Business Development

The best business development habit(s) you can have

Of all the things you can do do elevate your BizDev game, the most valuable is this: follow up. Whenever you make a new contact, or reestablish an old, important one, in many ways the original meeting is less important than how you follow up. The idea is to make sure they remember you. Here's how you do it:

Immediately after the conversation, fire up Outlook (or whatever contact management system you use) and take notes. Do a core dump, and get everything you can recall about the conversation down. Otherwise, you will forget almost all of it very quickly, which drains 80% of the value from the meeting. In particular, get down the personal stuff. Next time you meet him (or her) being able to mention one very small, very personal detail from your previous conversation will have tremendous impact. Also, within 24 hours, follow up with a quick "I really enjoyed it/let's do it again" email. This helps fix you in their memory, which is equally important.

A week after the conversation, send a second, equally quick "thought you'd be interested" email that refers to something in the original conversation. If you need to do a little research to come up with something, do it. It won't take more than ten minutes, and if you spent two hours setting up, going to, engaging in and returning from a meeting with someone, it's a trivial incremental effort. For example, if the person you met with talked about her love for collecting early Barbie dolls, send her an article about the Mattel lawsuit over Bratz dolls. The idea, again, is to reinforce your presence in her memory.

A month after the conversation, email a third time. It can be a "thought you'd be interested" email, or a "why don't we have lunch again?" email -- either is fine. The point, again, is that by following up, you make sure that you're remembered, which is the entire point.

Remember -- it's not what you do. It's what you do after you do what you do. Or something.

Why A Deeply Unsatisfied Client Is An Extraordinarily Bad Thing

I remember a couple of years ago having a client -- a law firm -- lose a client. The client was worth around $1 million in annual billings, and what shocked me was the firm's complete indifference to the fact that a large, important client had just strolled out the door.

There are at least two reasons this is bad. The first is that, of course, you lose the revenue. The second is that a dissatisfied client will TELL OTHER PEOPLE.And social media makes this result much, much worse. It is absolutely human nature to do this, and as an example, I now present a video entitled United Breaks Guitars.

The story, briefly, is that a country musician traveling on United checked a $3,500 Taylor guitar which was broken in transit. He apparently filed a claim for it, and after a year of running him around, United told him to stuff it. In response, he has written and produced the first of three songs chronicling his experience. It's up on YouTube. This is what happens when a deeply unsatisfied client starts telling other people what happened, except it's way, way worse.

It's a great song, too. Enjoy.

The Real Secret to Getting Referrals: Don't Beat Around The Bush

There's a lot of stuff floating around out there like this. While some of these items are interesting, I think they miss the real answer. As with a lot of other things, it's not anywhere near as complex as it's made to seem.

The best way to get referrals is like the best way to get any other kind of business: ask for it.

It's that simple.

Most people I've seen really, really beat around the bush on this one. It reminds me of that scene from American Graffiti in which the teenager is trying to disguise the fact that he's buying liquor by buying a lot of other stuff at the same time.

Shopkeeper ... "Want something?"
CMS ... "Um, yeah. Lemme have, okay yeah, lemme have a Three Musketeers, and a ballpoint pen, one of those combs there, a pint of Old Harper, a couple of flashlight batteries, and some beef jerky."

The best way to get referrals, hands down, is to be absolutely straightforward about it. I had this pointed out to me in a book with the unsubtle title Get More Referrals Now!, by Bill Cates. In Chapter 14, "How to Ask for Referrals" he divides the asking process into three parts. Part One is the most important -- it's called "planting seeds."

He recommends delivering a little speech every time you start working with a new client: "Lynne, I'm building my business by referrals. Which means to you that I will give you the best service I can. I want to earn the right to talk to you about whom you know who might also benefit from our services. I know if you are pleased with the work we do you'll be willing to have such a conversation."

EVERYONE understands this. Everyone knows how valuable referrals are. When you say so -- when you just come right out and say that referrals and introductions are how you grow, they know exactly what you're talking about. So, really, don't get too clever about it. Just tell them you're going to ask, then ask.