickly. I'll bring the
14:17
Speaker 2: right minds, the smartest people I know to help you
14:19
Speaker 2: answer that question, all right, Because at the end of
14:22
Speaker 2: the day, I'm your advocate, Okay. I work for you,
14:25
Speaker 2: mister or missus customer. Yeah, the company pays me my paycheck,
14:28
Speaker 2: but I work for you. I'm on your team. I'm
14:30
Speaker 2: going to help you succeed and survive and thrive in
14:32
Speaker 2: the market. So I love that, Ken, That's that's really
14:35
Speaker 2: powerful to just just be authentic, just be truthful. It's hard,
14:39
Speaker 2: It can be hard sometimes, you know, because we just
14:42
Speaker 2: really want to be the answer to our our clients
14:47
Speaker 2: and prospects. And I also think, Ken, when it comes
14:50
Speaker 2: down to authenticity, you're probably also saying, look, if you're
14:53
Speaker 2: not the right solution, tell them, right. I mean, and
14:59
Speaker 2: you know, you talk talk about how you really want
15:01
Speaker 2: to influence the younger generations. I think this is a
15:04
Speaker 2: really big time, you know, challenge for the younger generation,
15:08
Speaker 2: the folks that are just coming in because you really
15:09
Speaker 2: want to win that deal, and you have to fight
15:11
Speaker 2: that urge, that temptation to go, okay, I just want
15:14
Speaker 2: to I want to give them the right answers. So
15:16
Speaker 2: I can give them, you know, so I can win
15:18
Speaker 2: the deal. Folks, that's a mistake. I've seen this movie
15:21
Speaker 2: many times before. Ken, I know you've seen it too, right, yes, yeah, yeah,
15:26
Speaker 2: And that can have tragic consequences in your industry. I mean,
15:28
Speaker 2: your industry is no joke. You know. If somebody does
15:32
Speaker 2: the wrong thing, a lot of people can get hurt.
15:35
Speaker 2: And so it's a very serious business. And some are
15:38
Speaker 2: in businesses that are not so serious, and that that's
15:40
Speaker 2: fine too, but you know, structurally, you cannot compromise your integrity. Okay, Ken,
15:47
Speaker 2: let's jump to take away and tactic number three from
15:50
Speaker 2: your book.
15:51
Speaker 3: Sure, thanks, So you know this is I think, really,
15:56
Speaker 3: I say this an awful lot anyone in that I
15:59
Speaker 3: work with them throughout the offices and whatnot.
16:01
Speaker 4: They'll they'll resident, they'll resonate, and they'll recognize it right
16:05
Speaker 4: away when they listen to this podcast.
16:07
Speaker 3: Delight the client. Delight the client. And so that's the
16:12
Speaker 3: third takeaway, and it's all kind of tied together, right,
16:16
Speaker 3: And what does the light the client really mean? It's
16:20
Speaker 3: like no surprises, right, clear decisions, transparency in your communication.
16:27
Speaker 3: I've reduced the owner's risk and I've done what really
16:31
Speaker 3: matters to the client, and therefore that's where advocacy is born.
16:37
Speaker 3: They're being an advocate or a champion for you, and
16:40
Speaker 3: your company is born out of that. And oftentimes what
16:45
Speaker 3: I do real quick, Tony, is when I first got
16:47
Speaker 3: a client, I'll sit down with him and say, what
16:50
Speaker 3: would it take for us to absolutely blow you away
16:53
Speaker 3: and delight you, to earn your trust and to be
16:56
Speaker 3: better than anyone you've ever.
16:57
Speaker 4: Worked with before.
16:58
Speaker 3: And they're like, well, first of all, none was there
17:00
Speaker 3: or ask me that question, right, And a lot of
17:03
Speaker 3: cool stuff.
17:04
Speaker 4: Have come out of those interviews.
17:05
Speaker 3: And then I go back to the operations team and say,
17:08
Speaker 3: this is what this owner really really wants, not just
17:11
Speaker 3: on time.
17:12
Speaker 4: On budget and within the quality expected.
17:16
Speaker 3: He's actually looking for this and if we can do this,
17:19
Speaker 3: we're going to capture this work forever. And so you
17:22
Speaker 3: can probably see from my expression and passion is getting
17:27
Speaker 3: fired up here because I'm just a big advocate for that.
17:30
Speaker 4: That's the last takeaway.
17:31
Speaker 3: Is don't just satisfy the client.
17:35
Speaker 4: Delight the client?
17:37
Speaker 2: Yeah I can, Okay, I stand corrected. Folks, If you're
17:40
Speaker 2: going to go into a discussion with your prospect and
17:42
Speaker 2: you want to use a pre can question, use Ken's question.
17:45
Speaker 2: That's a great one. You know, I love that. I
17:50
Speaker 2: love that because right off the bat, you're starting from
17:53
Speaker 2: an empathetic position. It's look, I know what your requirements are.
17:56
Speaker 2: You wrote them in the solicitation. You have formal requirements.
17:59
Speaker 2: That's great. What do you like?
18:01
Speaker 4: What would be.
18:02
Speaker 2: Like awesome for you guys? You know, because oftentimes the
18:06
Speaker 2: prospect is already they're kind of limiting their thinking sometimes,
18:10
Speaker 2: right because like, well, we know the industry can only
18:12
Speaker 2: do this, that or what. So we're gonna we're gonna
18:14
Speaker 2: build it to the industry status quo specifications, and this
18:17
Speaker 2: is what we're gonna do. But I think when you
18:19
Speaker 2: just that's a paradigm shift for them to go, yeah, yeah, yeah,
18:22
Speaker 2: I know what you wrote on paper, But tell me, like,
18:25
Speaker 2: what are you guys, you know, implicitly trying to get
18:28
Speaker 2: to And that is such a powerful unlock can. I
18:31
Speaker 2: love it because now what you're doing is you're creating
18:36
Speaker 2: competitive advantage.
18:38
Speaker 4: Right.
18:39
Speaker 2: They're opening up to you and they're telling you the
18:43
Speaker 2: secret that they didn't tell anybody else. And you know, yeah,
18:47
Speaker 2: I love this, Ken. Now, Okay, so so let's say
18:51
Speaker 2: let's say a client does elaborate, what do you what
18:54
Speaker 2: are you doing with that information? Obviously you're taking it
18:57
Speaker 2: back to your team. Uh. And some of those things
19:00
Speaker 2: may be like they may be just impossible, right, just
19:03
Speaker 2: physically you can't do it. They probably want some some
19:07
Speaker 2: massive arc that suspends over a thirty story building, right.
19:14
Speaker 2: What do you do with your team when you get
19:16
Speaker 2: that info?
19:17
Speaker 4: Yeah?
19:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So what I do is gather the team
19:20
Speaker 3: together conference room, whiteboard and you know, put everything up
19:24
Speaker 3: there contractually that what is required, right, the schedule, the
19:28
Speaker 3: budget and so forth, and then share with them from
19:31
Speaker 3: that interview. Look, this is what's really going to blow
19:34
Speaker 3: away this client. So together, let's brainstorm. So for example,
19:38
Speaker 3: we have a twenty four month schedule, is it possible
19:41
Speaker 3: for us deliver it in twenty two months? Our gnp
19:44
Speaker 3: our guarantee maximum price is sixty five million dollars and
19:49
Speaker 3: inside of that we have a million contingency. What if
19:53
Speaker 3: we don't use the contingency and return it early to
19:56
Speaker 3: the client and now he's got a sixty six million
19:59
Speaker 3: dollar budget seat of a sixty five or we deliver
20:02
Speaker 3: it for you know, a million less and write them
20:04
Speaker 3: a check at the end. When was the last time
20:06
Speaker 3: an owner received a check at the end instead of
20:09
Speaker 3: a request for more payment?
20:11
Speaker 4: He wants lead gold?
20:13
Speaker 3: Is that any way we can get them to lead
20:15
Speaker 3: platinum and have these brainstorming set and get everybody's brain
20:18
Speaker 3: firing and goy like, we can do that.
20:20
Speaker 4: We can do that.
20:21
Speaker 3: Now, we can't do that, and we don't necessarily then
20:24
Speaker 3: share it with the client. But internally we say, here's
20:28
Speaker 3: our satisfactory goal from the client. Here's our delight goal
20:31
Speaker 3: from us to get there. How are we going to
20:34
Speaker 3: achieve it? And it becomes a cultural thing. Right if
20:36
Speaker 3: I'm in the room alone and saying this stuff that
20:38
Speaker 3: we look at me and say, oh yeah, stay in
20:40
Speaker 3: your lane, we'll build it. But if we're together on
20:44
Speaker 3: this and they say, okay, that's great information. Let's see
20:48
Speaker 3: if we can do this right, because we want this.
20:51
Speaker 3: This client's got more work coming. We need to blow
20:54
Speaker 3: them away. So you get everybody together and actually map
20:58
Speaker 3: it out. Because what are engineers and contractors like? They
21:01
Speaker 3: like the plan, right, So you write out the plan.
21:04
Speaker 3: Here's what we're going to do in order to achieve.
21:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ken, this is fantastic. You know you're taking that
21:13
Speaker 2: discussion that you have with the prospect. They're disclosing things
21:16
Speaker 2: that now no other competitor knows unless they happen to
21:20
Speaker 2: listen to this podcast and ask your brilliant question.
21:25
Speaker 4: So you know, you.
21:26
Speaker 2: Bring that information back to the team the subject matter experts. Again,
21:30
Speaker 2: business developers were subject matter explorers. Okay. Our mission is
21:34
Speaker 2: to bring the information back to the subject matter experts
21:37
Speaker 2: and tell them, guys, look, this is what the prospect wants.
21:42
Speaker 2: I understand it may not be feasible. Tell me if
21:44
Speaker 2: it's not. Okay, that's fine. But what you're also opening
21:48
Speaker 2: the door to is now powerful price to win. And
21:52
Speaker 2: so when you go into the business development body of knowledge,
21:54
Speaker 2: you look at the price to win chapter. It starts
21:57
Speaker 2: with understanding what your gold plated solution is, and that
22:00
Speaker 2: can is what you just said. This is what the
22:02
Speaker 2: prospects that they would love to have. Okay, great, Let's
22:05
Speaker 2: price that out and let's make sure it's reasonable, we
22:07
Speaker 2: can execute it successfully. Okay, great. And then now let's
22:11
Speaker 2: price out what they said they wanted in the solicitation
22:14
Speaker 2: that everybody got. All our competitors know it. This is
22:17
Speaker 2: what they're going to price at. And then let's take
22:19
Speaker 2: in the competitive intel and look at what we think
22:21
Speaker 2: our competitors can or can't do. And then let's decrement
22:25
Speaker 2: our pricing to make sure that we're price competitive. And
22:28
Speaker 2: then that allows you to work your way into a
22:31
Speaker 2: very competitive price. But also you're not leaving profit on
22:35
Speaker 2: the table. And so I think that is one master
22:38
Speaker 2: unlocked question that is so fantastic. Ken. Look, I could
22:44
Speaker 2: keep going on and on into the details of your book,
22:48
Speaker 2: but we only have a limited time today. Folks. If
22:51
Speaker 2: you want to get a copy of Ken's book and
22:54
Speaker 2: learn a lot of these other wonderful tactics packed into this,
22:59
Speaker 2: grab yourself a copy of this book. It's called Building Trust,
23:02
Speaker 2: Winning Work, How Construction Professionals Can Master Business Development without
23:08
Speaker 2: Selling Out by Ken Harms. It's available on Amazon, you
23:12
Speaker 2: can get access to it. Can let me just kind
23:14
Speaker 2: of summarize our three key takeaways today. Number one, start
23:18
Speaker 2: off with great questions, you know, and those are heavily
23:22
Speaker 2: researched questions where you're highly prepared, and they start with
23:28
Speaker 2: an empathetic positioning with the prospect you're thinking about their
23:32
Speaker 2: needs right up front. The second thing is be authentic,
23:36
Speaker 2: be truthful. If you don't have all the answers that's okay,
23:40
Speaker 2: and truthfully tell them what you can do and what
23:43
Speaker 2: you can't do. And then finally, finally ask those prospects
23:48
Speaker 2: what they would think is the best thing in the
23:51
Speaker 2: world they could get from you, and you might be
23:54
Speaker 2: pleasantly surprised with the most powerful answers that make you
23:59
Speaker 2: a winning come competitor. Ken, you're clearly a winning competitor.
24:02
Speaker 2: You've done it for forty years. Folks, If you're starting
24:05
Speaker 2: out in the business, or maybe you're in the business
24:08
Speaker 2: and you want to transition into business development, We'd love
24:10
Speaker 2: to have you. Ken, would love to have you. I'd
24:12
Speaker 2: love to have you. We'd also love to have you.
24:15
Speaker 2: Get a copy of this book again, folks, Building trust,
24:18
Speaker 2: winning work available on Amazon. Ken Harms, how can folks
24:23
Speaker 2: connect with you and follow your work?
24:26
Speaker 3: Thanks Tony. I have a website www. Dot Kenharms dot
24:31
Speaker 3: com and you'll find my profile on LinkedIn and my
24:36
Speaker 3: contact information is available there.
24:39
Speaker 2: That's great, Ken, Thank you so much. If you're in
24:42
Speaker 2: the AC industry listening to this show, if you're a
24:45
Speaker 2: business developer and you got something out of the show,
24:47
Speaker 2: give us a like, give us a subscribe, give us
24:49
Speaker 2: some comments. Love to hear your feedback. Ken Harms, thank
24:53
Speaker 2: you for joining us on the show.
24:56
Speaker 1: Thanks Tony, Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast.
25:03
Speaker 1: Join our free community of corporate partners and business development
25:07
Speaker 1: professionals advancing the art, science, and ethics of the business
25:12
Speaker 1: development profession at Gbdassociation dot org.