Community Questions: October 2024

Community Questions: October 2024

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 181 of the business development podcast. And it is that time again, guys, community questions, October 2024. Stick with us. This is an awesome 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, CapitalBD.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the Business Development Podcast. And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello. Welcome to episode 181 of the Business Development Podcast. My gosh, it is that time again, community questions, October of 2024. And guys, it's coinciding with Halloween to incredible, incredible things.

As you know, I absolutely love the community questions aspect of this show guys. If this whole show was just community questions, I think I would I would enjoy it immensely. And as some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of the spooky season. I'm an absolute gigantic fan of Halloween and spooky stories.

And some of my favorite podcasts are podcasts like Jim Harold's Campfire. And scared to death with Dan and Liz Cummins. And in spirit of that, the fact is we are two days from Halloween. If you are listening to this and you're getting it the day of release, it is October 30th. So if you're hearing this and it is the day of release, tomorrow is Halloween.

And so for fun, just for fun, something we don't typically do on this show. I wanted to share my very own ghost story, and you know, I've had a few experiences in my life, so I thought it would just be fun because I know we talk business all the time, but the reality is we're all living life, and I know there's probably a few of you out there With a ghost story of your own and while I know it is not the typical thing for this show, we did have Brennan Storr come on last Halloween to come and chat about his book, A Strange Little Place, which talks about Revelstoke, BC, which is a super amazing book.

And you guys should definitely go get it. It's probably one of my favorite books of all time of the spooky things in Canada. But for this time, for this particular Halloween, I thought it would be fun just to share an experience that I had in a house that I rented for a little while. And we used to have board game nights, guys, every single Friday.

Yeah, I'm a nerd, you know it. Me and my friends, we would have a board game night on Friday nights. And it was a Friday night, not unlike the night you might be listening to this. It was dark out, about 10 o'clock. It was dark. And we'd had, we'd been hanging out and just playing board games. If you are from Canada, you are probably very aware that we can have winter white out blizzards that just come out of nowhere.

And this one night it was board game night and it had been snowing and snowing and snowing. And so our walks guys completely covered with snow. So if somebody walks through the walks. You're going to see footprints. This is the kind of key takeaway for this particular story. So anyways, we're sitting around and we're playing board games and it's getting late.

It's probably about 10 o'clock PM at night and our dogs are around us at the table and we're playing. And guys, I kid you not, out of nowhere,

three big knocks on the front door. My dogs lose their absolute minds. They go down there, they're barking, and I kid you not, I grew up with kind of what I like to call a spooky Maybe haunted house. So I'd been used to weird things happening. So for me, it wasn't a big surprise. My friend, my roommate at the time, he's like the biggest skeptic you've ever met.

Not afraid of anything. Never had any experiences. He goes down to the front door and he looks out and he looks at me, guys, white as a ghost. And he goes, I don't know what just happened. There are no footprints. There are no footprints outside. It's a whiteout. It's still snowing. Nobody physical could have knocked on that front door guys, but I kid you not.

It fooled us. It fooled the dogs a hundred percent. Somebody knocked on the front door that night. So I don't know if you guys have spooky stories of your own. I would love to hear them. Feel free to share them in the comments on our LinkedIn. Or to shoot me an email on it. I absolutely love spooky stories.

Huge fan of them. Listen to them all the time. And if you are looking for a good listen, this Halloween, a great show. I'm going to recommend three actually. I want you guys to check out Astonishing Legends. They have an amazing Halloween special. You absolutely need to hear it. Check out Jim Harold's Campfire for all year long spooky stories.

And make sure that you check out scared to death by Dan and Liz Cummins. They are absolutely incredible, a husband and wife duo, and they do an absolute great job. So. For those of you who know me, I love a good spooky story. It is Halloween and spooky season. And before we get started today, I want to wish you all an absolutely incredible Halloween 2024.

All right, guys, show update. We are sitting at 2, 879 followers between Apple podcasts and Spotify. I cannot believe it. We are closing in on. 3, 000 followers, guys, that feels huge for a show that started out in my basement. So I'm pretty happy about that. And I wanted to thank each and every one of you who have followed us on Apple podcasts and Spotify.

And if you are finding us for the very first time today, welcome. It's an absolute honor to have you join us on the business development podcast. And if you enjoy this show, there are hundreds more like it. And you can absolutely go back through our catalog and check them out and find things that are relevant to you.

But, I would love it too if you could also follow us on your platform of choice. Helping us to reach further and further and further across this incredible globe we all live on. I I never thought guys when I started this show that the Business Development Podcast would become a worldwide show. I just, I never thought that I thought, yeah, maybe we'll have some influence in Edmonton.

Maybe we'll have some influence across Canada was probably the biggest hopes that I had. But the fact that we have influence around the entire world, that we are helping people grow business around the world. It is an honor and a privilege. And I just want to say thank you for allowing me to do this.

You guys coming in and listening to these shows is what allows me to keep coming back to you. We have incredible sponsors like Hypervac Technologies, BizSync Solutions, atWork Office Furniture. We've had some amazing help along the way and could not have done this without you, could not continue to do this without the support of our sponsors.

And so if you love this show, don't just reach out to us guys, let our sponsors know that you appreciate their support. It really does help us to continue to grow this show and meet new people and keep things going. So thank you so much for all you do. Thank you for supporting us and please do follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

And if you like this particular episode, community questions, guys, it is my favorite. I absolutely love it. And we are always, always, always looking for questions for the upcoming month's episode. So if you like this episode and you would like to submit questions for November, please do.

shoot them on over podcast at capital bd. ca or send them to me directly over LinkedIn direct message. And I will make sure that we get this handled for you on an upcoming community questions episode. And guys, I actually have some more big news for you. We bought a house. Me and Shelby just bought a beautiful, beautiful home.

I have my own podcast studio in it. I am recording today's show, the very first show from my forever studio for the business development podcast. It is pretty empty right now. It's got some empty bookshelves in it. I'm going to be putting some doors in. We're going to deck this place out. But guys, I have my own little studio and I am so freaking excited.

I just had to say it. I had to let you guys know we are we are in the process of moving in. I am absolutely exhausted. It always takes longer than you thought. We did like multiple trips with like a 26 foot U Haul. And it has been a weekend, but we are getting to it. We are getting moved in. Can't wait till I can start to really build this studio out, but you guys will see it as we go.

It'll be in our clips and videos, and hopefully we'll get it populated with some things on these shelves sooner rather than later. It is absolutely exciting, and I cannot, cannot wait to continue this show into the future from here. All right, let's just get into it. Community Questions, October 2024. My gosh, there were some challenging ones.

You guys are never easy on me, and that's okay. All these questions that I answer from you are my own personal opinions. So understand there might be other people that have other opinions. There may be multiple ways to answer these questions. I am going to do my best to answer them in the best way that Kelly Kennedy Capital Business Development and the Business Development Podcast can, okay?

You know, take all answers with a grain of salt. We do the best we can and I speak from my own experience. And if I don't have experience in it, I will let you know. Okay? So, that's how I handle these community questions. I do do my best with them. But understand, you know, these are These are just my opinion.

Take them to heart. We'll just do our best for you. My first questions are from a listener named Daniel. And Daniel's first question is about handling inbound leads in business development. He asks, When it comes to managing inbound leads, is it appropriate for business development professionals to handle new customer inquiries?

Or should this responsibility typically fall to an inside sales specialist? How do you determine the best approach for managing inbound versus outbound leads? That is an incredible question, Daniel. And in a lot of cases, I would actually say inbound leads should typically go to a director of operations or an inside sales specialist who can then handle that request.

Remember, business development is typically about new. This could be a business development task. So I just want to like say it doesn't have to be an inside sales rep or a director of operations or somebody who can actually handle the order. It could still be filtered through business development, Daniel.

And maybe it should. Typically, what I would consider as business development is outbound. It's finding those opportunities. It's making the connection. It's setting up the meetings, unless you wanted to maybe take that inbound lead, turn it into a meeting, see if there's something real there. And then hand it over.

That would be a good way to business development at Daniel. Typically, if you have inbound leads, they've already found you, which is awesome. That's really what we want with business development, though, we need to educate the world and get them to come to us. And we facilitate the meeting all the way to typically a RFP or an order stage.

At that point, it is typically off the business development plate. It's handed over to an account manager, a director of operations, someone who can really look after that client. And we're going to go back to the beginning. I would say you could have a business development specialist handling both the inbound calls and the outbound leads.

I don't see anything wrong with that. As long as you cut it off, when it becomes an order, someone else takes it over at the order stage at the becomes a customer stage and you go back to the beginning. So take that one as you will. That's a tough question. It can be handled either way, Daniel, but yeah, it's just up to you and what's best for your organization.

Thanks for that one. His second question is about using multiple tools for tracking in business development. He said, In addition to using a dedicated CRM tool like Pipedrive, do you also rely on other tools such as Excel, Google Sheets to track important information like LinkedIn introductions, calls, and emails?

And if so, how do you integrate these tools effectively for a streamlined workflow? My opinion on this, Daniel, is no. If I'm using a CRM, I am using a CRM to its full capacity. I don't want to use Excel and Google Sheets and a CRM. It's just too much. So in my opinion, I would use simply your Pipedrive CRM.

I would pack it full of information and I would stop using Excel or Google Sheets. Unless you just want to use like Google Forms or something like that to collect some information. But no, typically I keep all of my customer and deal data inside of my CRM in one place. You and me both know Daniel, doing the data entry is probably the bane of our existence.

Why would we want to do more? In my opinion, I would simplify your data entry as much as possible. And the best way to do that is to is to integrate it all and put everything into your CRM? Great question. Daniel's third question is handling multiple leads within the same company. If you're working several leads from a single company and two of them respond with a firm objection, how would you proceed with the remaining leads?

Do you continue engaging with them or is it better to move on in such situations? What strategies would you suggest of managing multiple contacts from one organization when objections arise? Okay, great question, Daniel. The answer is no. If this is a prime target for my client, and they absolutely want this company, and I get two no's, that could be two no's from a branch level for all we know, right?

Unless you are at like the director level of the company, the highest reaches, and you're getting no's from like the director of operations, or the director of procurement and supply chain, Or heck, maybe even a CEO or a vice president. You probably can keep going. Remember that a lot of big companies, you know, large construction companies, large energy companies, they have multiple branches.

You might only be talking to one plant, for instance, and they're giving you a no. Okay, fine, maybe it is a no at that one plant. The funny thing is, if you get a yes from the executive level of the entire company, that one plant that gave you a no might end up buying your people anyway. So understand that it really depends on making sure that you have the right person that you're reaching out to.

Make sure that you absolutely know that the target individual, the target position at the company is the right position. If the answer is yes, you've talked to the right position, you know that that's the position, You know that you're the highest up in the company that you're going to get. You know what, you're talking to corporate and not just a branch.

Then maybe, maybe that's the time to make the call and say, okay, this company's not interested. But it really comes down to what is the directive of your company? If you're getting a company directive from the top that's saying, We want this large oil and gas company. We want this large manufacturing plant or whatever it is you work in, then yeah, keep going.

Keep going until you are absolutely positive that you've gotten to a director level and that there's nobody else who could potentially give you a yes. But if you're at the top, you get the no. Take the note, but if you're not sure that you're at the top, you're not sure that you have, you know, the exact right person.

My advice is keep going. I can tell you that a lot of the large oil and gas companies that I got into, I had quite a few people tell me this probably isn't something they're interested in. Why bother? I'm too busy to meet with you, whatever it is, until I got to the right person. And when I got to the right person, it was an immediate.

Yeah, yeah, this sounds great. Let's set it up. So a lot of times you just have to get to the person who actually understands what your product and service is and how important it is to their company. When you get to that person and they tell you no, then it's probably a no. But until you get there, you keep going because Trust me, that yes is probably closer than you think.

Amazing questions, Daniel. Daniel is an incredible listener of the show, and we appreciate him greatly. My next question comes from listener April. April asks about building trust and personality in written outreach, and she asks, How can a business development professional effectively convey their personality and build trust through emails and messages.

What tips do you have for creating a genuine personable connection in written outreach to engage potential clients? Great question, April. You likely cannot build trust through emails and messages. Remember, the whole point of our, of our written outreach Our messages, our emails, it is to build enough interest to get us to a meeting.

We then build trust through the meeting, through our personal connection. It is very, very hard to build trust with somebody through the written word. If you do not already know them, you really need to be able to have that interaction, that teams call, that video call, that in person meeting. To build rapport and build trust between two real people very hard to do with someone you do not know through written word.

I want you to focus your messaging April through email and messages to building interest to why they would want to meet with you further. Once you get that face to face meeting, whether that be through a team's call. Whether that be through an in person lunch or a meeting such as that, that is the situation that you are going to be able to build trust and create genuine, personable connection.

That is the secret. You're not going to be able to do it through writing. And in a lot of ways, the harder you try to do it through writing, the more it actually pushes away the other person. Instead, focus your writing on building interest in your products and services, and then push for the meeting.

April's second question is, how do we follow up without sounding persistent or pushy? And she goes, following up is crucial in business development, but it is easy to come across as pushy or overly persistent. How can we follow up effectively without using phrases like, did you see my last message? What approaches or phrases would you recommend to keep the follow up feeling refreshed and non intrusive?

Incredible question, April. I absolutely love this. And I have always gone with the once per week rule. We only reach out once per week. That is the secret. Anything more than that is too much. Anything less than that is too little. If we follow up with a kind voicemail and we never ever call them out, let's just talk about that right now.

We never say, did you see my last message? Always treat them with respect, treat it like they're busy and they missed it. Whatever it is. Always approach it new. So I typically might say, Hey, I'm just following up on my last email. Still can't wait to meet with you. Do you mind if we set something up? I may respond with something like that.

I may just leave a brand new voicemail. Hey, it's Kelly trying to reach you working with XYZ company. We have this product, this product, this product. I think it's something that you and your company would be super interested in. Can we set up a meeting sometime in the next two weeks? Can't wait to hear from you.

You can get me back at X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z, right? This is the secret. The secret is to always treat them like they never saw it, but always leave the kindest voicemails that you absolutely can. Work to be short, sweet, concise. And always ask for the meeting. Always ask for what you want. And if you're feeling like, okay, I've left like four voicemails, don't be afraid to swap it out with an email.

You could send a voicemail one week, an email the next week, a voicemail, an email, however you want to do it. Just keep to the once per week rule. And then heck, if you get to like 10 you can decide then if it's worth it, or if you need to find a new contact. A lot of the times, if you're at 10, and you haven't gotten any response, You may actually just have the wrong person.

So it makes sense to then maybe try to track down another contact and start over. But understand that the secret to not coming across as pushy is by being kind, always giving them the benefit of the doubt, understanding that these people are incredibly busy. Understand I've met with supply chain directors Who probably get a thousand reach outs a week.

If you are one of a thousand reach outs, April, you can't really blame them for not wanting to call us back right when we want it. Right. So understand that it's not typically that these people are blowing you off. People that work in supply chain are incredibly, incredibly busy. People that are running projects, incredibly, incredibly busy.

And unless they need your product in that moment, you're probably not top of mind. But understand that the whole goal here is just to create an introduction that gets us an opportunity sometime down the line. So. You don't need to feel pressured either. Understand that if it takes you 12 weeks to book the meeting, that's not the end of the world.

Just keep at it, stay persistent, but use the one week rule. We reach out one time, once per week, that's it. Follow up the next week. If you don't hear anything back and make your call about when you're going to cut it off. A great question, April. That was a really good one. The next question April had was exploring alternative channels for product exposure.

And she goes. Beyond traditional platforms like LinkedIn and email, what are some alternative ways to get a product in front of the target audience and make a memorable impression? Are there any specific methods or channels that you would recommend for adding value and visibility without relying solely on digital outreach?

Okay, this is a good one. We really live in a time, April, where digital outreach is where it's at. It just is from a targeting perspective. We're just able to get our products and services in front of the right people. We're able to connect with the right individuals that buy our products and services. So my opinion would be utilizing an active marketing process of using a digital introduction through LinkedIn, finding the contact information, direct email, direct phone number, reaching out to get a face to face meeting.

This is the best way. This is hundred percent. The best way to market in B2B. But yes, there are lots of traditional channels that people have used for a very long time. You could attend trade shows, you could set up a booth, you could, you know, join your local chamber of commerce and go to all the meetings and stuff that they do.

But understand that all of that stuff, it's nice. It's really fun. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love going to Edmonton chamber events. They're incredible. They're a lot of fun. I don't do a lot of business with them though. It's strictly because you're meeting a bunch of people and you don't know what, what any of them do.

You don't know if there's even going to be someone there that can buy your products and services or that has a need for them. You're really just shooting in the dark, right? And we don't want to shoot in the dark. We want to like target the right positions at a company as precisely as possible to save time because you are busy.

I am busy. I don't have time to waste. I barely go to events now, April. And it really is because I'm just so busy with my time that trying to balance that if I can't get something for sure out of it doesn't really make sense. So yes, there are lots of different ways that you can do it. You can do digital flyers, you could do billboards, you could do radio ads, you could do expos, you could do all sorts of stuff.

And there's nothing wrong with doing it except for a lot of these mediums are made for brand exposure. What they're really made to do is get your products and services in front of as many people as possible. It doesn't mean that those are people that can buy your products and services. That's Kind of the challenge with it all, it's really great for brand recognition, and I'm a huge advocate for passive strategies for brand recognition.

I'm an advocate for getting yourself on, on radio, on TV, on podcasts, on all sorts of things, but understand that they're probably not going to pay you back in direct returns right then and there. It's a long game of creating brand recognition and exposure. It works. Problem is, it's slow. We need to, most of the time, we need to be more targeted to grow our companies in the way that we want to.

So, Absolutely. There's lots of different options. You can try all of them and see which ones that you like. I think you will find though that using a business development strategy that is about an active marketing process like we talked about on the show, that is going to be your quickest, most value driven approach that you can take.

All right. Thanks, April. Those were incredible questions. Our last question comes from a listener named Daveed, and Daveed's question is about staying on track amid global outreach opportunities. He goes, for a sales or business development professional, reaching out to a global audience can be both exciting and overwhelming, with so many potential clients and limited hours in the day.

How can one effectively maintain a schedule and stay on track with outreach, follow ups and meetings? What are your top strategies for managing time and prioritizing tasks in extensive outreach role? Incredible, Daveed. I'll be honest, dude, I've gotten so much better at this particular part of the task over the last couple of years.

And I live by a calendar. I absolutely do. I schedule my time. I schedule cold call time. I schedule digital introduction time. I make sure that I send out calendly invites to people for meetings so that they're booking within time windows so that I'm not necessarily pushing time windows that I've already banked aside for specific tasks.

But it really does come down to calendar management, Daveed. And I know you don't want to hear this. Nobody wants to hear this because we all want to live within our freedoms, but Let me tell you what, when I started living by my calendar, I schedule everything, dude, I schedule all of my work stuff, whether that be client meetings, whether that be cold call time, whether that be digital introduction time, everything that I need to be doing throughout a day, I schedule, and then I send out calendly invites to to clients or to people that I'm meeting with in order to make sure that they're fitting within my time windows.

And I really do live this way, Daveed. I really do. I live 100 percent by a calendar now, and it has made me so much more effective at getting the things done and balancing my meetings in the same time. You know, I probably have five to 10 meetings every single week, whether that be BDP meetings, whether that be interviews, whether that be client meetings, whatever it is I'm doing.

I have a lot of meetings during my week. I also still do active business development for clients. And so I may have time scheduled for that. And I'm doing active business development for myself for growing the podcast. And so, yeah, man, it's it's tough. It's tough. But every week, I want you to focus a little harder on focusing in on that calendar.

And if you're kind of struggling with prioritizing tasks, which is something that I struggled with. Years ago, I started doing top things to do today. So every single day when I sit down in the morning and I have client work to do, or I'm doing work for myself that day, I write out top five things to do today and I will write down like I said the top five to ten things to do that day and I'll write them in order of importance and yes a lot of the times it'll be the stuff I really don't want to do in the first two because guess what the sooner that you can bust out those cold calls the sooner that you can finish all your digital introductions and invites for the week The better off you're going to be because you're getting in front of more people.

So my recommendation to you is really live by a calendar schedule time. Don't break that time, right? Follow it. Follow the time blocks that you've given yourself and start using a notepad. Top things to do today. Every single day. Check them off as you go. Your productivity will start to skyrocket when you start to do this.

It's an absolute great question. It's a hard one for each and every one of us. But as we're growing businesses. We have to grow too, and it's just one of those things that goes with it. Thank you, Daveed, that was an incredible question, and I appreciate you and your listening, my friend. If you have enjoyed this show and you're struggling with your business development process, you're struggling to grow your company, you need better processes.

That's the problem most of us have. Guys, I have an absolutely incredible coaching program. It is called the Business Development Mastery Program with Kelly Kennedy. It is a three month program. It's six sessions spread out every two weeks. We're going to set business development goals, your growth goals for 2025.

We are going to identify the right people at the organizations to market to. We're going to work on your LinkedIn strategy. We're going to work on your CRM strategy and guys, we are going to help you establish and operate an active marketing process in 2025 and beyond. This program is for entrepreneurs, business owners, business development specialists, business development managers, Anybody whose job it is to grow the business.

This program is for you. You can book a discovery call with me for free at Capital Business Development. Or if you go on my LinkedIn page, you'll see the button that says, amplify your impact, click that button, book that discovery call, and we can explore the options together. Guys, that takes us to the end of our show today.

It's been absolutely incredible. If you've enjoyed this show and you want to submit community questions for a future episode, please do send them again. Podcast@CapitalBD.ca. Happy Halloween, everybody. 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.