Karleen Belmont, FSMPS, Director of Business Development/Associates, PACE Engineers, Inc.
and Jon Davies, Director of Client Services, BHC Consultants
Know why it is called BD? Because technical professionals are afraid of the word “sales.”
For the purposes of this session, BD is the client contact. Marketing is the proposals, etc.
Qs from audience:
1) How to transcend from marketing into BD
2) How has BD changed
3) How to implement BD culture in small firm
4) How to get everybody involved? (Is that important?)
5) How do I get to meet the public agencies (vs. Primes)
6) How do you demonstrate the value of relationships when doing public works selling?
7) Seller-doer – how can marketing best support?
8) Strategies for getting technical people to talk to their clients
9) Differences between public/private sector BD
Public Sector
One change today from the past - They cannot accept anything over $25; but if they are at a conference, they may let you take them out to a $4000 dinner (well, depends on the person, but in general, this is true)
Karla – BD is simply empathy. It is putting yourself in the shoes of your client. Think about what it is that they would like in choosing the services that you provide.
What is BD?
1) Strategy: The hardest thing about communicating – no time is EVER wasted doing be BD. Some of it may not ever pay off, but it is never wasted. Other thing is FOCUS. If you are X company, continue to provide X. Focus your BD on X. Exponentially hard to do BD for something you are not know for.
2) Implement your marketing plan – don’t let it sit on the shelf
3) Human Interaction/Influence
Not rocket science, but people science.
Have to become intelligent about people language
4) The Sell
Marketing Plan is foundation for BD Plan
· BD Goals
o Who do we target (market segments/clients)
o Where do we target them (geographic markets)
o What services will we provide (discipline)
· Who should be responsible for BD – absolutely Principal-level must be able to do BD; and anyone who is PASSIONATE about it – it isn’t for everyone. Need to match personalities with the client, too.
· Accountability/ROI
o What process do you have to hold people accountable?
o Is there a “policing officer”?
o Is BD/accountability set to bonus program?
o What is measured? Like how many new clients? Sales?
o This weekly meeting – is one way to get technical people accountable.
o More effective – sitting in their office once a week, did you make this call, let’s make the call together.
o Most effective – set the meeting with the client, and take the technical staff WITH you
Scorecard – Simple Calculation
(in presentation slide) – how much new business are we going to have to generate for the year?
Prospecting
· A lot of research - which are the “hottest” clients
· Social media – a mix of personal/professional. Professional contact – the facebook humanizes the relationship.
· Cold call – keep them short. The goal of cold call is to meet them face to face. And let everyone else (competition) believe that cold calls are dead. Gives you edge… Keep it to a minute – tell them the truth, and just set up the meeting. You have to PLAN these calls. [Change – can’t just “pop in” anymore for cold call.]
· Cold call ideas – set up a question for the person to ask client; or write a script
· Go/no-go process – in this economy, pre-positioning is essential; why would you go away from a process that worked in boom time when there is even LESS money now?
Prospecting – Making Contact
· 8 contacts to 1st sale
Never underestimate what a client will forget
· Target 8-10 clients (if technical person, trim to 2-4 clients)
Technical people – 2 hours a week, if they are committed to doing it
BD folks can handle more. Takes time to cultivate the clients.
1) Introduce firm – again, never underestimate what a client will forget. And then ask all open-ended questions to get them to talk about themselves/agency/firm.
2) Learn about their organization
· Print it out and take it with you – it makes you look like you’re serious, came prepared
· Often, client will look at what you printed and say “Oh no, that’s out of date…” and give you good stuff
· Learn about them personally – more reasons to contact them
3) Frequency of contact – depends on how “hot” they are on your list. First Tier, once a month; Tier 2-3 once a quarter; Tier 4 – once a year ISH. Can be easier for women to get an appointment!! So when a female or young PM calls, they will often get an appointment when no one else has been successful.
4) Follow-through: do what you say you’re going to do and in a timely way. Hand-written thank you (stands out). Client is watching you to see “what you’ve got” and if you really have good client service.
What to talk about –
Birthdays, what’s important to them, anything THEY are interested in
Even if first conversation was all business-focused, END with something personal. “What do you like to do when you’re not here?” Just need to know a little something to carry over into meeting #2.
Prospecting – Lead Tracking
· Whatever works – database, excel, etc. The process is only as good as the information you’re keeping.
· This is where you can win or fail. KEEP THE NOTES where someone else can find it.
· If you pick up a business card at conference/tradeshow, give them a call within 1-2 weeks of event. Even if you don’t have anything to talk about, MAKE the CALL.
· Monitor leads at intervals and follow-up – celebrate how many meetings you (your people) are having; share market info/financial info of where the gold is
· Stay connected to people with the work; don’t waste time with folks who don’t have work (indefinitely)
Prospecting – Networking
· Good BD people have big networks – you have to; you never know who is going to have the info you need
· Social media
· Conferences – target who you want to meet; make the most of the event
· Organizations – Be where the client is; become involved. [Jon] I will take a meeting with anyone who will take a meeting with me. If they want to meet, MEET. And you never know where they are going to end up. Don’t make anybody made; you never know where they are going to end up.
· Even if you just meet with client so they can yell at you for an hour about past “wrongs” or baggage, that’s ok. As soon as you know there’s a problem, put it where others can access that info (CRM?)
· Persistence is really important – you can’t give up with “no”. Just be available.
· Stay in touch – how does client want it? Phone, email, text? [Change – the communication is always changing. They may want to stay in touch through social media]
Client Relationships
· Relationship trumps technical skills 99.9% of the time
· If you do a good job for a client, they will give you another job
· Need to match positions/personalities with client’s position/personality
· Focus your time – ROI; are you hitting the clients with the money (right now)? If you have to start NEW, pick someone with money. Balance the risk (of being a pest) with the reward (of a large project you know is coming up)
· Manage your relationships. Prioritize; spend time according to highest priorities
Client Relationship Management
· Debrief – win or lose
· Have Principal or BD person check in with client throughout the life of the project – beginning, middle, completion. NOT the PM; client will tell this “third person” stuff they can’t tell the PM. Have BD lead at kick-off meeting; let client know you are part of the team for client satisfaction/relations
· Client Perception Surveys – invaluable information; do them continually; at least every 2 months. Pick a different group of people you want to survey. Can be an excellent way to find out what the reputation is of firms you’re looking to acquire
· Databases – excellent tool for storing info accessible to everyone (or everyone doing BD); only as good as the information it contains
The Sell
· People buy from people
· Not selling a product, selling our people and our experience
· Give clients the tools to sell your firm
· BD opens the door, technical skills sell the firm
· Train technical people to hear what is expected and needed from the client – be there; be with them; be present
· Customer can’t touch/feel what they are buying; they must rely on the firm’s past experience and references
· Clients WILL talk to non-technical people – all you need to know is what the firm can and can’t do. I am a professional “table setter” – BD sets the table, technical closes the deal.
Changes
· Not a 3 martini lunch; not everyone has a boat anymore
· You want to get client on the golf course – for public clients, go through associations’ events
· Or sponsor something at organization the client values
· Consultants are “teaming” on the BD side – using the introduction of a subconsultant to a client as an excuse/reason for meeting the client
What the last 18 months taught us:
· Keep your logo visible in the marketplace
· Firms that sold hard in the boom times fared better in the lean times
· Stick to whatever process made you successful during boom for Go/no-go
· Your “First Wave” of prospects are your best bet at short-term new work
· Desperate firms will “pick your pocket” – stay close to these clients to see if it pans out, don’t let it get you down
· Never underestimate the power of pro-bono work; has to be something you’re passionate about
· Treat your existing clients like GOLD (if you’re not treating them well, someone else is knocking on their door and client will switch)
· Keep at it!!
The presentation and ideas were excellent. Followed the handout, and told stories from the trenches. And solicited a lot of “best practices” from the audience. Really interactive crowd. If I could implement a 3rd of what we talked about, I'd be a hero. FJL - we need to do lunch when we both get back to the office. I'm so JAZZED!!
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