Bullseye: Proven Methods to Identify and Reach Your Ideal Clients

Bullseye: Proven Methods to Identify and Reach Your Ideal Clients

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 153 of the business development podcast. And today we're talking all about hitting the mark, identifying the right people at our target companies. Stick with us. You are not going to want to miss this episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences. And you'll hear interviews with business owners. CEOs and business development reps, you'll get actionable advice on how to grow business.

Brought to you by capital business development, capital PD. ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the business development podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 153 of the business development podcast. I am Kelly Kennedy, and it is an honor to be on with you guys today. I wanted to start today's show by giving you a show update.

We are sitting at 198, 000. 351 downloads. Yes, this is considerably higher than the number we thought we had. Once again, bank error in our favor. There has been a bit of a challenge with Spotify API integrating with CoHost. So that's been fun. But yeah, so far the numbers have been growing in our favor and it is super, super cool, but very, very soon.

We will be smashing the 200, 000 downloads mark, which is amazing because just this time last year, I remember celebrating somewhere around 50,000 somewhere in there. So it's really, really cool. We have grown leaps and bounds. Thanks to you, our amazing rockstar listenership. We have just on following with regards to our Apple podcast and Spotify, we're sitting at 2, 351 that is growing every single day.

And we have just crossed over 2000 followers on LinkedIn, guys. So I would highly encourage you guys to come check out LinkedIn. We do do quite a few posts on there. We are also growing our Instagram and could use more followers there. So if you have not had a chance, Give us a follow kind of wherever you're listening.

It does help the show and we appreciate it immensely. We are looking for community questions. So if you have a question regarding the show, or you have something you would like to ask me, I would love to hear from you guys. podcast@capitalbd.ca. I would love your suggestions. I would love your show ideas, and I would love any questions you guys may have.

As you may know, we haven't done a community questions episode in quite some time, and I kind of miss doing them. So if you're hearing this, if you're a new listener and you have not yet had a chance to ask us any questions, or you have a business development, entrepreneurship or podcast related question, I would absolutely love to hear from you.

Drop me a line. podcast@capitalbd.ca. All right today, guys, I wanted to chat all about identifying the best targets and hitting our mark because we know if we do not have the right people at an organization, if we do not have the right process, it is very, very hard. to have success. And the crappy thing is we are all working with very limited time and we don't have time to waste.

I know us entrepreneurs, we're working our butts off. Time is something of extremely high value to each and every one of us. And so I want to leave you guys today with hopefully a game plan on how we can be more effective and how we can really hit the mark when we're doing our active marketing process.

Remember guys, the biggest problem you have in business is the right person does not know who you are. Marketing to just anyone will not solve your problem. You need the right person to know who you are when they need your product and service. So the problem you have is who is this person? What is the position?

Where are they? How do I know I have the right person? And today we are going to chat. All about it, guys. This is just something that's really basic and all of business development and all of marketing and sales, right? There's usually a million people that work at any given organization, right? It can seem like an incredibly overwhelming and daunting task, but doing the homework upfront, understanding who it is, who can actually buy your product and service, who actually needs your product and service, and then Is really the secret to long term success in any type of marketing you guys are going to do because you can market until you are blue in the face, but if you are getting the wrong person.

None of it is going to matter. You need to make sure that when you are doing your very hard work, the active business development, the marketing, the sales, whatever you're doing, that you're doing it to the correct person, or that the steps you are taking is getting you to the right person, because it does not matter if they cannot buy your product and service.

You need somebody who understands your product and service, not only understands it. Needs it, wants it, and understands why they need it. Okay. These are absolutely critical. And so making sure that we are marketing to the right people really is the difference between success and failure. It can be the big differentiator.

And when time is limited and for all of us entrepreneurs, anybody in business, development, sales, we're all working on limited time. We have to make sure that we are doing. the best things we can do to get to the right people. And so today we're going to put together a little game plan. I'm going to walk through the whole thing and we are going to hopefully set you guys up for a better position the next time that you guys are all out active marketing.

Okay. So number one, we have to understand your problem. Okay. You have a problem. If we're in marketing and sales, we all have a problem. Okay. We offer a product or service that is needed. buy an industry, a company, a person. Okay. We have something that we have to offer. We have someone who has to buy our product and service in order to stay in business.

It is a seriously big problem. Okay. You are unknown. I know a lot of people struggle with this one. A lot of people say, well, Yeah, but my name's in the phone book. I have a website. Of course I'm known. Of course I'm known. Mark my words, there are probably a hundred, if not a thousand of your customers in the next city who do not know who you are.

They don't know who you are. Active marketing, getting in front of these people is absolutely required. And whether you like it or not, you are unknown. You can be a gigantic company and you could have the market totally saturated in your city. In your province, in your state, yet two states over, there's somebody who's never heard of you.

The next province over, there's somebody who's never heard of you, or in the case of Canada, could literally be the next city. Nobody's ever heard of you, okay? The biggest problem any company has is that they are unknown. And lastly, You need to sell your product and service to the right buyer, because if you cannot find the right buyer, nobody is going to buy what you have.

Just think about it this way. If it's a hot day, are you going to sell a hot cup of coffee to somebody who's sweltering hot? Are you going to sell them You know, a cold brew or a popsicle or an ice cream. Okay, it's all about demand. You need to find the person who has demand for your product and service.

And almost every one of your target organizations has this person. It is just a matter of you figuring out who they are. doing some detective work and tracking those people down. Okay. But understand your problem, know your challenge, and then face it. Number two, in this modern world, we need a compelling public image and offer.

Okay. Remember, even if you get the right person, if you don't have the right marketing materials, if you don't have the right brand awareness, if you don't have marketing material, brochures, a beautiful website, Just something that can show that you are legit, that you have a product and service that is of high value, that is not a scam, not a ripoff, you are going to run into the same problem.

You might be able to find the person who needs your product and service. If you don't have your public image, Dealt with it is going to be a problem for you. Okay. And so guys, we have to be, we have to be reviewing our website. We have to make sure that our website is visually appealing, that it's our 20 story skyscraper that is high impact.

If somebody comes to your website, they should be blown away. They should not only be able to understand what your product and service is. So it needs to be written and designed in a way that's easy to understand. And obviously you want the user experience to be good. You really do have your work cut out for you these days with regards to your visual appeal because you are marketing to Millennials.

We have very short attention spans. Most of the leadership that you are marketing to at this point is Millennials. And so, yeah, you do gotta go the extra mile when it comes down to your public image. Specifically, your website, your social medias, your personal social medias, okay? And we're gonna get into that today.

But there are a lot of things that we have to have done well. Done incredibly well, okay? Because it does not matter if you have the right person if you are not compelling. It does not matter if you have the right person if you are incapable of building the value proposition of your product and service to the cost of that product and service, okay?

It won't matter. It won't matter. You ultimately need your customers. to see the value in you and need it in order to make that purchasing decision. Okay. So our brochures to guys, and I talk about brochures all the time on here. You should have physical brochures and digital brochures for all of your products and services.

Okay. I always recommend a general brochure, a nice four page brochure with an insert, where then you can obviously go broadly over your products and services. And then when you are marketing to specific industries, which most of us are marketing to multiple industries. We can create a cut sheet or a separate one or two page brochure for each specific industry speaking to how we are going to help them.

We have to speak to the people in the words they understand in the worlds they understand. It is not enough for you just to throw your general brochure out there and expect that everybody is going to connect with it. That is just not how it works. So we always recommend make sure that you are creating at least a one or two page separate.

Insert or cut sheet is what we call it in order to market to a very specific industry. So let's say you're marketing to mining, but your, your products and services also work for oil and gas or food processing. Okay. If they work for those, you need separate cut sheets for oil and gas. mining and food processing.

If you do it this way, when you are marketing to these people, they are going to receive it considerably better than if you just send them the general brochure, because you have to be able to connect the dots, connect the dots for your customers, as well as you can make it as easy for them to understand how your product and service is going to help them in their specific industry.

And you will see. Exponentially more success. And so brochures are not dead guys. They are not dead. They're far from it. I always recommend that when you were in person, you bring a physical brochure, a physical cut sheet. with you along with your business cards to be able to hand them. It's really great for those in person conversations, guys, where you can start the conversation and they can ask you questions regarding your products and services right there on the spot from taking a look at your brochure.

It works amazing. I've done it for well over a decade and I would highly, highly consider that you all continue to do that as well, okay? Personal branding, guys, this one's new. I haven't talked about personal branding before, really, on here. We've talked with lots of guests about personal branding. But in this particular case, we are now at a time, 2024, I've said it on the show more than once, is the year of personal branding.

If 2023 was the year of AI, which it really was, on the BDP, Personal branding has come up over and over and over again here in 2024. Why is that? Because as individuals, we are searched more than ever. It is not enough for you just to show up and say, yep, I'm letting my company speak for me. All of these people that you were asking for meetings that you are trying to build a reputation with, where are they going to check you out?

They are going to check you guys out on socials, guys. There's no way. There's no way around this anymore. So your personal brand, your personal LinkedIn pages, all of these things need to be filled out completely need to be visually appealing. You need to have a great bio with a good story, a personal story.

You need to speak to how you're actually going to help your clients in that bio guys. It is a whole new world. And I, if you're hearing this for the first time. Well, today's the day. Today's the day that you're realizing that personal branding is super important in 2024 and beyond. But guys, this does not just apply to business owners, coaches, or anything like that, this applies to everybody with a job, literally everybody with a job on LinkedIn, on socials.

At this point, personal branding is important. The new world is all about it. And so if you have not locked down your LinkedIn pages, if you have not Gone through it, asked for recommendations from past clients filled out all of your data, put all of your certifications on there, put all of your awards and accolades and everything.

Guys, it is time. Make sure that your banner images are beautiful and represent what you do. Make sure that your profile photo isn't blurry and gross. Guys, you can do better than this. Trust me. In the modern day, it is more important than ever to have our personal brand locked down and never before has our personal brand been linked to our company brands the way it is today.

So remember that if you're hearing this for the first time, today is the day. Finish your personal branding stuff. Do it from a standpoint of I need to look professional, I need to look like I have my stuff together. I need to make sure that my bio is speaking to my potential customers. And try to line everything up that way.

If you have questions regarding this, feel free to shoot me a DM. I'm always happy to help as best as I can. I'm navigating this new world just the same as you are. So I'll teach you from the best I got. But honestly, we're bringing on some pretty amazing guests in this space. So just tune into future episodes to check out kind of what we're talking about with regards to personal branding.

But it is coming up a lot here in 2024 and beyond. And I do not think guys that it will be going away. Okay. You need to understand the industry, location, and sub industries that your product and service fits. Okay, so if, let's go back to our previous example. If you are marketing to the mining industry, right?

What are some of the other industries that may service mining that your product and service can also service? Also fit, I have noticed that with a lot of the customers that I've worked with over time, a lot of my clients, usually the main industry is not always the best place for them to be. Sometimes it's working for the sub industries who are also working for that main industry where their product and service fits the best.

Why? Because almost always the main industry hires their prime contractor. The prime contractor always needs a bunch of additional services because they usually bite off more than they can chew most of the time and they need support. And so sometimes supporting these prime contractors is actually a better deal or better opportunity for your organization, product and service than going to, you know, the main industry that you originally thought you were targeting.

Okay. So. Keep this in mind, there's almost always multiple industries that you can work at. There's almost always multiple customers, multiple opportunities you have not thought of. And so it never hurts to sit down and think, okay, who's the ideal target customer? Then who's under them that could also buy my products and service?

And then heck, if you want to go even deeper, who else? What other industries could this product and service fit into that I did not think about? Because guys, there's almost always multiple applications for your product and service. It's almost never a one size fits all. So, remember, there's probably way more customers than you've thought of, and potentially the best customers, you haven't thought of them at all.

They're not even on your mind at the moment. So I want you to think about that. The next time you're doing target lists, and you're breaking it down by industry, sub industry, Recognize that there is probably an opportunity that you have missed and don't be afraid to ask questions or ask other people who else might need your product and service because it is likely more than you think.

Okay. And then lastly, guys, location, location, location, location. It is important. Where are you most competitive? You are most competitive. Where you are. Okay. It doesn't matter how big your company is, wherever that company is headquartered, where the main work is, that is where you are the most competitive.

When you go to a new province, a new city, a new state. You are competing against the other local people there and maybe your product and service is totally awesome. Maybe it's like one of the best ever, but let me tell you what, you're probably not as competitive as the local company who also does what you do.

And so you have to really Think logistics. When you guys are doing your marketing, think logistics. When you're targeting specific people in specific areas, you are the most competitive where you are. And so I always say, start where you are and work your way out from there. The world can be your oyster, but you have to start somewhere.

So start. where you are. It will give you the best competitive advantage when you're just getting going. Okay. All right, guys. Number four, you must locate the person who will actually buy your product and service. Okay. So today this is the most important lesson for you guys. Okay. No matter where we are marketing to you, no matter what industry, what company, the size of the company, small, medium, large, None of it matters if we cannot get to the right person.

You can market until you are blue in the face. You can make a thousand phone calls. If you are not getting in touch with the right person at that company, it is all for nothing. And nothing is more important in marketing than making sure that your marketing, your pitch, Your efforts are going in the right direction because guys, we are paying for every single reach out, whether it be a bad reach out or an excellent reach out, we pay for it, right?

As business owners, we pay our business development specialists to do it. If we're doing digital advertising, we are paying for every time that they market that to the wrong person. So nothing is more important in putting money back in your pocket than making sure that we are marketing to the right people.

And guys, it is not as hard as you think. There are multiple ways that we can identify the right people, but what is critical is that we do identify the right people ahead of our marketing push. Because if we do not, if we do not get the right people, We may waste thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in this marketing effort and we may not get anywhere near the return we hope for.

Okay. And so it's like good investing. If we're going to be doing good investing, what do we have to do? We have to research our investments ahead. We've got to make sure that they're safe, that they got the right people. The long term potential is great for us. Finding the right person at an organization is the same thing.

If we do the investing of time up front, we maximize our profit, our marketing spend down the line. And so we have to make sure that up front we are doing the work. How do we find the right person at an organization? Number one, guys, I would say if you are new to an industry, you're a new business development person, or you are just simply completely not sure who the right person would be, but you know, the target industry, you know, the companies in that industry.

So you have a starting point. Call the company guys, just call the company and say, you know, Hey, I'm John with XYZ. We sell this product. Who do you think at the company might be the right person to talk to? I think you'll find guys that nowadays more than ever, reception, people like that are willing to help you.

More than they ever have been able to. I, you know, I mean, I have to give a gigantic props to modern day reception. The new world is so much better than the old one. They used to screen the bejesus out of you. And now I find they're more helpful than you can imagine. And so if you're just nice to these people, you introduce yourself, you say, Hey, you know what?

I'm sorry, I'm new to this. I'm not really sure who to talk to. You. Could you help me? Most of these people, not only are going to help you first try, they're going to get you in touch with who you need to speak with. And so I highly recommend if you were unsure, but you know the company, don't hesitate to just call and start asking questions.

Do some detective work. You will find this successful. Okay, I get it. It won't be successful every time, but I think you're going to find more often than not, you're going to figure it out. Okay? If that is too much for you I would always say the next step would be reach out to procurement and supply chain.

Procurement and supply chain, they are not always the right people. And I know there's a lot of people who say, well, why wouldn't you start there? Well, you can start there. You can start either one. I like a phone call. I think a phone call and just asking is super beneficial, especially if you're not sure about the industry.

Once you know, once they tell you what that person's position is and you find out they're the buyer, I think you're going to find that that position is likely the buyer at a lot of these companies. So. Takes that guesswork out, right? But in the beginning, it doesn't hurt just to make a phone call or two to find out, and it works more often than you think going to procurement is also effective, assuming that you can get through to them and have that conversation.

Here's the problem at a lot of companies, getting to procurement is a very long task. It is not cut and dry. Just to give you an example, there's a Canadian company. I kid you not. I've been reaching out. They're massive. So it's a little bit of a different. Option here, but I've been reaching out trying to book a meeting with them on behalf of one of my clients.

Since October, they called me back literally two days ago and said, Oh, Hey Kelly. Sorry. Sorry. We missed you. It's great to be in touch. I just wanted to circle back. It's been tough catching up on my voicemails. I'd left them 32 voicemails guys. But if you're in business development, you know, this, you know, this, you just smile and say, Oh, it's great to talk to you.

Thanks for calling. But anyways, You know it, right? It's not always a cut and dry guys. We are in July of 2023. Okay. So it takes a minute. It takes a minute. What I was getting at here guys is it can take, it can take months. It can take months to get through to supply chain at some of these companies. And so if you're looking to figure this out sooner, it's not always the best place to start.

However, yes, I do target supply chain with most of my clients because it does not hurt to go down that avenue. And usually even if they are not the buyers. They can eventually point you in the right direction. Third, guys, try high level directors, okay? High level directors at companies, I know a lot of people are hesitant to reach out to C suite executives, okay?

I am not. I think because I've just been around the block long enough, I have zero hesitation whatsoever reaching out to C suite just about anywhere. And it has always worked out effectively for me. If I reach out to a C suite over LinkedIn direct line and I just introduce myself say, Hey, I've worked with this company.

I'm just struggling to get through the right person. Do you mind helping me? I don't think I've ever been rejected when I've reached out to a c suite executive and I asked for help. Most of them will point you in the right direction. Most of them are more than helpful. They're amazing people, guys. You have nothing to be afraid of.

Do not hesitate to reach out to directors, c suite executives. Most of them are willing to help you if you're just trying to track down that right person. And remember, half the battle is just trying to figure out what position in any industry is the buying decision. Okay? Once we can figure this out, we can streamline this process.

We can become total rock stars at it. But If you are just trying to identify the right person, which is what we're talking about today, there's multiple avenues for you to take. And I would say exercise all of them, figure it out as fast as you can, because as soon as you can figure that out, we can move into the next step.

Okay. And lastly, guys, I'm gonna give you one last tidbit here for tracking down the right person. Do not hesitate to send an inquiry into the website inquiry line. If you go into any company's website, 99. 999 percent will have a contact us email. If you just shoot that email, an introduction to yourself and just say, Hey, I'm not sure who to reach out to at your company, what position at your company would purchase these things.

Most of them will get back to you with the right person, or they will send you to the procurement, but they will typically give you a phone number to the procurement and a name to the procurement, which may save you time. So. Do not hesitate to use any of these options. Any and all of them are excellent.

I've used them for years. It is very easy to find the right people. Once you understand the industry, which doesn't take long guys, it's a lot faster than you think, but once you understand the industry, you can then use LinkedIn to really just speed up the whole process, which is what we are going to lead into right now.

Number five, use LinkedIn to your advantage. Okay. Guys, LinkedIn is amazing in 2023, 2024, 2025 and beyond. Guys, it is, it's where everyone is at. If you are in industry, likely, highly, highly, highly likely your customers, your ideal targets are on LinkedIn. They're active on LinkedIn. They're on it daily, daily.

If you want to get in touch with somebody, it has never been easier, but there are some tips with using LinkedIn guys, and we're going to get to them right now. If you use LinkedIn, you have to use it to your full potential. Okay. At this point, guys, if you are in business development, if you are a business owner, LinkedIn premium is mandatory.

Just get it. LinkedIn premium is worth every single penny. It stops all the restrictions that you have with regards to your search. It gives you the option to start adding tons and tons of contacts, tons and tons of potential people who will see your posts, who will learn about your products and services, and who you can DM and reach out to.

Instantaneously guys, it is amazing. I know that 90 percent of you listening right now are like, yeah, Kelly, tell me something I don't know, but there are 10 percent of you who are not using LinkedIn to its full potential. And I'm speaking to you guys today. Okay. LinkedIn is absolutely. Mandatory in business development, sales, marketing, I would say probably has been for a couple of years, but let's just call it from 2023 and on LinkedIn has been is mandatory and LinkedIn premium, I would argue, is also mandatory, and guys, it's not that bad.

I think I pay about 700 bucks Canadian a year for it, so it's not the end of the world. And if you're American, that's even less. So there you go. There's lots of options here. It is not that bad and it is worth every single penny. But if we have it, we have LinkedIn premium guys. We got to start using it to its full potential.

Once we've identified the right person, the industry, the sub industry, and the companies that we want to target, we have to hit the ground running guys. Send out a hundred invites a week to target clients, to target personnel at every single organization. And from now on, every single week, you do this, you add 100 people a week, because if you do not use it, you lose it.

That's how LinkedIn works. You don't get 150 ads the next week, you get 100 every week, whether you use them or not. So start sending your 100 LinkedIn invites every single week to target individuals at various organizations, and you will start to build yourself a funnel like you would not believe. Okay.

The first step we always use at Capital is adding all of these people on LinkedIn, sending them an introduction, and adding them to our digital introduction stage of our CRM. Making sure that our pipeline of opportunity is always full, and we have lots of people to reach out to as we start our marketing campaigns, okay?

When you are using your LinkedIn, you can use your LinkedIn to target procurement, directors, project leadership, anybody who is your ideal target. Easy to find. Easy to search. Guys, you can literally search the position and then narrow it down by country, location, you name it guys. You can narrow this stuff down and you can start to just bulk add the right people and send them those digital introductions and start phase one of your CRM guys.

It is really that easy. Once you can identify the right people. position. Once you can identify the right position, the world is your oyster. LinkedIn makes it easy from there. Okay? So remember search by position, location, and connect with the right people. So fast, it'll make your head spin, okay? It is easier than ever.

Guys, it is easier than ever. Do the homework up front, figure out what the positions are that you need to connect with, and start connecting with them a hundred a week. Send your digital introductions, move them into a weekly contacted stage, and start booking meetings. You got this. Number six, guys, use your active marketing approach, okay?

You are not done just by sending your digital introductions. Remember, none of this matters. All of these things we are doing are to get us to a face to face meeting, and it is going to take active marketing to get you there, okay? At some point, you are going to have to contact these people by phone or email.

and make your value proposition and ask for that face to face meeting because that is where relationship is generated. That is where trust is generated and that is where your next opportunity is going to come from. Okay, getting to the right person is the differentiator. You do not have time to waste.

So a little work up front leads to exponential results down the line. Shout outs this week. Raphael Cervan, Govind Khosa, Susan Poseika, Gary N, Jennifer L, Jesse Kerr, Mark Camden, Ben Gioia, Jeff Hittner, Sihame. E, Alan Pentz, Aaron Haberman, Melanie Whittingham, Tatsiana Zametalina, Ken Gee, Dawn Osland, Brett Colvin, CR Holmes, David Delvin, Cory Sellar, Nick Davies, Llew Blenman, Tracy Spike, Caleb Jemmott, Mike Allen, Emily Lundy, Gideon Mentie, James Graham, Rhys Mitting, and Marie-Helene Lamarre.

Until next time, this has been the business development podcast, and we will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization Is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.