Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 110: BD Book...Top 3 Tactics from “How To Sell”
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
- 0:07Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
- 0:12Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
- 0:25Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? Hey, you know,
- 0:32Speaker 2: wouldn't you like a book that explains the sales process?
- 0:35Speaker 2: I know you're a business developer and you're on the
- 0:38Speaker 2: go to market team along with marketers and salespeople, and
- 0:42Speaker 2: you know, wouldn't you like to improve your knowledge of sales?
- 0:46Speaker 2: And if you're a sales manager or a sales leader,
- 0:49Speaker 2: wouldn't you like that too? And a BD leader wouldn't
- 0:52Speaker 2: you like that? I bet you would. And today we
- 0:54Speaker 2: have a fantastic book that just came out. It's called
- 0:57Speaker 2: How to Sell. It's with our guests, Vive Radford, the
- 1:01Speaker 2: author of the book, and it'll help you improve your
- 1:05Speaker 2: sales game. And hey, if you want to improve your
- 1:09Speaker 2: BD game, well, then go out and grab yourself a
- 1:12Speaker 2: copy of the Business Development Body of Knowledge. This is
- 1:16Speaker 2: the comprehensive book for our industry, our profession. Where you
- 1:21Speaker 2: can get your copy of the book, read the Business
- 1:24Speaker 2: Development Body of Knowledge and then you use that to
- 1:27Speaker 2: take your online exam for your Business Development Professional certification,
- 1:33Speaker 2: and you can do that by going to the GBDA
- 1:35Speaker 2: website at Gbdassociation dot org. Okay, folks, so let's talk
- 1:42Speaker 2: about this book that just came out. It's called How
- 1:45Speaker 2: to Sell Everything You Need to Think, Know, and Do
- 1:50Speaker 2: to have Greater Sales Conversations by Steve Radford. Now, this
- 1:55Speaker 2: book is talking about really how selling is changing, and
- 2:01Speaker 2: everybody knows that AI now is out there, It's pervasive.
- 2:05Speaker 2: Your ability to have conversations with customers and make those enjoyable,
- 2:11Speaker 2: insightful and productive conversation just becomes even more important. And
- 2:16Speaker 2: how to Self focuses on conversational rather than consultative selling,
- 2:22Speaker 2: recognizing a customer's foundational values and emotional wants as well
- 2:27Speaker 2: as their more pragmatic needs. It will help you build
- 2:31Speaker 2: genuine human connections, deliver more positive buying experiences, and have
- 2:37Speaker 2: more effective sales conversations that deliver greater sales results. And
- 2:43Speaker 2: the author is Steve. Read for a little bit about Steve.
- 2:46Speaker 2: Steve is the founder of the Greater Sales Company and
- 2:51Speaker 2: he trains frontline sales teams to master conversational selling. He
- 2:57Speaker 2: teaches them to be more efficient through better sales. I
- 3:00Speaker 2: was planning and prioritization, and he mentors and guides them
- 3:04Speaker 2: to be more effective at every step, from opening conversations
- 3:08Speaker 2: to closing sales. And so I'm excited today to open
- 3:14Speaker 2: this conversation with Steve Radford. Steve, welcome to the show.
- 3:19Speaker 3: Thank you, sony.
- 3:20Speaker 2: Steve. So, how did you get into the business development profession?
- 3:24Speaker 2: I say, BD, I'm including all of our cousins and sales.
- 3:28Speaker 2: So how did you get into the profession?
- 3:32Speaker 3: Okay, so, like most people, I kind of sort of
- 3:34Speaker 3: fell into my first sales role. I used to be
- 3:37Speaker 3: in the Pope and Hospitality game left that I was
- 3:41Speaker 3: off on a year around the world and a friend
- 3:42Speaker 3: of mine picked up the phone and said, can you
- 3:44Speaker 3: come and help us out? And I ended up doing
- 3:46Speaker 3: a sales role there. She was working for a sales
- 3:50Speaker 3: agency at the time, and yeah, we ended up starting
- 3:53Speaker 3: our own field sales agency. So we used to manage
- 3:56Speaker 3: and develop salespeople on behalf of brands. And it was
- 4:00Speaker 3: only when I was running that agency that I kind
- 4:02Speaker 3: of got my first what I would call a true
- 4:04Speaker 3: business development role.
- 4:06Speaker 2: You know.
- 4:06Speaker 3: That was not only was I helping our teams to sell.
- 4:09Speaker 3: What I was doing is you know, developing the business
- 4:12Speaker 3: that we had ourselves and managing our managing our clients too.
- 4:15Speaker 3: So yeah, it was It wasn't planned, but yeah, I
- 4:18Speaker 3: loved every many of it.
- 4:21Speaker 2: Oh that's I love that journey. I mean it really
- 4:23Speaker 2: was a journey around the world, right. Uh. And then
- 4:26Speaker 2: you came back and you fell into sales and the
- 4:29Speaker 2: BD profession, which a lot of people do. Uh, and
- 4:32Speaker 2: they do that songs a journey around the world. So uh,
- 4:38Speaker 2: it's great you were able to discover yourself through the
- 4:40Speaker 2: end of that journey. So now, why did you write
- 4:44Speaker 2: the book? There are a lot of books on sales.
- 4:47Speaker 2: I think it's really intriguing where you say you're shifting
- 4:50Speaker 2: the mindset from consultative selling to conversational selling. Can you
- 4:57Speaker 2: tell us a little bit more about that and how
- 4:59Speaker 2: you kind of, you know, created that mindset. Yeah.
- 5:03Speaker 3: Sure. So I wrote the book because over my twenty
- 5:07Speaker 3: year career, I've developed a lot of sales training and
- 5:09Speaker 3: development programs, including some really chunky programs. So I spearheaded
- 5:14Speaker 3: the development of the Sales Executive Apprenticeship program in the UK.
- 5:17Speaker 3: So this is a program for school leaders to turn
- 5:20Speaker 3: them into great salespeople. And I've developed some university level
- 5:24Speaker 3: qualifications too. The thing about those programs is as gold
- 5:28Speaker 3: standards they are, they're not easy to access, and they're
- 5:32Speaker 3: pretty chunky things. It's the sales apprenticeship is it's a
- 5:35Speaker 3: twelve to eighteen month program that involves about six hundred
- 5:38Speaker 3: hours of study. So I challenged myself to Okay, if
- 5:42Speaker 3: you only had a short period of time with a salesperson,
- 5:46Speaker 3: or if a salesperson wants to get you know, the
- 5:48Speaker 3: maximum value they can over just a few hours, what
- 5:52Speaker 3: would you do? And so that's where the book came from.
- 5:54Speaker 3: So I challenged myself. I got fifty thousand words or
- 5:58Speaker 3: six hours. If you're listening to the audiobook, what is it?
- 6:01Speaker 3: Everybody needs to think? No and do that are the
- 6:04Speaker 3: foundations of all great sales and all great business development careers.
- 6:09Speaker 2: Well, it sounds like a great crash course for anybody
- 6:12Speaker 2: that's coming back from a global journey and gets a
- 6:15Speaker 2: call from a friend to start a field field sales agency.
- 6:18Speaker 2: So this is good to do, Steve, all right, so
- 6:21Speaker 2: let's jump into the book, folks. I'm going to show
- 6:23Speaker 2: you the cover a little bit again for folks just listening.
- 6:27Speaker 2: The book is How to Sell Everything you Need to Think,
- 6:30Speaker 2: No and Do to have greater sales conversations. It's available
- 6:33Speaker 2: on Amazon, very accessible. I've been reading it myself. So, Steve,
- 6:38Speaker 2: let's talk about the top three takeaways or tactics from
- 6:40Speaker 2: your book. What's tactic number one?
- 6:43Speaker 3: Okay? So the book is in three parts, Everything you
- 6:46Speaker 3: Need to Think, No and Do. So I'm going to
- 6:47Speaker 3: give you a tactic from each part. So the first
- 6:50Speaker 3: tactic comes from right the start of part one, and
- 6:54Speaker 3: this is about mindsets, right. Part one is all about
- 6:56Speaker 3: how do you think? What are the mindsets? What are
- 6:58Speaker 3: those deeply ingrained ways of thinking that if you develop them,
- 7:02Speaker 3: they'll shape your behaviors. And the most important one is
- 7:06Speaker 3: to focus on helping people more specifically, focus on helping
- 7:10Speaker 3: people to make inform buying decisions by exploring and targeting
- 7:15Speaker 3: a win win outcome. That's what I call my sales philosophy,
- 7:19Speaker 3: and it's something I start all of myself training with
- 7:21Speaker 3: because I think it should underpin everything we do as
- 7:24Speaker 3: business development professionals, right from that very first conversation all
- 7:28Speaker 3: the way through account development and retention.
- 7:31Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that. I always tell people, look, we're
- 7:33Speaker 2: business developers. We're not here to sell anything. We're here
- 7:36Speaker 2: to save. And I always liken it to kind of
- 7:40Speaker 2: a lifeguard mindset. Okay, we're not here to run around
- 7:43Speaker 2: the beach just blindly tripping over beach blankets and upsetting
- 7:47Speaker 2: people asking if they need to be saved. No, we
- 7:49Speaker 2: need to keep our eyes on the horizon, look for
- 7:51Speaker 2: those people that are in distress, and we swim out
- 7:53Speaker 2: there and we see them, and at the end of
- 7:55Speaker 2: the day, they can take our LifeRing or not. I'm
- 7:58Speaker 2: not the cops. I can't force them, but you know,
- 8:00Speaker 2: if they want to be saying, they can come with me.
- 8:03Speaker 2: So I like your mindset. I think this is where
- 8:06Speaker 2: industry is going for go to market teams across the board.
- 8:10Speaker 2: When I talk to more and more authors just like
- 8:12Speaker 2: you who have been in the trenches. Not the theoretical
- 8:16Speaker 2: folks that are just teaching academics, but the people who
- 8:19Speaker 2: have been in the trenches. They see what works, They
- 8:22Speaker 2: know what works and what has been presented as top
- 8:26Speaker 2: tactics or techniques, and they know what they know how
- 8:29Speaker 2: those don't work. I think this is great. This is
- 8:32Speaker 2: a very healthy perspective that every business developer and salesperson
- 8:36Speaker 2: should hear. Is it go in with the proper mindset?
- 8:39Speaker 2: Would you say, go in with value, deliver value? But
- 8:43Speaker 2: what does value mean to you? Because it's very easy
- 8:46Speaker 2: to say, oh, well, marketing supposedly created valuable content that
- 8:51Speaker 2: I need to show my prospect, But how do you
- 8:53Speaker 2: define that?
- 8:55Speaker 3: So it's about nets value? So what I mean by that?
- 8:58Speaker 3: And this is the principle of socially change theory, which
- 9:01Speaker 3: is subconsciously every interaction we have, we judge the value
- 9:05Speaker 3: we get from it against the costs we have to
- 9:08Speaker 3: incur as a result. And the value can be lots
- 9:11Speaker 3: of things, right, okay, So it can be the value
- 9:13Speaker 3: we get in terms of from a business perspective, we
- 9:15Speaker 3: could measure it in terms of profit. It might be
- 9:17Speaker 3: value that we get helping us towards our own goals
- 9:20Speaker 3: and objectives, whether they be professional or otherwise. There are
- 9:23Speaker 3: lots of different ways we get we deliver value. But
- 9:26Speaker 3: you've also got to focus on the cost side, because
- 9:30Speaker 3: the costs. Okay, there's a financial cost if you're making
- 9:33Speaker 3: a sale, but there's also a time and effort cost.
- 9:36Speaker 3: A cognitive lowers costs So it's about not only delivering value,
- 9:40Speaker 3: but making the process as easy as possible, as low
- 9:43Speaker 3: cost as possible for the customer so they enjoy those interactions,
- 9:47Speaker 3: they want to engage with you. As the business development professional,
- 9:51Speaker 3: they should be getting value out of every interaction that
- 9:54Speaker 3: you have with Yeah.
- 9:56Speaker 2: Well, and it's in the business development body of knowledge.
- 9:58Speaker 2: There's scientific eviden it's to show that the prospect experience.
- 10:03Speaker 2: We all talk about the customer experience, but before they
- 10:07Speaker 2: become a customer, the prospect experience has a greater impact
- 10:12Speaker 2: on retention of clients than the customer experience, which is
- 10:17Speaker 2: a little mind boggling, right, Like, they probably went through
- 10:21Speaker 2: the prospecting process and the conversion phase with their salesperson
- 10:24Speaker 2: and their business developer three or four years ago, and
- 10:27Speaker 2: they are contemplating whether they should stay with the company.
- 10:31Speaker 2: Those conversations they had three or four years ago are
- 10:33Speaker 2: more important than what happened yesterday in customer experience. And
- 10:38Speaker 2: I think that's just absolutely fascinating that it's not just
- 10:41Speaker 2: about conversion and getting the deal, it's about getting in
- 10:45Speaker 2: there and building that relationship early on so that you
- 10:49Speaker 2: have a prospect experience that will really empower that relationship
- 10:55Speaker 2: moving forward well beyond the conversion phase, well after the
- 10:58Speaker 2: salesperson has this is great stuff, Steve, Let's jump into
- 11:03Speaker 2: tactic number two because I think they kind of this
- 11:06Speaker 2: is going to roll right off the tactic number one.
- 11:08Speaker 2: What's number two tactic?
- 11:10Speaker 3: So the books in three parts. Part two of the
- 11:12Speaker 3: book is everything you think you need to know. So
- 11:14Speaker 3: my second tactic comes from part two of the book,
- 11:16Speaker 3: and this is about making sure you have a good
- 11:18Speaker 3: understanding of your role within your organization's sales pipeline. So
- 11:23Speaker 3: this is about understanding the entire pipeline, not just your
- 11:27Speaker 3: section of it. In the book, I have a really
- 11:29Speaker 3: simple visual representation of the pipeline, understanding if you're not
- 11:34Speaker 3: responsible for a whole of pipeline, what happens at those
- 11:37Speaker 3: intersections when customers enter your section of the pipeline, where
- 11:41Speaker 3: do they come from, who's responsible for them, and how
- 11:44Speaker 3: is that communication managed? And then once you understand your
- 11:48Speaker 3: your section of the pipeline, to manage it strategically. So
- 11:52Speaker 3: this is about taking strategic ownership of what you do.
- 11:54Speaker 3: So I work with everything from frontline sales people into
- 11:59Speaker 3: field sales, territory execs. So we talk about them taking
- 12:02Speaker 3: strategic ownership of what they do and building out their
- 12:06Speaker 3: own mini strategy. And I think a good business development
- 12:09Speaker 3: strategy has six elements to it. So it's who, why, when, where,
- 12:14Speaker 3: what and how? So who this is? Who are you
- 12:18Speaker 3: going to focus on? Who are you prioritizing? Do you
- 12:20Speaker 3: really understand what your ideal customers are? Your you know
- 12:22Speaker 3: your icps? The why is what are your objectives?
- 12:26Speaker 1: So?
- 12:27Speaker 3: What are your objectives for your different types of customer?
- 12:30Speaker 3: How do they link to your KPIs and how do
- 12:32Speaker 3: they help the customer with their KPIs too? The when
- 12:36Speaker 3: is about your contact frequency? So thinking carefully about okay,
- 12:39Speaker 3: how often and when are we contacting different customers? What's
- 12:42Speaker 3: our trigger points? The where is about the communication channels
- 12:46Speaker 3: that we use? Are we defaulting to the ones that
- 12:48Speaker 3: we like to use or are we working in the
- 12:51Speaker 3: way that customers like to be communicated? The what is
- 12:54Speaker 3: about your toolkits? So what tools have you got at
- 12:56Speaker 3: your disposal? How can you optimize those? And then the
- 13:00Speaker 3: how is about improvement? How can you improve what you
- 13:03Speaker 3: do in that area? Regardless of the toolkit and the
- 13:05Speaker 3: strategy that gets handed to you, how are you taking
- 13:08Speaker 3: ownership of that. So as business development professionals, you know,
- 13:12Speaker 3: we don't just shouldn't just deal with the strategy we
- 13:14Speaker 3: get handed. We should be actively developing our own sit
- 13:18Speaker 3: alongside that.
- 13:19Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's great, Steve. You know you're covering the
- 13:23Speaker 2: five w's right or six w's I guess it's or
- 13:26Speaker 2: who when? And where are why? And how? I guess
- 13:28Speaker 2: you five w's in an H. And that's great, you know,
- 13:34Speaker 2: because that's a that's a simple mindset for new salespeople,
- 13:38Speaker 2: new business developers when they're jumping into the role to understand, okay, well,
- 13:42Speaker 2: where how do all the pieces of the team fit together?
- 13:44Speaker 2: And what's my role? And what are my left and
- 13:46Speaker 2: right boundaries? Where do I have authority? Where do I
- 13:49Speaker 2: have responsibility? And you know, how can I maneuver effectively
- 13:55Speaker 2: on the team because every team, every company is different
- 13:59Speaker 2: in the way they're strug on their BD teams, their
- 14:04Speaker 2: go to market teams. So that's a great construct. Let's
- 14:07Speaker 2: jump into tactic number three then, Steve.
- 14:10Speaker 3: Okay, so part three of the book is about everything
- 14:12Speaker 3: you need to do, and in there I have a
- 14:15Speaker 3: seven step process for managing a sales conversation and the
- 14:19Speaker 3: tactic there is to treat every conversation that you have
- 14:24Speaker 3: as a sales conversation and plan your objectives accordingly. So
- 14:29Speaker 3: as business development professionals, we speak with clients and customers
- 14:33Speaker 3: all the time, but we don't always set objectives for
- 14:36Speaker 3: those unless we've got a KPI we need to move
- 14:40Speaker 3: and I want to get people away from that. We're
- 14:42Speaker 3: always selling something, whether it's an idea or a product
- 14:45Speaker 3: or a service. But through every conversation you have, you
- 14:48Speaker 3: should set yourself objectives as though it is a sales
- 14:51Speaker 3: conversation that you're going to close a deal at the
- 14:53Speaker 3: end of. And I have three levels of objectives. You
- 14:57Speaker 3: need to set yourself an aspirational objective. So this is
- 14:59Speaker 3: your stretch objective. If things are going to go really
- 15:03Speaker 3: well in this conversation, where can I push this to.
- 15:06Speaker 3: So that's not an objective you're going to meet very often,
- 15:08Speaker 3: but it's important to have because sometimes you just catch
- 15:11Speaker 3: that customer on the right day at the right time.
- 15:13Speaker 3: You need to have a stretch that you can go to.
- 15:16Speaker 3: Your level down is something that's achievable. So this is
- 15:19Speaker 3: the thing that's going to move your KPIs that it's
- 15:22Speaker 3: probably you know, it's more understanding that this is something
- 15:25Speaker 3: that you want to move, and then the level three
- 15:28Speaker 3: is your fall back. Okay, if I am not going
- 15:30Speaker 3: to move a KPI today, what can I do that
- 15:34Speaker 3: makes it more likely we're going to get some traction
- 15:36Speaker 3: on that in our next conversation. So having those objectives
- 15:40Speaker 3: means you can flex up and down depending on the
- 15:43Speaker 3: nature of the conversation, how it goes with the client,
- 15:46Speaker 3: and it means you're always looking at ways that you
- 15:48Speaker 3: can get value, and of course those objectives should be
- 15:50Speaker 3: adding value to the client a customer as well as
- 15:53Speaker 3: to yourself.
- 15:54Speaker 2: Steve, I really like this one. I've never heard this
- 15:57Speaker 2: tactic before, and I think this is great because you're
- 16:03Speaker 2: setting objectives for each engagement with your prospect and you're
- 16:08Speaker 2: trying to get buy in and you're trying to have
- 16:14Speaker 2: agreement on those little mini contracts. We write about them
- 16:17Speaker 2: in the Business Development Body of Knowledge, and this is
- 16:20Speaker 2: important for nurturing that relationship. To have those mini contracts.
- 16:23Speaker 2: It's a give and take. It's an exchange of value
- 16:26Speaker 2: as we progress, and if we're not getting anything in
- 16:29Speaker 2: return for our valuable contributions to the conversation, well then
- 16:33Speaker 2: you probably know that it's not going anywhere, And I
- 16:36Speaker 2: like how you know some people go in with an
- 16:38Speaker 2: all or nothing mindset, and what you're saying is no,
- 16:41Speaker 2: it's not all or nothing. Every engagement has different shades
- 16:45Speaker 2: associated with it. Yes, you have a stretch goal, and
- 16:48Speaker 2: if things align perfectly in this conversation, then you're going
- 16:52Speaker 2: to knock it out of the park. But if it doesn't,
- 16:55Speaker 2: here's what you should at least achieve. And if that
- 16:58Speaker 2: doesn't happen, okay, at a minimum, what should I be
- 17:01Speaker 2: able to accomplish? And if you come away with nothing, well,
- 17:04Speaker 2: then you know you're not getting any progress on this
- 17:08Speaker 2: and you should probably just cut beat and move on
- 17:10Speaker 2: to the next prospect. Probably would you agree.
- 17:13Speaker 3: No completely, And it gives you confidence because you've always
- 17:17Speaker 3: got somewhere to move to. Whether it's because perhaps the
- 17:20Speaker 3: customer isn't in the place that you thought they were
- 17:22Speaker 3: and so you need to flex for that reason, or
- 17:24Speaker 3: for whatever reason. You know things don't go as well,
- 17:26Speaker 3: they go better than expected, But it all comes back
- 17:29Speaker 3: to the question of so what are you selling in
- 17:32Speaker 3: that conversation, and you'll often talk with business owner and
- 17:34Speaker 3: execs got well, I'm not selling anything. We're selling an
- 17:37Speaker 3: idea at least, or we're continuing to get them to
- 17:40Speaker 3: buy into an idea that you know, that's what we're moving.
- 17:44Speaker 3: You could the process is that I train people on
- 17:47Speaker 3: you can use to sell them that you can use
- 17:48Speaker 3: them to sell ideas as much as you can sell
- 17:50Speaker 3: a product or service.
- 17:52Speaker 2: You know.
- 17:52Speaker 3: Yeah're all with salespeople at heart. We're always selling something.
- 17:56Speaker 2: Well, sure, we're trying to deliver value somehow. And I
- 18:01Speaker 2: really like this concept of pick something that is a
- 18:04Speaker 2: stretch goal for you in each engagement. And I've seen
- 18:08Speaker 2: this time and again where as a business developer, I'm
- 18:12Speaker 2: on the go to market team with sales folks and
- 18:15Speaker 2: account managers and they're playing it safe. I think they're
- 18:19Speaker 2: going for their KPI goal yep. And I tell them, look,
- 18:24Speaker 2: you're doing a disservice to your prospect if you don't reach,
- 18:29Speaker 2: if you don't have a stretch, Because I've seen it
- 18:32Speaker 2: time again too where they do stretch or I have
- 18:37Speaker 2: a stretch and I present that to the prospect and
- 18:41Speaker 2: it turns into a whole new conversation something the prospect
- 18:45Speaker 2: had never thought about, never contemplated, or it completely rewires
- 18:51Speaker 2: the entire relationship it has. Oftentimes it has the prospect
- 18:56Speaker 2: saying oh, I've never heard that before. That's really interesting,
- 19:02Speaker 2: and then you have a conversation that leads to way
- 19:05Speaker 2: more opportunity than you bargain for.
- 19:10Speaker 3: It stops the camp. If you're managing an account, people
- 19:13Speaker 3: often don't start to think about pushing it forward until
- 19:16Speaker 3: it gets to repitch stage. You should be constantly moving
- 19:19Speaker 3: that customer forward.
- 19:21Speaker 2: Yeah, now that's music to my ears, Steve, That's music
- 19:24Speaker 2: to my ears. And this is why you know not
- 19:27Speaker 2: to begrudge the performance of account managers or customer success people.
- 19:31Speaker 2: They're all great people, yes, but they're incentivized often to
- 19:35Speaker 2: simply achieve the KPI. And that's why I think it's
- 19:38Speaker 2: important to have the business developers going back to tactic
- 19:42Speaker 2: number two, depending how the team is structured and what
- 19:45Speaker 2: the processes are. For the BD leaders that are listening
- 19:49Speaker 2: to this conversation with Steve, folks, you have to have
- 19:54Speaker 2: bed continually involved swing through the ball because the business
- 19:59Speaker 2: deve helopers should be if they're trained by Steve, to
- 20:04Speaker 2: have those reach goals in each of those conversations with
- 20:08Speaker 2: your existing clients to help move the needle beyond just
- 20:13Speaker 2: the basic KPIs and accelerate the process of getting to
- 20:19Speaker 2: growth phase with your customers as quickly as possible. Steve,
- 20:23Speaker 2: this is fascinating. Let me summarize the top three tactics
- 20:27Speaker 2: or takeaways and please jump in if I missed anything. Okay.
- 20:32Speaker 2: Tactic number one is mindset, approach each engagement from a
- 20:36Speaker 2: position of value. We're not here to sell. We're here
- 20:40Speaker 2: to save and deliver value to our prospects and help
- 20:45Speaker 2: them succeed and survive in their industry. The second tactic
- 20:51Speaker 2: is know what the process is, Understand what everybody does
- 20:57Speaker 2: on the team, Understand your responsibilities, what your authorities are,
- 21:01Speaker 2: and understand the who, what, when, where, why and how
- 21:08Speaker 2: of the entire process. And then the third tactic is
- 21:13Speaker 2: go in with each engagement focused on three primary objectives.
- 21:21Speaker 2: The baseline KPI of what should I typically expect to
- 21:26Speaker 2: come out of this conversation, the backup situation of okay,
- 21:31Speaker 2: at a minimum, what should I be able to come
- 21:33Speaker 2: out of this conversation with? And then finally that reach
- 21:37Speaker 2: that reach objective that you may feel a little uncomfortable
- 21:41Speaker 2: asking the customer something, but when you do, when you
- 21:45Speaker 2: reach it, opens up an entirely new conversation, and it
- 21:50Speaker 2: could open an entirely new book of business. And if
- 21:53Speaker 2: you want to learn about growing your business, then grab
- 21:57Speaker 2: Steve Radford's book. It's how to set everything you need
- 22:01Speaker 2: to think, know and do to have greater sales conversations. Again, folks,
- 22:06Speaker 2: it's available on Amazon. Grab yourself a copy and reach
- 22:10Speaker 2: out to Steve. Steve, how can folks connect? Follow your work?
- 22:14Speaker 3: Best place to reach me's on LinkedIn. I love to
- 22:17Speaker 3: have conversations with salespeople, business development people, SDRs, BDRs, whatever
- 22:21Speaker 3: your role. Yeah, reach out connects. Yeah, that's the best
- 22:24Speaker 3: place to find me.
- 22:25Speaker 2: Okay, folks, you heard it. If you want to connect
- 22:27Speaker 2: and converse with Steve Radford, feel free to do so.
- 22:31Speaker 2: He's very accessible and Steve, I've had a wonderful conversation
- 22:35Speaker 2: with you to do. Thank you so much for everything
- 22:38Speaker 2: you do for the business development profession. We really appreciate
- 22:41Speaker 2: it and we'd love to have you back again when
- 22:43Speaker 2: you write your next book.
- 22:44Speaker 3: Thank you, Tony.
- 22:49Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
- 22:53Speaker 1: our free community of corporate partners and business development professionals
- 22:58Speaker 1: advancing the art, science, and ethics of the Business Development
- 23:02Speaker 1: Profession at Gbdassociation dot org.