Doug Houser:
From Rea & Associates’ remote studio, this is unsuitable, a management and financial services podcast for entrepreneurs, tenured business leaders and others who are ready to look beyond the suit and tie culture for meaningful measurable results. I'm Doug Houser. On this weekly podcast, thought leaders and business professionals break down complicated and mundane topics and give you the tips and insight you actually need to grow as a leader and help your organization thrive. If you haven't already, hit the subscribe button so you don't miss future episodes. And if you want access to even more information, show notes and exclusive content, visit our website at www.reacpa.com/podcast, and sign up for updates.
Listeners, you are in for a treat today because on the mic today is Amy Franko author of The Modern Seller, which is in fact, a bestseller on Amazon. Amy is a keynote speaker, sales strategist, and author specializing in B2B sales and sales leadership development. If you're looking for a go to resource for B2B sales, Amy is it. We've all experienced disruption lately, but as they say, the show must go on. If you want to grow your business, you must find ways to continue the important job of business development, even when everything has changed. Amy is here today to talk about business development during disruption, how to organize your pipeline, how to stay in front of clients and rise above the noise, and how to help your customers prioritize what's most important right now. Welcome to unsuitable, Amy.
Amy Franko:
Doug, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Doug:
Yeah, absolutely. I wish we could get together in-person, but such is life these days amid COVID-19. So-
Amy:
We'll have to do it again in the future.
Doug:
For sure. So you are absolutely, I'm going to put all the pressure on us, you're absolutely going to be one of my favorite guests of all time here. And the reason I say that is because this is a topic that's near and dear to my heart and that's relationship building and thinking about developing business through this period. So what's your best and most sage advice right now during these challenging times in terms of business development?
Amy:
Oh, well, yeah, the pressure's on, right? You're shaking your magic eight ball, we're putting together a great conversation today.
Doug:
Absolutely.
Amy:
Yeah. You know, it's probably one of the biggest conversations I'm having right now is the mindset, our mindset as business developers, as leaders, is more critical than ever before. So that's a conversation I'm having often is how do we keep the right mindset, keep a positive outlook amidst all of this disruption? And the second thing that I would add to that is conversations about making sure that we're staying out front and center. It is easy, especially in remote environments to kind of sit back, to maybe hide a little bit in our home offices. And this is a time where we have to find creative ways to stay in front and to be that calm, competent, trusted advisor with our clients and also our prospects.
Doug:
I think that's certainly a well stated. And I know one of the lessons that I personally learned through the great recession and 08, 09 timeframe, is you've got to try to also focus beyond the current crisis mode and try to think beyond that, think a little more long-term, would you agree? What's your approach beyond this current crisis?
Amy:
Yeah, 100% agree. It's really easy to, with the news cycles and social media and just everything that's happening, is to stay right, to keep what's right in front of us and to kind of get sucked down into it. There's a need to of course, pay attention to what's happening so we can advise our clients well, but we also have to keep an eye to the future. We have to be looking at the next quarter, the next year, into 2021 and beyond because we are going to come out of this, we will recover. It may not look the same, it most likely won't look the same, but there's still opportunity. And it's still our role to be looking to the future so that we can create our own futures within our organizations, but also help our clients and prospects see what the future could look like.
And one thing that I've been doing, and I encourage all of my clients to do is to take a really good, hard, honest look at your pipeline. That's an activity of today, but also something that will help you look toward the future. So taking a really good, hard look at your pipeline, which opportunities and clients and projects could potentially still be moving forward? Because there are segments that are thriving right now, which opportunities, projects, prospects, might not be moving forward right now and staying in front of those and being there for them today, but also into the future. So if you haven't taken that good, honest look at your pipeline, that's the first thing that I'm telling my clients to do.
Doug:
Yeah. I think that's wonderful advice because as you said, everything's shifted so much, so you can't assume the status quo once we get back to somewhat more normalcy, for sure.
Amy:
Yeah, exactly. Even if I use myself as an example, I have four different revenue streams in my organization. One of them is keynote speaking. Well, there's not a whole lot of keynote speaking going on right now. You know, that revenue stream is hurting, but it will come back. And so my job is to make sure that I'm still taking care of that revenue stream in addition to the others. And to your point, still keeping that eye to the future.
Doug:
Yeah. So you talked a little bit about staying in front of folks and I know that's something that I've tried to emphasize within our own organization, too. You know, staying in front of folks, check in, provide a lot of resources through this time, and that sort of gets you in the door with perspective clients and certainly strengthens existing clients. So how do you take that, those efforts that you've made and then leverage that into your future pipeline? Do you have any thoughts there?
Amy:
Yeah, so going back to my pipeline reference and taking a look at our revenue streams in our pipelines, I will categorize or prioritize my pipeline between my current clients that I have active consulting work, active training work with whatever that looks like. So I will prioritize those first. I have and continue to check in with those clients. And I will even go beyond just my main contacts there. I will go to other contacts that I have across those clients, just to continue building those relationships, to understand, hey, where are we today? Is this something that we want to continue talking about? Are you in a wait and see mode? What do things look like for you, so that we can navigate it together. We can't control if they are necessarily moving forward or not, but what we can control is how we handle it and how we work together to put some milestones into the future, if in fact they are in a wait and see type of pattern.
So I start with those current clients first, then I move over to my perspective clients. These are clients that maybe they don't know me yet. They might know my name. We might've been introduced at some point, but we don't have a current project, current working relationship, if you will. Those can be a little trickier because you don't necessarily have that trust factor yet with them. So the way that I've approached perspective clients is to, it's genuine interest, in checking in on them and making sure that they're doing well. And I might say something like, "This may not be the best timing, I'd be interested in if you are doing investments into the business, are you in a wait and see type of mode? How might we continue building a relationship moving forward?" So it just opens up the conversation a little bit more. It's genuine. It helps to build relationships for the long term versus risking being seen as opportunistic.
Doug:
Yeah, no, I totally agree. And my approach has been to try to reach out and frankly, I've provided some resources in terms of my own time, effort, and research for free to prospective clients to try to strengthen that relationship. And they see, look, if this is how you're going to react and be there with me in a time of crisis, then when we get beyond this, that says everything about how you view them as a client.
Amy:
Yeah. Exactly. Right. And to your point of offering some of those resources, thought leadership pieces, other research that may not necessarily be from my organization, but other well-regarded research, just sharing those things periodically. I've had a couple clients that I've reached out to where I've offered 30 days of my advisory at no charge. So, similar to what you're saying, where can we be strategic with using our smarts and our resources with either current clients or prospects?
Doug:
Yeah, no, I think that's a great way to look at it. So how do you, once you get engaged with a client and you think, okay, here's their business, I listen, I learn about their business. How do you then translate that into assisting them with their business to business development efforts? What are some of the steps there?
Amy:
Yeah. So we'll unpack that one a little bit. So I'm in that scenario where maybe it's a new potential relationship. So part of what my organization does is business development, sales training. So I've actually created a four-part business development framework that I will bring to organizations, and I will teach them the foundation of successful business development. And I think that there are four pieces that go into the decision making process, if you will. There's the intelligence that we have about that prospect or client. So to your point, how much do we know about their business? How much do we know about the vision of the CEO? How much do we know about internal organizational challenges? These things can all signify where there might be either some trigger events or some problems to solve.
Sometimes they don't even know that they have a problem to solve until we're there as a sounding board for them. So that intelligence piece is really important. The relationships are the other piece. Do we have access to the right relationships? Are we being strategic in our efforts? And are we reaching people who are influential in the decision making process? So I focus on that and make sure that I am building relationships at the right levels of the business. And the other two pieces of the framework are around proposing solutions that really fit the outcomes and the value that they're looking to get to. And then what's the commitment look like? How do we close business in a way that has integrity and signifies commitment on both sides. If it's a new relationship, [inaudible 00:12:29] and understanding their business. And then I'm looking for ways that I can bring fresh ideas to them that might signify something that they'd be interested in talking about further.
Doug:
Yeah. I think that's a great approach. I know one of the things that I sometimes struggle with within our own organization now I'm considered a sage old experienced person, now that I have, I guess, 30 years under my belt in different roles. But for young people trying to establish themselves and they look and say, okay, I see some of the partners or the senior folks in my organization and what they do, so once you're engaged with an organization, how do you sort of get them to think to build that pipeline within their own organization of people that can then start to do their own thing as well? How do you do that?
Amy:
Yeah. So there's an exercise I'll sometimes take folks through, and this can be applied regardless of the industry that you happen to sit in. But I think that that's a real common challenge when sometimes when we're younger in our careers and you can feel like you're kind of boiling the ocean, right? There are so many industries, verticals, opportunities, you kind of feel like you're on the hamster wheel. So where do I focus my efforts?
So an exercise that I take myself through and I've also taken clients through is taking a look at the verticals. And especially in professional services, there are a lot of verticals that you could go into, but if you could pick maybe two or three that are either growth for your firm, they're growth initiatives for your firm, they are verticals where you have particular expertise or interest. There's lots of different ways that you can land on those verticals. But if you can pick two or three to focus your efforts in, that gives you more laser focus than feeling like you are trying to go after five or eight or ten. So that's typically where I'll start with someone who's saying, I don't know where to start? I at least need a track to start running on.
Doug:
Yeah, no, I think that's great advice too. One of the things I try to tell people, I mean, I go back to when I started, just try to be informed. Be a sponge and learn and read, find those two or three things that you spoke of that are of interest to your organization and would be of interest to potential clients and be passionate about it and learn as much as you can, right. So when you're in front of those folks, you can talk to them about things that are of interest to them.
Amy:
Yeah. And along that same line, so I got my start in technology. So for the first 10 years of my career, I was in the technology sector. I worked for IBM and I also worked for Lenovo. And I remember early on in my career, there were a couple of people on my team that were just absolute rock stars. I wanted to be them when I grew up. And so I would actually shadow them. I would go with them on client appointments. I would offer to help them with proposal writing, to learn what it was that made them successful. To be in their space if you will. And so if someone is newer in their career, is there that rock star in your organization that you want to learn from? Offer to shadow them, offer to help them on proposals. Anything you can do to just immerse yourself and learn from them and what's made them successful.
Doug:
Oh, I think that's a wonderful idea that kind of, it doesn't have to even be formal, right? Just an informal mentoring and hey, pick your brain a little bit, whatever it is, go to lunch or something. When we're able to do that again.
Amy:
Yeah, right. We will be able to do that, but yes, follow them, offer to help them. If I wanted to learn a different skill, I remember there was someone early on in my career who was a rockstar at prospecting, and I would learn from him about some of his prospecting strategies. So depending on what you're looking to learn, there might be different people that you informally mentor with.
Doug:
Yeah. And I think that's important to you. You sort of alluded to it there, how do you encourage people to sort of develop their own style so that they can be successful? You can't be uncomfortable, right, in what you're doing. So you can take those things. How do you encourage somebody to kind of use and develop their own style?
Amy:
Yeah. I always think about that phrase about it's better to be your best self than to try to imitate someone else. I am not getting that statement right. But it's the idea that being our best and most genuine self is better than imitating someone else any day of the week. Business development can be really uncomfortable and we're putting ourselves out there and we are risking rejection, we're putting ourselves out there every day. So there's definitely a level of discomfort with it, especially early on. I always encourage people to take what you learn and adapt your style to it. Use your words, use what is going to be the most genuine to you because that's what people are going to connect with. They're going to connect with your best you.
Doug:
Yeah, I think that's wonderful advice on that front too. I'm I'm curious as to your thoughts on, I've been in different organizations, some have been more formalized I would say with their business development practices, others less so. And I see the advantages of both. What do you feel about that in terms of say having a quote unquote playbook, here's how we do things that's very boxed in and defined versus a looser environment. What are your thoughts on both of those?
Amy:
So first I will bust a myth that you're either really good at business development, or you're not. There are people that absolutely gravitate toward it, but I also strongly believe it's a set of skills and a mindset that can be developed if you want to develop it. There's some research that's done by a chief sales officer, is a research organization and they've done some research on this exact topic that you're talking about. And what they have found, and this is a statement, not just within professional services, but across industries, over 900 organizations they have surveyed. And what they found was the highest performing organizations, the ones that move further up the chain in becoming a trusted advisor, the ones that experienced the most profitable and sustainable growth, so that top right quadrant, if you will, the ones that are in that top right quadrant have a defined sales and business development process.
But one that's also flexible to specific situations. Defined in that you have I like to call it a framework. Defined in that you have a framework, a process if you will, that gives you a common language. It gives you an anchoring point. It gives you specific skills that you work on, but flexible in that depending on what types of industries you're selling into, you can adapt it for the situation that you're in. So it's that mix of structure plus flexibility that helps those organizations be trusted advisors and be the highest performing.
Doug:
So in other words, you can have a process or even a box, but permit it to be wide. And within that, there's plenty of room to maneuver given the current situation or even the existing personalities that are involved, right?
Amy:
Well, yeah, exactly. And it's something that I see a lot in professional services is a lot of organizations are driven, RFP, heavy. It's a RFP heavy business. So when I'm working with clients and we're talking about sales process, you might have some scenarios, like an RFP type of scenario, where it's very formal. You have to follow very specific things, you're doing formal presentations. That's a bit of a different scenario than if you are writing an engagement letter, you're writing an engagement letter with outcomes and value for the client, but maybe you're sitting across the table or you're doing something in Zoom like we're doing today. You still need to get to the same outcome, but the way that you approach it needs to be flexible just based on your scenario.
Doug:
Yeah. That's interesting too. I think one of the things that we struggle with, and I know a lot of folks in different industry struggle with is that RFP mentality versus the true relationship. And you've won the relationship due to the value that you can show, you're able to provide, obviously big difference there, how do you overcome some of that kind of RFP type of mentality and you get to the lowest common denominator, which is always price, that kind of a thing?
Amy:
Yeah, I know it's hard. And I've done both. I have worked in RFP heavy environments. I responded to my fair share of really large RFPs. And I've also had opportunities where it's a three page agreement and we are ready to move forward. I would say the common thread in both scenarios from my perspective is, are we clear on the business outcomes that they're looking to accomplish? Do we have understanding of what's going to make it successful? What are their measures of success? And can we really articulate, do our solutions help drive both of those things and get to the higher level of value that the organization is looking to accomplish? An RFP set can be tough because especially if it's an initial response and you're looking to get to one of the three or the five that get to the presentation round.
It can be extremely price driven, but I would argue that there are things that we can absolutely do behind the scenes. Again, going back to how much intelligence do we have about this organization? What relationships do we have in the organization that we can leverage? And then strategically, does putting our time and effort and resources into these RFP responses, is there a strategic reason to do it? So thinking through that and yes or no, to whether or not you reply depends on your strategy. And so thinking through that first, before going down the road can help with a lot of the RFPs that we respond to that are really low odds.
Doug:
Yeah. That makes great sense. So one last question, your book The Modern Seller, so are we going to have to adapt that now for COVID-19? Are we going to see an addendum to that?
Amy:
You never know, right? So the catalyst behind The Modern Seller was with my own prospects and seeing changes in how they needed to go to market with their own prospects and clients. Things like being able to prospect and present and negotiate and close, those activities are still critical and they don't change. But the book dives into what I see are some skills behind the skills. Some real strategic skills that if we build these in ourselves, we are going to be better at those activities. We're going to be better at navigating and excelling in disruption, of digging into topics like agility, thinking like an entrepreneur, how we build loyalty, how we build strategic relationships, how we think holistically about our selling process. Those things are very foundational and will help us be better and will help us thrive in disruption.
Doug:
Yeah, that's awesome. I second that advice and I applaud you for your insights. So thanks for joining us today, Amy. And if you want more business tips and insight, or to hear previous episodes of unsuitable, visit our podcast page at www.reacpa.com/podcasts. And while you're there, sign up for exclusive content and show notes. Thanks for listening to this week's show. Be sure to subscribe to unsuitable on Apple podcasts or wherever you're listening to us right now, including YouTube. I'm Doug Houser, join us next week for another unsuitable interview from an industry professional.
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The views expressed on unsuitable on Rea Radio are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rea Associates. The podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended to replace the professional advice you would receive elsewhere. Consult with a trusted advisor about your unique situation, so they can expertly guide you to the best solution for your specific circumstance.
