You Have To Provide the Thrust
Sometimes I think business development consists of about five concepts, repeated over and over.
I was reading a printout today of a Powerpoint presentation that was part of a sales training program. One of the bullet points on one of the slides included a sentence that really struck me:
Do not assume the prospect will call you back.
Today I have placed something like a dozen business development calls. All but one of them went straight to voicemail,and I’m pretty sure that all of them are going to result in … nothing. Nobody has any interest in meeting with me, talking to me, anything like that. It has been a day of solid rejection, and I anticipate at least another two hours of more of this. However — and this is a huge “however” because I’ve been in this business for a long time, I also know something else.
Within the next few days, I will get a call, or three, or five, with a “yes” or a “let’s meet” or something Ike that. Specifically because I place all these calls, make all these inquiries, down the road, something is going to happen. This is as immutable a law as gravity. If you keep at it, something is going to happen. If you don’t, it doesn’t. Remember what I said about the simple lessons repeated over and over? This is another example.
If you are trying to make something happen — build a relationship, move a sale forward, anything — you have to be ready to do almost all the work. You’re going to have to provide all the energy. Later on down the road, or if the need is really urgent, then maybe your phone will ring, but most of the time, you need to assume that if things are going to move forward, it will be because you make it. You have to be polite, professional, and very persistent, but in the end, you’re going to have to be the driving force.
Steven Covey, the famous author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, understood this. He characterized it as being proactive, but he meant the same thing. In fact, he thought so highly of this that he made it the single most important factor in being effective. Here’s what he wrote:
“Of course, all the habits are important and they form an inter-connected whole or a continuum. For maximum effectiveness, you have to build from one to the other and apply them consistently. From that perspective, Habit 1: Be Proactive provides the foundation for all the other habits. Habit 1 is, undoubtedly, the foundation for leadership at home or at work because it begins with the mindset “I am responsible for me, and I can choose.”All the other habits are dependent upon being proactive …”
That that means is that providing the energy, making it happen, means taking responsibility for the outcome — owning it. That’s a big step. In practice, it means that:
- If a call isn’t returned, call again.
- Face-to-face is better than phone, which is better than email.
- You have to suggest the next step, and follow up to make sure it happens
- Finish a meeting with a concrete suggestion for a next step, always.
And so on.
In norm
al day-to-day life, this would be a really strange way to behave. I mean, eventually, someone else has to volunteer to do the dishes. But in business development, never ever forget that people are busy, distracted, and that your biggest competitor isn’t your biggest competitor — it’s inertia. Doing nothing. The status quo. Immobility.
Isaac Newton taught the world that an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.
That outside force is you.