Why is that, and what can you do about it? Building a business lives at the intersection of "You asking" and "Their needing." It doesn't live at the intersection of "I'm an expert" and "I'll just wait around". There are actually five key obstacles that prevent experts from monetizing their [More]
One of the most powerful ways to exceed a client's expectations is to be more careful about setting them. Yes, the marketing and business development process is an important part of this, but the key goal at this stage in the process is really to get the client in the [More]
The question though, is what happens when there isn't any interest. When you don't have the solution right then and there. Has all of your marketing effort and investment been a waste? Should one simply "give up" and move to the next prospect? Or... is there an alternative. (There is.) [More]
One of the current practices (let's not call it a "best" practice) that people use on LinkedIn, is to reach out to a prospect based on an affinity of some type, and then ask to be a connection. The request to be a contact can start out innocently ("I notice [More]
So how to solve this problem? The high-level answer is that this is precisely what marketing should be doing: generating leads. And turning leads into proposals is precisely what the business development function is responsible for. So where's the disconnect? Yes, CRM, marketing automation, content strategy, thought leadership, newsletters, advertising, [More]
Assuming that this is truly the reason (it sometimes isn't), then what are your options? Here are four ideas: The problem here may not be one of time, but one of prioritization. Work with the client to help them re-quantify the real cost of not going through with the project. [More]
Unfortunately, the answer is rarely found within instruction manuals, YouTube videos, and training, as these are often focused either on configuration, or on the "clickety-here, clickers-there" of how to use each bit of system functionality. Or, management believes the myth that the system will work only if every field must [More]
Unfortunately, launching an affiliate program is far easier said than done. And these programs rarely deliver on their promise; here are ten reasons why, and some clues on how to get them to deliver. Clients are not actually the best affiliates, despite knowing you the best. The best affiliates are [More]
It's terribly disappointing, especially since the cost of putting together the proposal, prepping the pitch—let alone the cost of prospecting and pre-sales activities—is huge. So what to do? One alternative is to pretend that the entire episode didn't happen, and focus on the next opportunity. For some people, it also [More]
Two key lessons he learned were directly from the sales playbook, and are ones that we so often forget when we are doing our own business development activities: If you don't ask, you don't get, and small greed succeeds. After his second interview, the company sprang it on him: they'll [More]
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