Navigating Business Development in 2024

Navigating Business Development in 2024

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 99 of the business development podcast. And on today's milestone episode, we're talking all about navigating business development in 2024. Stick with us. You're not going to want to miss this one.

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 99. The great one, the Gretzky of episodes based right here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada of the business development podcast. My gosh, 99 episodes, everyone.

It's honestly, it's a little bit surreal. It's a little bit unbelievable on certain levels. When I started this show, I could have never, ever. ever seen 99 or 100 episodes in our future, but my gosh, it's crazy. It's here. And I just wanted to take a minute before we started today's episode to thank all of our amazing, amazing listeners, the listenership of the business development podcast.

You amazing people have made this show possible. You are some of. The smartest, kindest, most driven individuals on planet earth. And I appreciate each and every one of you. I'm so thankful for all the reach outs that you guys have provided me along this journey, encouraging me to keep going, letting me know about the successes that you're having.

letting me know how this show has helped your life because frankly, some there were points along this journey that were, that were tough. You know it's not easy cranking out two shows a week, every single week. And we didn't miss one. We trucked them right out throughout 2023. And you know, your encouragement has really helped us along this way.

I understand that the work we do here helps you. And that helps me to continue to come back week over week, month over month now heading into our first year. And I just wanted to say to our amazing listeners, thank you so much. Thank you for all you've done for the show. Thank you for all the things that you've done for us.

Thank you for rating us, reviewing us, telling your friends about us, telling your family about us, and frankly, helping us to grow in an unbelievable rate. You know, the fact is this morning we rolled in at 117, 000 downloads, and we are still not even a year old. We will reach our year on February 6th of 2024.

And so that kind of growth in a year for a business show, not typical, not heard of. And it is because of you guys. It is because our amazing listenership. The next people that I want to thank as we roll into episode 99 is our absolutely. Absolutely amazing rockstar guests who have graced the stage of the business development podcast and shared their amazing nuggets of wisdom with us, their experiences, their journeys, their lessons, their wins and their failures, and just laid it out for us to teach us and guide us down this path of entrepreneurship.

We have had absolutely amazing, amazing guests on the show. We are thankful for each and every one of them. Just so you guys know, we have 44 as of this episode, we have 44 guest episodes for you guys to go back to. If this is your very first episode of the business development podcast, my gosh, you have some that you can go back and check out on, but 44.

Expert guest interviews in our very first year, we have 56 business development advice, entrepreneurial advice, and encouragement episodes that are done by yours truly, Kelly Kennedy as well to go back to you. So amazing content, lots of content and and an amazing journey. And you know, I've told you guys from the beginning, the business development podcast is a journey.

It's a journey that we're on together, you know, and I appreciate you all. I appreciate you all immensely. Thank you for supporting me on this journey. Thank you for coming back week over week and sharing, sharing your wins, sharing your challenges and frankly being vulnerable with us because it's, it couldn't have happened without that.

It couldn't have happened without our amazing, our amazing listenership and It's, it's because of you guys. And I just want to say, as we get this show started, Thank you. Thank you for supporting me to 100. And I hope that I can continue to keep you with us for the next 100. Cause I'm not stopping yet.

Alright thank you for bearing with us on that intro. I just wanted to also start out today's episode by giving a gigantic, gigantic Thank you to Rodney Lover for episode 98. Ideas Are Easy, Execution Is Hard. Rodney Lover is the CEO of atWork Office Furniture, who was also one of our inaugural sponsors of the Business Development Podcast, both himself Colin Harms from Hypervac Technologies have supported us from our very first ask for, for sponsors.

And I just want to say, to our sponsors, to Hypervac Technologies, to atWork Office Furniture, to Maverick NDT, and to Bloom Bookkeeping, who have all supported us on some level, we appreciate you all immensely, thank you so much for throwing your dollars behind this podcast and helping us to continue to grow and, and be able to do more with the show with regards to our own advertising programs, and yeah, really?

It's it's really a labor of love. And when people kind of get behind shows like this and support it and see the good that it's doing for the business community and put their dollars and cents behind it, it really helps us to, to be able to up the production, to be able to up our own advertising, reach further and further and further with this show.

And I just want to say. Thank you so much to the sponsors who have gotten behind us on this journey and and for the new sponsors who are inquiring, because the reality is this journey is going to continue to require dollars and cents to keep moving. And we appreciate all the support we can get.

And so. Thank you so much to our sponsors. Thank you so much to our listeners for for bearing with us as we add advertising to the show. I understand it's not always what we want to hear, but the reality is it does keep shows like this going. It does allow us to be able to grow the show and do bigger, better things in the future.

All right. Well. Let's get into it. 99. And I wanted to do 99 in the same kind of vein as we did number one. I thought that that would be kind of cool. And our very first episode, we kind of talked about what is business development, according to Kelly Kennedy and Capital Business Development. And today I wanted to do an episode that somewhat revisits that, but also talks about how do we navigate business development in 2024 because You guys know and I know a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same.

And I really wanted to spend some time with you today to maybe let you know what is important in 2024. I know we got technology, we got AI, we got all these things, but does it really change the whole game? Let's talk about it. Business Development can seem overwhelming at times in 2024. We have AI, outsourced lead generation, digital marketing, all telling you that they have the secret.

The next big thing. The tool that will land the big client, make you rich. But it's simply Not true. There is one secret. One secret weapon that will make you rich. That will land the big client. That will close the big deals in 2024 and beyond. And that secret weapon, everybody, the secret weapon is you. If you think the reason you're not closing more deals and finding more opportunity is because you don't have the latest lead generation technology or contact data, you are lying to yourself.

2024 may have AI and other amazing tools, but they are no replacement for you. I wanted to drill that into you guys in the very first part of this episode and the reason is everyone business development is about relationships and Relationships no matter all the technology and tools that you have at your disposal are created by people They're created by the authentic you.

And I really wanted to spend some time today talking to my business owners, to my business development reps, to the people who are in charge of generating relationships on behalf of their businesses, and who are responsible for growing their businesses. Guys, I know it. I know there's lots of stuff and I know you're getting lots of flashy emails and lots of flashy stuff on your social saying, you know, there's this next big thing.

There's this next big thing. You just need this AI. You just need this lead gen. We can outsource all this lead gen. I'll get you 50 leads a week. Right? Yeah, guys, it's still relationship based, right? These are, these are people trying to sell you stuff. And yeah, are there certain things that are beneficial?

Absolutely. Absolutely, but there will never be a replacement for good old fashioned phone calls for good old fashioned. Emails for good old fashioned face to face meetings. Okay. This is where business is done. No matter how many fancy lead generation things you have, if you guys are doing business to business selling B2B relationships, these need to be done by real people.

They need to be done by real people. All these other things are amazing. They are. They really are. And we use them at Capital too. But they are just tools. They are just tools to assist you. You. A real person. They're here to help you do better. Remember, relationships are built by people between people.

Right. And they're built over time. They're not immediate. It can sometimes take, you know, years to generate really great business relationships. Some of the best relationships that I've ever generated in my years in business development and account management were done over years and years and years of deals in business, right?

Where you're dealing with the same people over and over again, you get to know them, you get to know their kids, you get to know they're, they're good. They're bad. But it's amazing. It's amazing. And that's the best part about business development. And you guys know how I feel about that. Relationships are about the people.

Business development is amazing because of the people, because of the relationships you're able to generate. It really is one of the best jobs in any organization, bar none. It's actually so good that at this point in my career, I've met multiple CEOs who have chosen to take on the business development on behalf of their companies because they have to know because they love it.

Because they love it because it is one of the best positions in any organization bar none bar none It's it's it's fun. It's exciting. You get to control, you know, the growth of your company You get to control the direction of your company. There's so much gained In being in business development, that it truly, it truly is all encompassing.

And to a point where, like I said, the leadership wants to be part of it. They want to be in it because it really is that rewarding and that fulfilling to be in that role. And so that's it guys, relationships are built by people between people. And so all of this AI and technology, remember it is going to supplement you.

It is not going to replace you. Trust is built over time by connection and experience. This is critical guys. This is critical. Technology can't really build trust for you, right? Trust is built by people, by two people and usually through multiple interactions where, where trust is established, right?

You know, I don't know about you, but like anybody could come up to me with a claim and initially, I'm not sure that I would believe the claim. It would take multiple times with me interacting with them, maybe seeing, you know, what they're talking about, you know, actually happening or the service being performed in person where it's like, Oh, okay, you know what?

You're absolutely right. Yeah, I think I do trust this service or I think I do trust this product or yeah, that that looks trustworthy, right? Like that takes time. And so trust is something that once again, established by people. It's by people, right? We have to establish trust between two people and that's how business is done as well.

There is no replacement for effort and a can do attitude. For, for all my lovely business development people who are like, you know what? I'm just going to let the technology do this job for me and let the leads roll in. Yeah, maybe it will work. But remember, you have to get them on the worst day. That's the problem with just waiting for your passive strategies to work.

You have to find people on their worst day, right? It's pretty rare that people are out there looking directly for your service. So you really have to get them on the worst day. What you want to be doing is being proactive to build those relationships. Ahead of the need ahead of the problem so that when they do have that worst day, they're not hitting Google or they're not, they're not scrolling through LinkedIn, trying to find, you know, the next ad that can help solve their problem, right?

You want people to already know who you are, which is why. New business development is so critical for your organizations, which is why you need somebody in your organization actively doing business development, specifically new business development every single day with your organization to make sure that, yeah, your current customers are great.

But remember, they can leave at any minute for any time for any reason. Your new customers can leave for any reason at any time. And so we always have to make sure that we have new customers coming in. We have new opportunities, new people learning about us and absolutely passive strategies are important, but they need to be about 20 to 30%.

 Of where you're spending your time and the rest of that time that that remaining 70 80 percent needs to be spent Actively marketing your company having a real person reach out to real people and make real introductions This is what is going to grow your business mark my words. These are the things that work technologies can assist you and there are amazing technologies and I wanted to talk about some of the technologies that I specifically recommend in 20 23, 20 24 and beyond.

Okay, let's talk about LinkedIn. You guys know if you've listened to this show for any length of time. You guys know I'm a huge advocate for LinkedIn, but do I think you have to buy the biggest, best package with LinkedIn, the sales navigator, or whatever else you're working on? Absolutely not. The thing that you really need with LinkedIn is a process, a way that you use it.

At Capital, I use LinkedIn every single day, every single day, weekends, weekdays, whether it be for CapitalBD or the podcast, we are on LinkedIn. every single day. And the reason is that it truly is just that, that amazing network of people that we've been able to grow over time. And I wanted to talk a little bit about what you need in LinkedIn in LinkedIn, what you, what you can get, or what you do need is you do need to buy a basic account.

And what I would recommend is just the basic business account. You don't need the sales navigator. You don't need all the fancy in mails. Most people are not reading their in mails. What you need to be able to do is search people and If you don't buy a premium account of LinkedIn on some level, you don't get the unlimited search function, which is actually what you need in business development.

Okay. And, and you need to be able to, to search and add 100 people every single week, every single week. No, you didn't hear me wrong. Every single week. Okay, LinkedIn has a use it or lose it policy. You can only add 100 people a week, but if you do not add your 100 people every single week, you will lose that 100 people.

And so if you want to maximize your LinkedIn membership over the course of a year, you have to. You have to use LinkedIn properly. And so the way that we do that, we, we make sure that we're connecting with the right target people at various organizations. And we add 100 people every single week. And you know what, maybe that is different people.

Maybe that's, maybe that's people that you want to connect with. Maybe that's just frankly, other BD people that you want to connect with and network with. Or maybe that's people, you know, from your local community. Maybe that's not necessarily clients or targets. Maybe it's something else, but my point is either way.

You get 100 invites a week. Don't waste them. Don't waste them. Every time you don't add that 100, you wasted that opportunity, and you're not going to get it back. And so, we have to use it correctly. The other way that we need to talk about About using LinkedIn is please stop sending your entire business development pitch your entire product pitch over a LinkedIn message.

Okay, everybody it nobody is reading them mark my words Nobody is reading your eight paragraph product pitch on LinkedIn Okay, we don't want to see that I'm in business development. I don't want to see that What I want to see is you it's you I don't connect with your company. I connect with you. And so, when you make an introduction, and you guys know I advocate for digital introductions all the time.

Absolutely, I think it's a perfect first step. I call it a soft introduction. It's part of our process at Capital. However, what I'm doing is I'm introducing myself first, and then a little brief blurb on I'm working with XYZ company. I think you might find them interesting, and I look forward to connecting with you in the future.

That's it. It's very basic, very simple, very short. Okay. The secret to success on LinkedIn is make your message as absolutely brief as you possibly can and keep yourself in it. Please stop using chat GPT to make your message, please. Please chat. GPT is amazing. I agree. It's really good at crafting great messages.

However, it sounds like a robot. And I have gotten so many messages through my LinkedIn that I know have just been run through chat GPT. They copied, they pasted it. They did nothing. It had no character to it. It had no humanity to it. It, it had no connection to the person who actually sent me the message.

Okay. So if you guys are using chat GPT, nothing wrong with that. Please change like 50 percent of it at least. Okay. Change 50 percent of the message at least to something you would actually say, because chat GPT. Talks like a robot because it is a robot, okay, maybe one day it'll catch up and it and it will it will be, you know, unmistakably the same, but it is not there yet.

Okay, and so for those of you who are in BD and you guys are using LinkedIn and you guys are sending messages to prospects and you guys are using chat GPT to do so, please, please put yourself back into these messages, limit them to like. Maybe a paragraph. Okay, you guys really need to knock these things back because the messages that I'm seeing coming through LinkedIn or like 10 paragraphs long, they don't make any sense.

They're total sell pitches, and they're not nobody's going to look at that and be like, I can't wait to talk to this person. That's not what's going to happen. You know how you're going to get there by building interest a little tiny bit at a time. Okay, through curiosity, don't give them the whole bloody pitch.

Just Introduce yourself. Say I'm with XYZ company. You know, we're doing this. I think you might find it interesting. Attach a brochure. Let them go over that on their own, on their own time. Add them to a digital follow up and then follow up with them in person to have that real conversation. Okay. You're not selling over LinkedIn.

You're building interest. You're building interest and connections. Okay. That is the secret. Stop selling on LinkedIn. You will not do it the way that you wish you would or that you hope you will. What you need to do with LinkedIn is build interest, okay? Let's talk about the next part. We need our CRMs. We need CRMs in 2024.

Okay. If you guys are not currently using CRMs, I have previous shows. I'm going to be doing future shows again on CRMs, again, just touching on them, talking about our flow of capital, talking about the best way to set up your CRM and utilize it properly. But I'll give you a quick run through. We have to establish great flow.

A CRM is only ever as good as the flow that you have. Plus garbage in garbage out, right? It's also only as good as the way, as the, the data that you're inputting into it. So if you're not giving. All the data you know, you're, you're working with garbage and you're going to, you're going to end up with a really messy, ugly CRM.

That's hard to use that you don't know what's going on in it. However, if we do the opposite, the opposite is true. If we have a good flow, we've entered all the data. Our notes are great. We're putting in exact notes. Guys, we live one of the greatest things that's happened in 2023 is the availability of automatic summaries for meetings.

Guys, we're putting a lot of these summaries into our CRMs. Why not? Because in six months we can go back. We can see exactly what that conversation was about. We can see what the action points were. We can see what we needed to do next steps. It's all there. And so make sure that our CRMs are being populated with really great, accurate information.

They're being set up, right? They're, they have a good flow to them and you guys are using them every single. Day every day, guys, stop. If you guys are not incorporating CRMs into your day to day tasks, you need to be doing it immediately. Everything that you guys do with regards to your business development efforts, you guys need to be tracking in your CRMs.

Okay. This is great. Not only for knowing where you're at, but for statistical data down the line. And then 60 contacts a week, guys. I'm talking to a lot of you. I know I have quite a few people reaching out saying, you know, I'm getting a little burnt out because we have a hundred plus contacts in our weekly contacted stage.

Yeah, you're going to get burnt out. I think a good rule of thumb and one that I like to work with at Capital is depending on how many days a week we're putting on things, I like to have about 60 contacts, okay? 60 contacts for weekly follow up is a manageable amount, it's a good amount, you're gonna get lots of meetings from it, but ultimately, it's not so much that when you look at it on a Monday, you're like, oh shit, like, I'm never going to finish this, or you just get into a depressed state, right?

Because the way that we feel about business development, the way that we feel about our week, our optimism, our excitement. It's going to control your outcomes. It really is. It's going to control how you're talking to people on the phone. It's going to control your mood. It's going to control everything with regards to your business development efforts.

Okay? So we need to be setting ourselves up right for those of you who do have a large weekly follow up stage. Let's, let's call that, let's bring it down to about 60. That's a great manageable amount to work from. And as you disqualify, move new ones in. But I think you're going to find 60 is great. It's, it's great from a standpoint of you really only have to knock out about 20 a day, and you're going to get meetings from those 20.

And it's going to give you an optimism instead of, instead of a feeling of dread. Okay. We do not want feelings of dread from our CRM systems, but we need them in 2024 and beyond. And obviously guys are phones, right? Our phones, our voice, it's who we are. It's how we do real business development. It's how we build real relationships.

It's how we book real meetings, right? We need to be actually reaching out to people. I know it's 2024. I know there's a thousand ways that you wish would work. But they don't, okay? Everything else, all of our AI, all of our lead generation tools. It's zoom info, whatever else you guys are using. It's all to get you in front of somebody.

It's all to get you into a real face to face or video call meeting where you can pitch your product, have a great conversation, build a relationship and lead it to a successful RFP, RFQ, whatever else you guys are trying to do. It's all about getting us to a successful RFP, bid list, order, whatever we're trying to get to, but we have to build a real relationship and these are done in person, okay?

But phones, phones, don't forget your phones. I know emailing is easier. I know, you know, waiting for your lead generations to come in through your contact forms feels like a better way or way you wish it would work. It just doesn't work the way you wish it would. Okay. It just doesn't. And no online person promising you a thousand leads through a digital source is going to get you where you want to go as fast as you picking up a phone and making 10 or 15 calls every day on behalf of your business.

Mark my words, mark my words. Nothing is a replacement for the good old fashioned phone. Okay. Cold calls are not dead. They're not. They're just as alive as ever. And your competition is doing them. They are doing them. Why? Because it works. And if you are not, you are falling behind. I don't care if it's 2024.

I don't care if it's 2025, 2026. You are not replacing relationships. You are not replacing the need for human connection. It's not happening, at least not yet. And I may eat my words one day, but I'm not eating them yet. Okay, mark my words, you need physical connection with prospects. You need to call them on the phone.

You need to ask them for a face to face meeting or a team's meeting. And you need to talk about and pitch your products in person. Body language is such a huge part of communication and you lose it if you're not If you're not in person, if you're not having that face to face contact, if you can't see the smile, if you can't get that real connection and you guys know what I'm talking about, real connection, you know, you know, and I know it's scary and I know making cold calls can suck.

I know I'm the first one to tell you that I hated doing cold calls. Of course we all did. But guess what? You get better at it. You get better at it every single time. And what's really cool with cold calls is after about. Five or 10, you can hit something called a cold call cadence. And this happens to me every single week, every week, you know, I'll pick up and I'll make my first five calls and be like, Oh, another call.

But by call six, I'm like, Oh, Oh, I'm on a roll by call seven, eight, nine, 10. Now I'm up to 20. I can do 20 cold calls in a row, like nothing. And it's because I hit a cold call cadence. Right? And when you hit a cold call cadence, it's like, it's like, it's like swimming. It's, it's, it's so weird. It's like a runner's high, but once you hit it, you hit it and you could just sit and make call after call after call.

And you guys are going to find so much more success investing in your, your call skills, investing in your ability to book real face to face meetings. Then you guys ever will, by paying for somebody to bring you digital leads or, or by hoping that the new technology is going to do that work for you. Okay.

I know, I know we want it to work sometimes, you know what I mean? I'm, I'm the first to tell you when I started capital, I, you know, I went down that path too, but I knew better and I fixed it real quick. And I think you guys know better and you're going to fix it real quick. I have the utmost, utmost faith in you.

Remember, technology is giving us lots of new tools to utilize and learn in 2024. But don't forget, it is no replacement for a human touch. Amazing. That brings us to the end of episode 99. Guys, it's been an absolute honor. It has been an absolute honor. Hosting the last 99 episodes with you. I can't wait.

We're about to roll into episode 100. We have an amazing, amazing episode coming up for you at 100. I'm frankly excited to listen to it again myself, and I hope you enjoy it. And I hope that you really enjoy, you know, the work that we did for you guys over the last 100 episodes. I hope that, I hope that it's changed your world.

I hope that it's changed your business. And I really, really hope that you guys all make a fortune from this information in the future, because you each deserve it. Thank you so much for all of the effort and time you've put into it. And like I said, I'm not giving up yet. Stick with us. There's lots. Of the business development podcast still coming.

We have amazing guests coming. We have great shows planned and the show is only getting bigger and better as we go forward. And like I said, don't forget, tell your friends, tell your family, leave us a rating, leave us a like, share us around, but that's how we grow this show. That's how this show takes it to the next level.

Shout outs this week. We have a bunch. Chloe Wu, Jamie Moffat, Matthew Thompson. Tatsiana Zametalina, Caroline Mantel, Blake Hellyar, Tyler Rebkowich, Craig Panek, Aaron Chin, Traci DeForge, Steve Austin, Zachary Baldwin, Mike Mack, Nancy Carlson, Raphael Cervan, David Fair, David Stephan, Jay Merchant, Will Bunyan, Al Gensitskiy, David Delvin, Beth Kevan, Alexander Javier, Louise Mccarthy, Kamil Szczekot, Gokul Ravindran, and Roxanne Kasianchuk.

Thank you so much. 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 at www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the business development podcast.

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