Mistakes

Don’t Make This Mistake: Ditch the Catalogues

By Tom on August 11, 2023

When it comes to making a lasting impression with your customers, it’s essential to establish strong professional relationships. One common mistake that many individuals make is neglecting the crucial aspect of rapport-building. This oversight leads to missed opportunities and limits long term growth. In this article, we will explore the importance of building rapport, avoiding catalogues, and engaging in meaningful discussions to foster a positive and successful business development relationship.

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My recent experience

This is a true story. Nearing the end of the day a rep from one of our suppliers comes to the office door. He hadn’t phoned or emailed ahead, his arrival was completely unexpected. In his arms was cradled a massive catalogue resembling an old fashioned phone book. Without any prior groundwork or meaningful work discussions, the rep makes minor small talk, hastily drops off the catalogues and leaves. This approach not only lacks personal touch and rapport-building but also fails to create a conducive environment for open dialogue and collaboration.

The power of rapport-building

What should the unfortunate rep in the above example have done instead?

Rapport-building is the foundation for establishing strong relationships with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders. Taking the time to connect on a personal level fosters trust, understanding, and cooperation. It is crucial to show genuine interest in others, actively listen, and demonstrate empathy. By engaging in small talk, remembering personal details, and finding common ground, you can create a positive atmosphere that encourages open communication.

Ditching the catalogues

While it might be tempting to rely on catalogues, brochures, or other promotional materials as a means of communication, they should never replace meaningful conversations. Dumping a massive catalogue and leaving without engaging not only fails to capture attention but also limits the opportunity for discussion, clarification, and problem-solving. The rep left my office with no understanding of the issues we face or the solutions we might need. Instead, focus on creating a two-way conversation that allows for the exchange of ideas, insights, and concerns.

Phone book or catalogue? It doesn’t matter both are obsolete!

Asking questions and discussing specific issues

To build rapport and foster meaningful work discussions, it’s essential to ask questions, encourage dialogue and actively listen. By initiating conversations about specific issues, challenges, or goals, you demonstrate your commitment to understanding your customers’ perspectives and finding common ground. Actively listening to others’ responses, providing thoughtful feedback, and seeking solutions together cultivates an environment of collaboration and mutual respect. All foundations of a strong long-term business development relationship.

Effective rapport-building strategies

Ditch the catalogues and try some of these strategies below.

Initiate conversations: Take the initiative to start conversations with colleagues, superiors, and clients. This shows your interest and willingness to connect.
Active listening: Be present and fully engaged when others are speaking. Show genuine interest by nodding, making eye contact, and asking follow-up questions.
Remember personal details: Pay attention to details shared during conversations and remember them. Follow up on previous discussions, ask about personal milestones, and show that you value the relationship.
Find common ground: Discover shared interests or experiences that can form the basis for deeper connections. This can help break the ice and create a more comfortable environment for collaboration.

Conclusion

In business development, building strong professional relationships is essential for success. Prioritizing rapport-building and meaningful work discussions instead of dumping catalogues, creates an environment that fosters collaboration, trust, and open communication. Taking the time to engage in conversation, ask questions, and discuss specific issues not only develops rapport but also creates a solid foundation for a long term, mutually beneficial relationship. Remember, effective relationships are built on human connections, not on impersonal materials.

Rapport building

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Business Development priorities

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The 5 Most Common Business Development Mistakes To Avoid

By Tom on January 20, 2023

During my conversations across a number of different industries I hear a number of business development mistakes repeated over and over again. In an effort to help you avoid the worst I list the most common five below. Identify which most applies to you and commit to making a change.

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Waiting for Phone to Ring

It’s amazing how often I hear of business development and sales professionals forgetting the concept of the sales funnel. Failing to facilitate a steady stream of leads into the top of your funnel will see your revenues dwindle to nothing.

Sitting by the phone. Relying on marketing. Focussing on social media likes. None of these replace making physical contact with customers, developing relationships and helping them solve their problems.

Proactivity is key. Getting into the market and making contact with existing and prospective customers whilst seeking market intelligence will keep that funnel full. Obviously, you cannot stop.

Not Aligned with Purpose

Having the perfect plan with lots of scheduled activity is good. However, you are destined to fail if there is no alignment with your company purpose. Having a disconnect becomes tiring as you are inadvertently working against your business. Additionally customers sense this disconnection and it sends them running. You also risk moving the company down an avenue that it doesn’t want to be in. Ultimately, forgetting company purpose can cause an inordinate amount of reputational damage.

To stay on path perform a simple check-in during your planning process. Simply ask whether the annual business development plan aligns with the company purpose? Are the daily activities listed in the tactical action plan in alignment? If not, revisit the plans and see what changes can be made to create the much needed alignment.

Acting on Gut Instinct: No business development planning

Being so wrapped up in the day to day activity that your strategy gets forgotten is a huge business development mistake. Do not run on gut instinct alone. Unfortunately, this leads to a habit of chasing the latest shiny opportunity regardless of whether it is a good fit. Consequently a massive amount of time is wasted. Time which should have been spent on opportunities with a greater chance of success.

Therefore, taking time to develop a plan. Refining it with feedback from the market keeps you focusing in the right places. Maximizing the use of your limited time and resources.

Refusing to Share Information

Working with lone wolf salespeople is a pretty dispiriting experience. Often fear of failure or a desire to hog the success can make the insecure business developer refuse to share vital information with the team. Unfortunately, this business development mistake really harms organizations.

Ultimately the lack of information sharing means that items vital to client success do not get communicated. Opportunities where the involvement of the wider team would provide a huge benefit are held close. While these lone wolves often have short term success, their impact on the morale of the wider team can prove disastrous. Remember these individuals are working for the betterment of themselves. Not the team or the business.

Instead behave as a team player. Share success with the wider organization and keep everyone informed. That way nothing gets missed, client relationships are shared and the organization as a whole benefits.

Not listening: the most common business development mistake

Lastly we come to our most common business development mistake. Not listening. We’ve all had experiences where sales personnel talk at you about how great their product, team or themselves are. All this talk smacks of arrogance. Arrogance of thinking you know what the customer wants before you’ve even asked.

That’s not service. It is no way to develop a relationship based on trust.

The customer must be the hero of your conversation. To facilitate this you must listen. Ask well thought and well intentioned questions. Then shut up and listen. Seek to learn what your customer does, where they have problems and how you might be able to help. How will you find this out if all you do is talk?

Further Action

There we have the five most common business development mistakes and how to avoid them. I challenge you to think about which one you most identify with and take action to improve.

business development mistake

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