Business Development Leadership

Published in: IPA Bulletin, July/August 2003

What Customers Need From Suppliers

Recent follow-up visits requested by several clients we had not seen in six to nine months left me "emotionally cold." Basic business development activities weren't being engaged with any sense of disciplined purpose or coordination.

These first-hand visits caused me to suspect that basic blocking and tackling isn't happening in many organizations. Examples include but aren't limited to:

1. Weekly itineraries aren't being turned-in;
2. Undeveloped prospects and even undeveloped current customers aren't being reassigned;
3. Websites aren't being updated;
4. Self-promotion vehicles aren't being developed or coordinated on any disciplined schedule;
5. Scheduled, substantive sales education and buyer education sessions appear to be falling by the wayside;
6. Too often the Quote Log isn't being managed; and
7. Systematic Periodic Business Reviews are practically non-existent for the top 20 customers.

Needless to say, in such an environment there is either little or no focused operational business development strategy; and the sales team too often looks more like a ragtag sandlot ball team, squabbling over scraps, than a professional group of successful "heavy hitters."

In a client management meeting recently, a general manager volunteered that he didn't know where else to cut costs in order to generate a profit. I asked if he considered that his number one priority?

Subsequent discussion included my pointing out that, contrary to popular opinion, customers were tending to focus on price --- if suppliers didn't have anything more to offer. (And if anyone doubts the veracity of that statement, one need only review the content of their last 50 quotes forwarded to customers as Exhibit A.)

That said, attendees to the session finally asked, "What do you think our focus should be as a supplier organization?"

With few exceptions, the competitive environment is ultimately moving toward evaluating suppliers and their value contributions, based on answering, "What do you contribute to our business performance, that we need, and don't already have?"

Broken down into individual elements that should be coordinated, successful business development requires leadership; commitment; preferably a written plan; and relentless follow-through.

What This Looks Like In Day-To-Day Terms

Standards of organizational conduct need to be established and accepted that systematically support business development success. Here are but a few examples that may offer value for what you are facing and experiencing:

Examine Work Ethic and Hours of Engagement to the Mission - My biases are relatively unchanging, Sales representatives who are committed to being successful tend to start early and finish their days late. Others, with a sliding or erratic performance record, tend to sashay in between 8:30 and 9:00; and the rest of their daily and weekly schedule isn't any better. I've never known a top sales performer who put in less than 50 hours per week, and I've never known a 35-hour per week sales representative who was successful. Top performers make their entire day and spare time count and are constantly in search of useful information. Non-performers tend to look for activities that make them look busy.

Research Your Customers' and Prospects' Businesses - Slowly, we're learning to use our great libraries (as well as other sources of information) for making more intelligent decisions about whom to prospect, and we're learning much about the customer's environment --- before we even call for an appointment. What is too often not recognized is that making an ineffective cold call can do irreparable damage to any chance of effective follow-up and subsequent contact. Put yourself in your buyer's shoes and ask, ''Would you want a supplier to constantly bring you useful information, including information about your industry, your competitors, and even your customers?"

Three things should occur on every sales call, and two of them involve offering useful information and gathering useful information for improved future contact. The third is developing opportunity for follow-up.

Put Together Examples of Whom You 're Important to for the Purpose of Developing Target Prospect Profiles - For reasons I've never understood, it's the rare senior management that documents a profile of who its sales representatives should be pursuing (and not pursuing) for business. Yet, every graphic arts organization contains streams of anecdotal information regarding customers they're important to, and those they should avoid in the future. The success of an organization's sales representatives drives the company's success. And who they call on is a critical decision seldom recognized for its contribution to future performance.

Create Meaningful Communications that Focus on "Customer Benefits" - Every organization should be working to support its differentiation and differentiated message to target customers. Yet, brochures and pamphlets tend to feature equipment, buildings, and words like quality, service, and on-time delivery.

The average buyer doesn't understand much of our technology, and basically wants to know, "What's in it for me?" As a guide, every production capability offered should be explained with phrases like, "This means you can..." Finishing that statement requires you to write and speak in customer benefit terms, rather than technical terms and features that are obscure.

Develop Technical Competence in Customer Contact Personnel - Many graphic arts suppliers are models of hi-tech sophistication. (There are even advocates for a "director of technologies.") Yet, too many customer contact personnel are inadequately educated on their capabilities, and this seems particularly true for sales representatives. By default, electronic prepress personnel often serve customer service functions.

Recommendation: Begin scheduling one-hour, biweekly, technical sessions that explain not only what you're capable of doing, but document the discussion's content for future reference and new employees.

One Additional Suggestion: Create a Portfolio of FUBR's (fouled up beyond recognition), which is used for review with current employees, and education of new employees, for every major error that occurs. Such a tool can be priceless for reducing errors, and spoilage.

Update the "Enlarged Buying Center " Mailing List - The average company's mailing list is incomplete and out of date. Part of this condition results from sales representatives only putting their buyer contact name on the list, especially when key customer department heads are having significant influence on buying decisions. Recommendation: Work to put top management at your top 20 accounts and target prospects on your mailing list. Also, put key personnel at your suppliers on this all important list.

Understand Suppliers' Capabilities for Creating Value: Buyers are working to consolidate suppliers. To that end, they often expect reliable suppliers to manage projects that they don't produce. In effect, your customer contact people should be educated on your suppliers' capabilities. Additionally, we recommend your documenting for review by business development leadership (and possible remediation) all customer requests to which your organization cannot respond positively.

In an environment where there is either little or unfocused operational business development strategy; the sales team too often looks a lot more like a ragtag sandlot ball team squabbling over scraps, than a professional group of successful heavy hitters.

Celebrate Wins and Promote Team Contribution - Every order after the first order is the result of contributions from the entire company. Yet, seldom do production and administrative personnel receive acknowledgement for their critical contributions. Ask yourself, "What do we celebrate and what should we celebrate?" Additionally, when is there acknowledgement to "What we accomplished?"

Pursue New Ways of Creating and Elevating Performance - Visiting other plants should be required by someone who's constantly working to improve the value customers receive. That's another way of saying that many companies have at least one production area that distinguishes its performance. If we're smart, we should constantly work to increase what our customers receive from us.

Reassign Undeveloped Customers and Prospects - Too many sales representatives "sit on assigned prospects" as though it's a birthright or inheritance. Everyone loses in this type of scenario. Recommendation: Six months is the general time frame for progress to occur. Either make progress of some note or reassign the account. A company's market reputation is made by what it accomplishes, as well as by what it neglects.

Schedule Weekly Itineraries and Check-Ups with Senior Management - This time should serve as an opportunity to share useful information and ideas for creating value with customers. Questions the sale representative can address include, "What docs my schedule include for the upcoming week? What did I accomplish last week, and what challenges do I currently face?"

Sales representatives who object, in my general opinion, are really wanting to dodge the issue of, "What am I really doing with my time?"

Summary

This past weekend I received a personal note from a recently retired CEO, thanking me for making the trip to attend his retirement party. From an outsider's perspective, it appears he had had enough of recent struggles, though by most measures his company was practically in a class by itself. Through acquisitions they had tripled revenues (to the mid-to-high eight revenue figures annually) over the last six years, and held onto double digit profits --- though performance was clearly softening the last year or two.

Content of his handwritten note rocked me because I was the first consultant they'd ever worked with for more than six months. Though our uninterrupted engagement lasted three years, with two succeeding follow-up projects, we had finally shaken hands and gone our separate ways.

What I was ultimately requesting they initiate for business development in a radically changing environment didn't appear to them to be needed at the time. Additionally, as an organization, senior management was noticeably more comfortable dealing with production and financial issues for achieving their success.

With this as background, I was startled to receive a personal invitation to his recent retirement party, and subsequently a handwritten note.

Part of his short, to the point thank you note for my attending his retirement celebration read, "If we had only listened..."