Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 89...BD BOK Deep Dive: Chapter 11 How to Personalize and Not Be Creepy

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Episode 89...BD BOK Deep Dive: Chapter 11 How to Personalize and Not Be Creepy · What is Business Development?

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's jump right in with a really foundational debate
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and business development. Cold calling versus warm.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Calling the age old question right.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Exactly, And for anyone out there prospecting, this isn't just theory.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: It really affects your quota, your morale, your whole strategy.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: For sure. A lot of people go with their gut
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: feeling on.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: This one, they do, but we're here today to show
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: you that the data, I mean, the data tells a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: really definitive story. It basically dictates how you should be
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: organizing your outreach.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: That's absolutely right. We are diving into some hard numbers today,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: specifically from a big revenue dot io study, and it
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: looked at a very specific metric, the first call conversion
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: rate to a scheduled first meeting. Okay, so the traditional
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: cold calling model, the completely unsolicited outrage, it converts at
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: six percent.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Six percent.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: That's the industry benchmark for that kind of high volume activity.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Wow, six percent. I mean, you need a mountain of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: calls just to move the needle at that rate. But
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: when we look at warm calling, the number it just
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: pretty dramatically.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: It doubles, Yeah, just flat out doubles. Warm calling hits
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a solid twelve percent conversion rate on that very first
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: contact attempt. Twelve percent when you're talking about scaling a
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: sales organization, I mean doubling your efficiency right at the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: top of the funnel. Yeah, that's transformative.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: That right there, that is the gap we need to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: focus on. So our mission in this deep dive is
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: for you, the business developer, to get past the labels
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: of cold and warm. Yeah, to really understand the system exactly,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to understand the tactical systems, the psychological triggers, and the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: tech you need to get that twelve percent conversion rate.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: We're going to explore modern strategies like social selling and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: what our sources are calling missionary prospecting to give you
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: insights you can apply, you know, tomorrow.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And we're going to use specific frameworks, specific research to
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: show you exactly why things like trust and patients when
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: they're backed by data, are now the keys to converting
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: more leads.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, So let's start where most teams start with that
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: traditional six percent system. The sources call it mercenary prospecting.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: It's all about volume, right and efficiency.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate high volume game, and that need
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: for volume is driven by well by one simple reality,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: digital noise.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Just getting lost in the static.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly, the majority prospectors, they fail to even reach a
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: person on the first call. You've got filters, gatekeepers, you
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: just drowned out. The research shows you typically need five
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: to seven contact attempts five to seven, yeah, across multiple channels,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: just to get that initial connection.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: So if you need that many touches, a single phone
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: call isn't a strategy, it's what a roll of the dice.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: You really need a dedicated strategic workflow, a.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Multi touch workflow, one that defines your sequence, so the
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: order of your steps and your cadence, which is a timing.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: And the sources give a great example of a modern,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: pretty persistent twenty one day sequence.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, so walk us through that. What does that look like?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So this sequence is designed to maximize your visibility and
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: just get over that initial friction. Day one is the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: coal call and.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: The voicemail standard stuff.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Right, But day two is the first critical tactic, the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: double touch. You send an email and a social media message.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: You're hitting them from two angles almost immediately to make
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: sure your message cuts through.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I find the inclusion of physical elements and all this
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: really fascinating, especially Now in such a digital world, if
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: you skip ahead to day eleven in that sequence, it
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: actually says to send a direct mail gift. Why why
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: is that still a tactic in a high efficiency system?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Because it's designed to trigger a psychological principle called reciprocity bias. Okay,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: sending a small, thoughtful gift, you know, maybe a book
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: or something personalized to their industry. It creates this unconscious
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: sense of obligation. When they get something tangible, they are
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: neurologically more likely to respond to your next call or email, even.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: If they had no intention of responding before.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Exactly, it's a low cost, really high impact way to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: reduce that friction.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: So it's not just a nice gesture. It's a psychological tool.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Use a strategic in the sequence, which then leads to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: what a follow up call on day sixteen to see
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: if they got it, then a final attempt on day
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: twenty one.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Yep, that's the flow.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Okay. So if this is so process driven, and it's
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: all supported by technology, automated dialers, AI, predictive analytics, all that,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: why can't mercenary prospecting ever get past that six percent ceiling?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Because no amount of optimization can change the fundamental fact
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: that it is an interruption. You are forcing a conversation
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: on a cold prospect. They have zero brand awareness, zero
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: establish trust. You can be fast, you can be precise,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: but you can't force trust. And that's what keeps you
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: stuck at that six percent ceiling.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: And that leads us perfectly into the systems that do
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: generate that twelve percent conversion rate. Warm calling, or as
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: we often hear it called today, social selling, conversational prospecting.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Community marketing, all different names for a similar idea. And
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: the data behind this approach is it's.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Just overwhelming, okay, laid on us.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so. According to LinkedIn data, the measurable ROI for
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: building social selling into your work flow is incredibly compelling.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Social sellers create forty five percent more opportunities than their.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Peers forty five percent. Wow.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: They're also fifty one percent more likely to reach their
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: quota consistently. And this one might be the most startling.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: They out sell seventy eight percent of their competition. This
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: is proof that warmth isn't soft. It's a massive competitive advantage.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: If that data doesn't convince a sales leader to shift resources,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what will. So let's drill down.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Let's get into the mechanics. What are the four core
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: pillars that explain why warm calling is just inherently twice
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: as efficient.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: They all come back to trust and reducing friction. First
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: is awareness. The prospect already knows your brand, they've seen
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: your posts, your content, So you're not spending money on
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: outbound ads just to introduce yourself.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: You bypass that initial who are you moment exactly.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: And second, there's already some initial trust established. You just
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: have to build on it. You aren't starting from absolute zero.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: And the third and fourth points they seem to tie
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: into the power of data and timing. Right.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yes. The third is the engagement profile. Because the prospect
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: has interacted with your content, maybe they like to post
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: or downloaded a report. You now have intent signals. You
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: can tailor your first contact to be super relevant. You're
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: not just guessing what their pain points are.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And that fourth pillar, it sounds like the holy grail
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: for business development, the ability to actually influence the buyer's journey.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: That's the influence path to conversion when you reach them
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: early in their activation phase, which is that moment a
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: buyer realizes they have a problem and they start looking
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: for solutions. You can guide the conversation.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: You're not just reacting.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: You're not just reacting to a pre written RFP. You
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: might even be able to shape their requirements. You're sort
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: of co creating the solution they need, which drastically increases
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: your odds of closing the deal.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: That idea co creating the solution instead of just interrupting
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: with a pitch. That's a really profound philosophical shift. This
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: is the difference between mercenary prospecting and what the source
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: is call missionary prospecting or brand ambassadorship.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Missionary prospecting is guided by a north star, which is
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: to constantly deliver value to the prospect. You prioritize their needs.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: You're profoundly buyer centric. It means you are selling out
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: of a relationship of trust, not into a vacuum of noise.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: This all sounds amazing, but let's talk logistics. Trust takes patients,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and patients costs time and resources. For a sales manager
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: who's getting pushed for quarterly results, what does this level
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: of patients actually look like in terms of activity.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: This is the massive and frankly almost shocking cost of trust.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Forced to. Research found that the average prospect engages with
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: brand content and prospectors an average of twenty seven interactions
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: before they'll declare an intent to buy.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Wait, wait, twenty seven.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Twenty seven. This twenty seven touches twenty seven pieces of
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: content consumed twenty seven exposures before they finally raise their
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: hand and say, okay, I am ready to talk seriously.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Twenty seven interactions. That number is a real gut check
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: for any sales manager who thinks a three step email
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: sequence is enough. It forces a complet leet operational shift.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: It has to.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: So if we accept that twenty seven touch reality, how
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: does a team practically manage that kind of trust building
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: buyer centric progression across all those channels.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: It has to be incremental. The initial sequence is slow,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: it's non sales y. It starts with the prospect or
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: just monitoring, following, liking, and commenting on the prospect's social activity.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: The prospect accepts the connection and the next step is
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: a value.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Exchange, not a sales pitch.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. You invite the prospect to a
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: piece of content, a webinar, a case study that's directly
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: relevant to what you've seen.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Are their interests, So you're holding off on the pitch
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: for a long time until you've gathered enough data.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Precisely, you move into the intent analysis phase. You monitor
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: their engagement. Did they stay for the whole webinar? Did
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: they click on your pricing page? Did they sign up
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: for the newsletter? Only after you interpret those intent signals,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: do you send that targeted email proposing a meeting?
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And I'm guessing you frame it specifically around the pain
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: points you think you've identified through their behavior.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: That's it. This requires serious data management and adaptive behavior
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: from the prospector. And this is where the Nice nuturing
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: method becomes so essential.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Nice, okay, what's up?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Nice is the framework for what we call behavior marketing
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: or adaptive marketing. It means you're continually monitoring the prospect's needs,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: intent signals, channels, and behaviors.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: To determine the next best action.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Exactly. You just can't do this manually with hundreds of leads.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's make this tangible. Give me a real world
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: scenario of the Nice method triggering one of those adaptive
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: marketing actions.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, sure, imagine prospect X has been consuming your content.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: The system notes their behavior, they downloaded a general white paper,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: but then they clicked on a link to a specific
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: competitor analysis. Ah, so their intent just shifted. It just
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: shifted from researcher to comparison shopping. The nice automation system
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: sees that it bypasses the generic next blog post, email
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: and triggers a specialized action. It sends them a personalized
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: link to an interactive ROI calculator and a personal note
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: and a note asking a very specific question about their
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: current solution. That level of responsiveness is what drives that
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: twelve percent conversion.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: That makes perfect sense. The system is dictating the next
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: move to maximize the impact of every single one of
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: those twenty seven touches.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Exactly, and automation helps manage all the omni channel triggers
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: like an email click could automatically lead to a prompt
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: for a social poll invitation, just to keep the engagement alive.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: So we've covered the six percent cold approach and the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: much higher touch twelve percent warm approach. Now let's talk
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: about the absolute fastest route to conversion, hot calling.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Right. These are prospects with extremely high intent, often right
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: near the point of purchase, and these are the most efficient,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: the most efficient because the trust in the activation work
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: is already done. They usually come from three key areas.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Inbound leads that have been pre qualified by a chatbot
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: or a form employee referrals, and third referrals from partners
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: or existing customers.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And you mentioned sometimes even referrals from competitors. How on
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: earth does that work.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: That's a process called customer printing. It sounds a little strange,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: but it's very strategic. If your company finds a lead
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: that's just a bad fit, maybe they're too small or
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: in the wrong industry for your strategy, you strategically refer
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: them to a partner or even a friendly competitor who
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: can serve them and in return, in return, that partner
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: sends you their bad fit leads that are a perfect
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: fit for you. It's a formalized referral loop that generates
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: these high intent, pre vetted hot leads.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: That's a genius way to maintain lead quality. But no
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: matter where the lead comes from, the crucial variable here
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: isn't just the quality. It's the speed of response.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely, time is your fiercest competitor when a lead
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: is hot.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: I've heard this, but the numbers are pretty stark. Aren't they.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: The stats from a twenty eleven Harvard Business Review study
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: on this are still the gold standard, and they are shocking.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: They found that nearly half of corporations, forty seven percent,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: either it took more than ten twenty four hours to
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: respond to a hot lead or just never responded at.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: All, almost half. That's just that's an enormous failure rate.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: And what was the quantifiable penalty for being slow?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: This is the critical finding. Corporations that responded within one
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: hour were seven times more likely to have a successful
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: discussion with a decision maker, seven times seven times more
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: likely than those who waited longer.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Than an hour, just by moving quickly. That's incredible, and
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: if you.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Look at the extremes, it gets even crazier. Responding within
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: one hour was sixty times more successful than responses that
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: took over twenty four hours.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Sixty times.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: So if a sales team lets a hot inbound lead
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: sit overnight, they have essentially forfeited ninety eight percent of
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: their chance of success on that lead. The intent window
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: is just incredibly fragile.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, so speed is everything, But does the prospector just
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: drop everything in dial or do they still need to
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: do a little research.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Speed requires focus, but it doesn't mean flying blind. The
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: research has to be minimal but impactful. In that one window,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: the prospectors should be talking to the refer for context,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: quickly scanning the prospects linked in, checking recent intent signals
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: or company news, anything they can get their hands on quickly.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: So the goal is to make sure that first very
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: fast call delivers the highest possible.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Value, the highest value in relevance YEA, to maximize your
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: odds of converting right then and there.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: This deep dive has really solidified for me that the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: difference between cold and warm isn't just a feeling. It's
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: a huge operational difference, rooted in data, in structure. So
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: let's bring it all home with the top three tactical
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: takeaways for everyone listening.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, takeaway number one is the data point itself. You
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: have to acknowledge that warm calling is just inherently twice
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: as efficient. You have to stop treating cold outreach as
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: your main strategy when you know you can get a
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: twelve percent conversion rate by using intent signals and brand.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Awareness compared to that generic six percent from pure interruption.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: That data has to drive your resource allocation exactly.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Takeaway number two is about the strategy you need for
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: that efficiency. Success demands a buyer centric north star. You
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: have to internalize the cost of trust, and the data
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: shows that's an average of twenty seven interactions before someone
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: declares intent.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: So your focus has to shift from a quick close
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to just continuous incremental value.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Using systems like the nine C method. Patience isn't a
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: virtue anymore. It's a tactical necessity.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: And the third takeaway.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: And takeaway number three is about urgency for your hot leads.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Time is your biggest competitive threat. That one hour response
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: window is a proven dramatic differentiator. It offers up to
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: sixty times more success than delayed outreach.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Hot leads demand immediate, focused action or you just lose them.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: You lose them, simple as that.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: The reality is, if you want that twelve percent conversion rate,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: you really have to commit to missionary prospecting and the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: immense resource dedication it requires for all those touches. So,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: since warn calling is so resource intensive, here's a final
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: provocative thought for you to chew on. Okay, if the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: cost of trust is twenty seven interactions per prospect, how
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: effectively is your prospecting team collaborating on content and leveraging
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: their individual social selling INVEX to maximize distribution across their
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: combined community of prospects, customers, and partners. Because a shared
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: effort seems like the only way to manage that volume
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of touches.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Efficiently, an excellent question to end on.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us for this deep
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: dive into the data behind lead conversion. We'll see you
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: next time.