You're not alone. Ish.

Steve and I were recently asked to guest present on an Agency Hackers’ video training session (check them out - there are some incredible agencies in their community), talking to agency owners about smart ways to improve their own business development. As lovely as it is to be asked to do such things, the part I actually enjoy the most is the Q&A session at the end.

Apart from it being a nice opportunity to interact with the many many faces floating on the screen, it’s also always interesting for us to hear which part of ‘new biz’ trips them up the most.

The kinds of questions we got asked on this occasion included:

How big should my database be?

How should I approach our ‘dream clients’?

What email platform should I use?

As you might imagine, we had a lovely time addressing all of these questions (no, I’m not giving you the answers ‘for free’ here – you’ll have to give us a buzz for those gems) but more important/interesting is that you get to see how – with just a simple prod in the right direction – the weight lifts from some seriously-intelligent people who just happen to not know where to begin when it comes to business development.

So… you’re not alone! If you know you should be doing some/more/better business development but don’t even know how to get beyond a napkin with a few prospects scribbled down, fear not; lots of other smart people are in exactly the same boat.

It took the SpongeNB collective many years to feel confident enough to host such a video session, so there’s no way you’re going to get everything right in your first few attempts to reach out into the (never-forgiving) cold channel.

And before you ask, no, I don’t have a copy of the video to share (but I do have a VHS of Robocop if that’s any use).

Are we prospecting? Always.

During a casual chat with a competitor, I was asked when we like to prospect? I thought he meant specific hours of the day, but actually he meant months of the year. I then realised that we might be the only new business agency that prospects ALL YEAR ROUND!

Yes, August is a weird month, but that’s just a great opportunity to revisit data, stop sending emails (unless you LOVE out-of-office replies) and get everything in order before the rest of the year starts hurtling towards Christmas with the brakes off.

B2B Sales Connections recently ran a “3 Best B2B Sales Prospecting Tips” article, with one of the titular “3” looking at exactly this: “When should you prospect?” One tip I liked was to make sure you understand where every prospect is in their own buying cycle. If they’re one month into a new contract, there’s very little point setting a reminder to talk to them again in one month’s time to “see how they’re getting on”. You’re better off finding out when a review will take place and then popping up down the line as if it’s lucky timing. Such a review might take place at the halfway point or in five years’ time, but if you gather that information while you’re connected, you at least stand a chance of a more meaningful outcome when you next talk (and you’ll look smart for being switched-on enough to ask in the first place).

We challenge our own business development managers to never just accept a “try me again in six months” fob off. We’d rather say “no” as long as we then say something like: “I’d rather call back when we can have a proper conversation that moves things forward; when would that be?” Often this prompts the prospect to reveal “when the contract ends in 24 months” but at least now we know to stop wasting everyone’s time, set a realistic reminder, and to move on to the next target.

We also try to avoid arbitrarily writing off Summer… writing off Christmas… writing off the bit after Christmas… etc. Gather information and react to that rather than what the calendar says. And while you’re at it, why not research when your prospect’s next big anniversary is. Is it coming up to their first anniversary? Their 10th birthday? Their centenary even? They are BOUND to be doing something big around these events, so say hello eight months before that date, make them aware that you’ve done your homework, and ask how you can help make this momentous occasion go off with a bang.

‘Lucky timing’ is way more under your control than you realise.