Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 142: "Prospecting = Dating" with Abhinav (Abhi) Gokllani

Transcript

Episode 142: "Prospecting = Dating" with Abhinav (Abhi) Gokllani · What is Business Development?

• 0:04
  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
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development?
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Folks, we have a great guest author today in a
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: really exciting book to talk about. But let me ask
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: you this. If you've ever read Fanatical Prospecting, The Challenger Sale,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Cold Calling Sucks, and a lot of other books that
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: are talking about prospecting and cold calling, but are you
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: still getting ignored and cold outreach? Well, your cold emails
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: read like chat GPT wrote them in three seconds. It's
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: your LinkedIn DM sound Committee approved your cold calls land
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: with the voltage of attax software. Your problem isn't your channel,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: it's your signal. Your signal is the problem, according to
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: our guest author today, and that was a quick summary
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: of the Amazon background for his brand new book. But folks,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: before we get to that brand new book, let's talk
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: about this book that's not so brand new. It's about
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: three years old now, and this is the Business Development
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Body of Knowledge, and this is the comprehensive guide to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the Business development profession. When you read this book, it
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: then enables you to get your Business Development Professional certification
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: online at the Business Development Associated Student's website. You can
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: find out more about the book and about the BDP
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: certification at GBD Association dot org. Okay, so let's talk
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: about this new book. It's called Prospecting Equals Dating P
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: equals D make them chase you. And it's the step
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: by step guide per cold calling and cold email and
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: LinkedIn prospecting. Uh, that way you can book more meetings
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: in B to B sales? Who wouldn't like to do
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: that if you are in business development? And let me
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: tell you about the author. The author is Abanov Gookani
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and Abanov has seven years in B to B sales
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: with eight million dollars plus in closed revenue, and he's
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: hit one hundred and thirty three percent of quota in
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: his last quarter with sixteen million dollars plus an enterprise
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: pipeline generated and most recently at pro Core and before
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: that Greenhouse and Lexus, he really hit those big numbers
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: and he built his craft on the phones, not on stage,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: which is why the book reads more like field notes
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: instead of theory and that's what we really like to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: have on this show is folks for real practical applications.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: And when you get the book on Amazon, and again
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the name of the book is P equals D. Prospecting
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: equals dating reveals what most sales books missed. People buy
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the same way they date. This sounds like a pretty
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: spicy topic in a way to present the book, and
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: in line with dating, your buyers respond to confidence, they
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: ignore neediness, they notice tension, they trust certainty, They decide
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: fast and then justify later. This is the science of
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: first impressions applied to your pipeline. And inside this Prospecting
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: playbook you'll learn how to write cold these mails that
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: don't get instantly deleted, send LinkedIn dms. People actually want
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: to read and open cold calls without sounding scripted or skippable.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: And there's tons more packed into this book. We don't
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: have necessarily a lot of time for me to run
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: through the entire list, and that's why we have our
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: guest on the show today and let's all welcome Abanov
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Golkani to the show. Abanav, welcome to the show.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me TONI.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited about having you because this is such
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: a fun topic and such a fun title for the book.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I like how you and your co author, Justin Michael I,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: you know, really draw the similarities between prospecting and dating,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and you know, as as trivial as that may sound,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: or as jovial as that may sound, in a lot
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: of ways, it's really true. So I'm not going to
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: ask you about your dating life, but I will ask
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you about your business development life and how you enter
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: the business development profession and why did you write the book?
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely this takes me back, Like in nostalgia, I
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: remember studying form my CPA exam and then I went
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: to one of these accounting offices and I'm looking at people.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: I'm like, this is not the life that I want.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: I'm more valued when I interact with people.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: That has to be.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Away beyond trying to make it an influenza or something
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: to actually make a living while being in connection with people.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: And that's how I stumble upon sales. Initially event sales,
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: where I was basically pitching brands like Amazon Walmart in
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: India to actually come and take our event services where
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: we could do annual scales and all of these things
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: for them. And I realized, this is what I want
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: to do, and from there I've been on a gambit
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: of financial sales, education sales, luxury, automotive, software sales, that's construction, recruiting.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: You name it.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: And one of the reasons I wanted to write the book,
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: well back in two thousand and six, we've all heard
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: of the book called The Game About you Know, Seduction
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: by Niel Strass. And one other thing is that a
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: lot of these sales techniques were taken into the dating world,
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: but no one bought them back. And this could be
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: maybe a two taboo of topic to own, but I
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: consider myself pretty crazy enough to own it. And I
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: wanted to really see day in and day out when
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: I see people's cod call like the clients that I coach,
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: I mean, would you really talk to someone at the
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: bar like that or in your real life?
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Most of the time the answer is no. I'm like exactly.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: That's why I wanted to write this book because there
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: is a missing link where we can just be more
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: authentic in our expression and be just real. Everyone's tired
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: of those templates and can the scripted answers? Yeah, this
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: is great.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I love the fact that you're delving into the emotional
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: aspects of what really drives people to respond to you
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: as a prospect and then convert with you as a customer.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: And I don't think there's any shame in talking about
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: books that talk about seduction and power and things of
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: that nature, because they all fundamentally address those emotional triggers
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: that have driven humans since the beginning of time, way
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: beyond there were cold calls via phone. And you know,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I even researched some of those same books when I
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: was writing The Business Development Body of Knowledge, because I know,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: along with a lot of those other great authors that
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: we talked about in the opening, and you certainly start
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: to find common patterns when you look at a lot
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: of those books, whether it's The Challenger Sale, whether it's
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: the other ones that we listed. All great books, but
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I think really taking an emotional perspective and realizing that
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: what we do in business development is is emotionally driven
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: and it is a lot like dating, and some of
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: those emotional triggers apply directly. And we've had the great
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: fortune of having Justin on this podcast multiple times before,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: so it's always great having one of his co authors
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: on the podcast as well. So I can't really express
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: how appreciative I are I am for you to be
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: on the show, Abanov and share with us some of
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: your personal perspectives about this new book. And again, folks,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the book we're talking about. If you're just listening along,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: I'm flipping this up on the screen right now with
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: the cover that everybody can see. But if you're just
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: listening to the podcast, the name of the book that Abinov,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Golkani and Justin Michael wrote is called p equals D.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: That's p as in Papa equals d as in delta.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: So it's expressed kind of as a mathematical formula and
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: it's prospecting equals dating. Make them chase you, okay, Abinov,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to chase you too much longer on this.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Tell me what is the key tactic number one that
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: you would like people to take away from your book.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: I think one of the biggest key tactic is really
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: having an emotionally rooted conversation in realness, where we all
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: have those amazing scripts behind the phone, but they're not
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: amazing anymore because millions have already used them, so apparently
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: they're still being sold as a patent interrupt, but it
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: stops being a patent interrupt when everyone is using it,
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: And I definitely want to call that out because I
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: would pick up the phone and have real conversation and
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: people like, Hey, you know, do you really think this
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: is even important on a deeper level beyond the spreadsheets,
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: beyond what my pitch is and what your company solutions
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: are or systems are. You really have to have like
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: a real talk as if you were sitting with them
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: at the bar. That's where you stand off and you
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: kind of understand the velocity for us even worth going
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: to the next steps.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I like how he used the analogy of it's like
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: approaching somebody at a bar, and that reminds me of
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: one of Justin's other books where he tells the story
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: of this I can't I just can't forget this pattern
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: interrupt where he walked up to the bar where he's
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: meeting this very high powered CEO of this fortune five
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: hundred company I think it was, and they're at the
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: top of the skyscraper overlooking the city and Justin walks up,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: grabs the guy's drink and takes a sip from it,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: and then and then gives a commentary about the quality
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: of the whiskey. And I mean, what a pattern interrupt, right,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is so atypical that the CEO didn't
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: even he didn't know whether to be angry or shocked.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: And it turns out the CEO just busted out laughing
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: and thought that was a very clever opener.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: So you know.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Something, now, that's pretty that's pretty striking a pattern interrupt.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: But you know what you're advocating for at a more
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: basic level, Abanov is, look, just don't be boring. Don't
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: be like everybody else. You know when that pattern interrupt
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: or that call script just starts to sound like everybody
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: else because you're getting it on the phone when you
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: pick up the phone and people are trying to pitch
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: to you. So I think one of the things you're
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: saying is if something feels stale or sounds stale, yeah,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: it's stale and it won't work with your prospects. And
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: you know, even more so than looking at trend analysis
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: of whether something's stale or not, is just listen to
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: what you're saying, as if you're the receiver, the human
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: on the other end, how's that going to come across
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: to you? And if it sounds stale, or if it
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: sounds just boring, or if it just sounds inane, then
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: don't do it. You know, at the end of the day,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: especially with AI proliferating so much, it comes down to humans.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: They just want to talk to other humans. So I
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: love tactic number one Abanov is really just injecting that
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: human element into your engagement with your prospects. Okay, what's
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: key tactic number two that you would like to talk about.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: I think one of the biggest key tacting number two,
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: which I am exhausted of telling but not seeing any
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: outcome from people, is everyone has the same email templates
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: and the process gotten that a million times, but they
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: don't understand how the CCID executives actually talk. They don't
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: write three paragraph emails. They don't care about their punctuations.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: They don't care if the key is capitalized with the
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: sentences beginning. They just care about getting things done and communicating.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: We've all read those fame As emails by Elon musk
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Tef Bezos, Bill Gates. They have they don't have proper punctuation,
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: and they're not they don't read like a long sonnet.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: So really understanding how we can not use this as
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: a tactic, but communicate where people want us to meet
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: in terms of even on a written format, send them
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: a one diagram or something short. Get to the point.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: I've been the recipient of Justin's venn diagrams and other
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: graphics and whether in DM and it's just it literally
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: is just a picture. And it's fascinating because, yeah, you're
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: getting bombarded in dms and emails with these three four
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: paragraph emails and you don't even look at it. Maybe
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: maybe if you're lucky, if they're lucky, you'll read the
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: opening sentence in the subject obviously, but that's as far
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: as you go. You're just I don't have time for this.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: And I also like the fact that you're focusing on
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: understanding that persona. You know, so many of these emails
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: that are detailed three paragraphs long. Those are great maybe
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: for the economic buyer, but not for the decision maker,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: not the CEO, not the C suite. As you indicated,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: you know, there are communication styles a lot more fast paced,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe a few short sentences, concise, maybe just
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: one or two sentences. It's more a conversational executive level.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Of course, you're not trying to use colloquialisms that are
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: too familiar, but you're still doing it respectfully, right I mean, yeah, yeah,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I get the vibe that you know, you want to
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: really match the communication style of that persona that you're
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: engaging with, right, Yeah.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: And just to understand, like you know, I run my
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: own business, You run your own business. The cognitive load
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: that we have day in and day out of running
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: a business. Now someone's running one hundred million or a
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: billion dollar company, they probably have way more cognitive load
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: and stressed than you and me. So how can we
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: get to the point instantaneously they will not stress their
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: narrow system or their brain to read the three barnagraph
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: or the message. It just shows how unprepared you are.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it does. And what I also like is,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I think what you're alluding to is really that personalization
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: of the conversation you're going to You're gonna present one
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: thought you're going to do in a very concise manner.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: You because you understand that persona, well, you know what
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: the next best action is going to be, and you
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: kind of you probably already have kind of planned out,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: not to the point that it's scripted but you're really
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: personalizing for that individual PERSONA Yeah, yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: I love this.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: So okay, that's tactic number two. Let's go into tactic
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: number three.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: I think tactic number three would be building a micro
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: business case. At the end of the day, we're in
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: the business sale to save money, mitigate risk, or make money.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: The faster we speak that in our messages, the faster
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: we quantify that. One of my favorite questions that got
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: me a big billionaire client that the closed one was
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: I straight up ask them, Hey, is it a six
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: figure problem or a seven figure problem? While in middle
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: of the conversation, and he's like, every mistake is one
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars problem for me, and I've had six
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: mistakes already, and I'm like that we should be talking
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: because literally a twenty or thirty thousand dollars solution that
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: I offer would solve that instantaneously. For you, guys, building
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: a micro business kiss again and again. And that only
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: happens when you understand the company's business very intimately by
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: talking to a lot of people as human as possible,
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: not dumping value or scripts at them and shutting them down.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So what I hear you saying is quantify the
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: problem for the individual for that specific prospect, right, And
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: it's not so much focusing on the ROI, it's taking
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: the position of hey and asking them how much of
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: this is? Quantify the problem for me? The problem of inaction?
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: If you don't do anything, how much is it costing you?
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Now when you're doing that, are you just asking them
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: point blank how much is this costing you? Or what's
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: the cost of inaction? Or you know, expressed this is
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: the way you did? Are you also going in from
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: and this is a little bit more of a Challenger
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: perspective of Hey, this is how much I think it's
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: costing you? Because I've seen it with other companies. Is
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: this how much it's costing you? Guys? Do you do
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: you take that approach at all? Or do you just
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: you just ask me, open end question, how much is
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: this costing you? What's your recommended approach?
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: I think my recommended approach is leading them in a
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: self introspective way because everyone's done Challenger.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: And again, it's a.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: Great book, but the most breakthrough happens in a very
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: self illuminative way. Be it our coaches, be it our
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: mentor be it someone's trying to sell us something. So
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: I usually, you know, lead with the problem that you know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: this is what your peers are saying. I'm just curious,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: what's it like in your world? Sometimes it exists, sometimes
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: it doesn't, and when it exists, we have a conversation
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: and asking open ended question, making sure the prospects speaking
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: more than you because we all know the date where
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: we spoke the most and thought it's a great date,
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: but we never got the reply back or the second date.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: So really leading them in their own because we want
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: to remind people that in the conversation they have the autonomy,
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: they're part of the conversation, they're not being projected something
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: at Yeah.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: I like that.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: I like how you're really putting the spotlight on the
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: prospect or your date as the case may be, and
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: you're really making them feel special in asking these thought
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: provoking questions. And these aren't trivial questions where they're really
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: just binary responses. These are really thought provoking questions of
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: empathetically and genuinely truthfully trying to understand what's really important
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: to them. Now what happens if it's not important to then,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: which you have is a solution that it's not the
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: right fit. How do you know maybe you're not the
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: right the right partner for them? How do you approach
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: in that situation?
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: I mean that happens. The market's so big. But the
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: only way to find out if you're a right partner
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: or not is still sit down and have a conversation.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: And if that conversation about maybe sometimes you know you
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: see in this ass well it's not a technical fit
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: because they can't really stitch up a software for them,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: or it's just that their business doesn't really need the software.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: It might be overkilled.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: So it all comes down to being a subject matter expert,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: not in just what you're selling in their company, asking
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: them questions like what's your business model? Like what do
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: you actually get paid about? Like I want to give
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: you an example, but there was this client that I
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: was reaching out, a big billion dollar electrical contractor subcontractor,
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: and I had a conversation with them, like what's your model?
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Like they're like, our profit margins are baked in, which
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: means if they do a good job or a bad job,
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: they get the five percent and they walk away to
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: a company like that, my software is an overkill. There's
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: no point making that deal. Happen or even progressing it.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: But a lot of reps would not know that because
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: they don't ask the question of what does your business
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: actually work?
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: What is the lifeline that you care about? And this
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: is so simple, as simple as how was your last relationship?
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: What was missing that you're still single again? It's just simple,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: nothing scripted with four lines, just human as possible.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, I love that one. Okay, that's a that's
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: a power question right there. And yeah, you could use
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: that in a business setting, you could use it in
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: a dating setting. I love everything you've told us about. Enough,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: let me summarize what I think we talked about at
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: least the top three takeaways. And again, folks, there's a
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: lot more packed into this book. It's available on Amazon.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: It's called P equals D Prospecting equals Dating, Make them
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: chase you? And what we talked about today, Abadov, I
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: think tactic number one is look at your opener, listen
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: to it, play it back in your own head. If
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: you think it comes across as stale, it comes across
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: as flat, it doesn't come across as human.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Don't do it.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Don't do it, come up with something else, and ideally
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: that takes us to tactic number two. Really know your
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: persona and engaging and communicating with the economic buyer is
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: very different than communicating and engaging with the decision makers.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: The folks in the C suite. They have very different communications.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: They had words that they used differently, and so really
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: understanding that pattern so that you can engage properly is
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: absolutely critical. And then finally, it's really putting the spotlight
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: on your prospect or your date and asking those deep
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: thought provoking, open ended questions to truly empathetically understand what
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: is important to them, what's their purpose, where are they
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: going with things, and what's the cost to them that
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: their experience if they can't achieve that purpose.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: And these are.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Really fundamental, profound tactics that I really enjoy in using
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: engaging myself. It's always great to have a justin Michael,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: co author on the podcast, and Abanov, this has been
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: so wonderful and illuminating talking to you. How can folks
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: follow your work? Connect with you? And we know the
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: book is available on Amazon. How else can folks read
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: your content?
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: I think one of the best ways to read my
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: content would be through my LinkedIn I'm very active there
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: my dms are always open. I don't gatekeep anything. They
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: can ask me any questions and I'm always available on LinkedIn.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, great, well, we'll connect with you on LinkedIn. And
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: when you do so, folks, make sure you're thinking.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: About that opener. Love that all right?
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Hey Ivanov, thank you so much for such a fun
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: episode and love to have you back. And thank you
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: again for all the work that you've done to help
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: the business development profession.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Appreciate you having me aware.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: our free community of corporate partners and business development professionals
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: advancing the art, science, and ethics of the business development
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: profession at Gbdassociation dot org.