Tired of Hearing No? These 10 Fixes Will Land More Client Meetings

Welcome to episode 223 of the Business Development Podcast.

And today we're diving deep into the 10 most critical reasons you're not booking enough meetings and exactly how to fix them.

If you've been struggling to get prospects to say yes, this episode is your roadmap.

Let's diagnose the problem and get you back into the room where the magic happens.

Stick with us.

You are not gonna want to miss the this episode.

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.

Hello.

Welcome to episode 223 of the Business Development Podcast.

I have been getting a ton of comments lately about people that are struggling with setting meetings.

I get many questions on the topic, asking how can they be more successful?

How can they close more meetings, perfect their scripts?

Well, today I'm going to tackle this very subject and I can't wait to get into it.

Guys, closing meetings is the entire point of business development.

Everything that we are doing as business developers is to get us to the meetings.

However, the path to the meeting is not always paved in gold.

It's not always obvious.

And the tools and strategy that we must use to get there are not all created equal.

And so today I'm going to dive deep into my process and what I've always used to book meetings and the strategies I've used to get there.

And guys, there are no magic pills, no magic pathways.

There's just strategic process and doing the same right things week over week that get results for you over time.

Remember, there's no magic bullet.

There's no easy button in business development.

There is consistency over time, and it's consistency over time that leads to success.

Whenever people are struggling to book meetings, we have to look at the entire marketing process as a whole.

Remember, there's a precursor to every meeting that must be met.

And we must build enough interest because when the interest is peaked, so are your meeting closure rates.

And so today we're going to talk about the 10 steps to help you book more meetings.

Number one, marketing materials.

Okay?

Marketing materials are absolutely everything when it comes to your meeting success rates.

Remember, meetings don't happen if you can't build enough interest to get them there.

Let me repeat that again.

Meetings do not happen where there is no interest.

It is absolutely critical as business developers that we are working and utilizing marketing materials to build interest with our respective clients.

Okay?

We absolutely, absolutely have to be building enough interest to get ourselves to the meeting.

And we must start with our websites.

Okay?

Websites in the 21st century have to be bold, beautiful, visually appealing.

They must include video.

They have to be designed to lead prospects down a path.

User experience with our modern websites is absolutely critical.

How are they being interacted with?

What is the path that our prospects are going down when it comes down to traveling or traversing our websites?

Okay, we have to create great user experiences.

Our websites have to be bold, beautiful, visually appealing.

We have to be marketing to millennials with our websites.

Guys, 12 seconds, you got to hook them quick.

You got 12 seconds to grab our attention.

And so I always say at this point, on your homepages of your websites, guys, they have to be beautiful.

They have to include video.

There has to be something to keep people on the page and to keep people engaged to want to go further into the site.

We can't be utilizing too many words, okay?

Words are out.

Only use as many words as necessary to convey the point that you want to convey.

Stop writing articles on your homepages of your websites.

Make sure that you're using a few sentences to drive home what it is you're trying to drive home.

Leave options for them to read deeper.

But remember, on those homepages or where you got people scrolling, you don't need a lot of words.

Words are out, visual, beautiful, pictures, video that is in.

Make sure that all of your websites have an easy way to connect.

Right, Easy way to connect, easy way to book a meeting.

How can we convert from our sites right to meetings?

If we can utilize our websites to get to meetings, great.

Make sure that it's easy for somebody to book a meeting off your website.

Make sure that it's easy for them to contact you.

Make everything as simple and easy as possible to make that connection happen.

Your website is your 80s 20 story skyscraper.

You have the ability, no matter how big or small your company is, to look as big as you want.

Make sure that your website conveys who you are, what you do, that is accurate and, and has all of your services and products available on it.

We have to make sure that we are competing with the big boys.

Websites allow us to do that.

Websites allow even the smallest company to look relevant, to look big, to look competitive, to look like a leader in their space.

Make sure that our websites are done right.

Do not neglect them.

If you have not looked at your website in a number of years and you're struggling to book meetings, this could absolutely, absolutely be one of the challenges you are facing.

However, it's just one piece of the puzzle.

The next thing we have to look at are our brochures.

Okay?

Brochures are more powerful than ever.

Do not neglect them.

Don't make this mistake.

Brochures are not dead.

They are more powerful than ever.

Why?

Because less people than ever are using them.

Make sure that we're building bold, beautiful brochures that you're making both digital and physical copies because we market them in different ways.

Now.

Make sure that just like on the website, we're making our brochures bold, beautiful, high impact, visually appealing.

Make sure we're using powerful wording, but once again, just like the website, not too wordy.

You're not selling anything, guys.

You're not selling anything from these websites in your B2B businesses, okay?

You're not selling anything in the brochures.

Remember, what is the point?

We have to build interest.

Everything else will be done in person, will be done in that face to face meeting or that virtual meeting.

The sale is done through the relationship and trust generated in the meeting.

The brochures, the marketing materials, the websites, they're just tools to get you to that meeting.

Make sure that we're using them as such.

Make sure that they're designed to build interest.

That is the secret.

And with Millennials and Gen Z, you have less time than ever to generate that interest.

12 seconds with millennials, 8 seconds with gen Z.

We have to be on point when we're designing our marketing materials.

From this point forward, we have to make sure that we're prioritizing visual appeal and impact over everything else.

That is what's going to get you to that next step.

We have to make sure that whenever we make brochures that we're speaking to our customers in a way that they understand.

Okay?

We have to speak to our customers in a language that they understand.

That means that if you're marketing to oil and gas, that you're speaking to them in oil and gas terms and you're using references that they understand.

If you're marketing to manufacturing, same thing.

You're speaking to them in ways that the manufacturing Industry understands in terms that they understand.

We have to make sure that if we're selling industrial tires that we're speaking to industry, that we're speaking to them in terms that they understand.

Not the same way that we would speak to an end consumer for their car tires.

Okay.

There are different terminologies depending on the industry.

And if this means that you have to create multiple cut sheets, and we're going to get into that in a minute, if this means that you have to create multiple cut sheets to speak to more than one industry, do it.

Your results are going to be much higher when you speak to industry in a way that they understand.

Okay.

And last but not least, we want to utilize a folder style brochure with a pocket on the inside so that we can create inserts for each product and service that we sell.

This is like the best way to market brochures moving forward.

Okay.

We have a main folder insert which has, you know, a brief overview of the company, might talk about your values.

It has a bold, beautiful picture on the front cover, maybe a tagline to just get people interested.

But all of the meat and potatoes of the brochure is actually in the inserts.

And we create these cut sheets, we call them, and they're essentially a one pager on a product or service.

And every product and service we create a one pager for.

And then, heck, we might even create more to speak to multiple industries.

And let's go back to our commercial tire example and let's say that we can sell light duty tires and heavy duty commercial tires.

We're going to create a cut sheet for light duty that speaks to civilians and end users.

And we're going to create one for heavy duty commercial that speaks to companies and speaks to heavy duty tires in a term that they understand.

This is going to make you much more successful over time.

Once again, if you have a product and service that can serve oil and gas, but can also serve forestry or manufacturing, we create a cut sheet for each one for that same product or service speaking in terms that they understand.

If we can market to people in ways that they understand, our conversion rates go through the roof.

Because people like to be marketed to in a way they can relate.

If we can do it in a way that they can relate, we're going to have higher success rates with our meetings.

And for the last piece of our marketing materials, we have to talk about social media in 2025 and beyond.

Social media is absolutely mandatory.

And this is on everywhere that you can get to your customers.

I always say LinkedIn.

I think for B2B branded business, LinkedIn is where it's at.

So if you're only gonna have one social media page, make it be a LinkedIn.

Especially if you sell B2B services, okay?

Have accounts for your company.

Have a way that you can look like you exist in 2025.

Because if you don't have a social media at this point, you're losing relevancy.

So what do we have to do?

We have to create a corporate page.

Okay?

So very easy to do on LinkedIn.

Probably take you a couple of hours just to set up a basic corporate page.

Then we need to fill it out completely.

Everything, guys, don't leave anything unturned.

Make sure that every piece that you can fill out for your company that you are doing.

So make sure that with these pages, our goal is to help people through valuable content, right?

Nobody cares about your company, right?

At the end of the day, nobody cares about your company.

You have to make them care about your company.

You have to show them you're doing things worth caring about.

Find ways to help people.

Find ways to help your clients in free ways.

You know, I dealt with a gentleman named Marcus Chan once and he said, give away 90%, sell 10.

I think this is a very relevant thing in this modern day.

We have to make sure that we are giving back, that we are building interest in our company by giving things away.

Okay?

Really, this is a great example of this.

I give away all my business development advice on this podcast.

This is probably the best business development resource on the Internet at this point.

But I still sell 10% to the people who want to go a step further, to the people who want that team training, to the people who want that one on one coaching, to the people who want retainer services.

I can help them through that 10%.

The remaining 90%, I give it away on the show.

Think about how you can do that with your business using your platforms, whether it be social media, podcast or something else.

Figure out how to give back to the community.

If you can figure out how to give back to the community, the community will give back to you.

Make sure that we are helping people through valuable content which may be your area of expertise.

Okay?

We have to build our social presence, which means it's not enough just to create our social media pages anymore.

We actually have to participate.

So somebody comments, comment back.

Feel free to comment on behalf of your company on other people's posts.

Figure out ways to build your social presence to build your relevancy in this new digital Age.

Okay?

It doesn't matter what your product and service is.

You can benefit from having a strong social presence at this point.

Be credible and be findable.

Social media is an incredible way to become relevant, to become findable in this 21st century.

We have to be utilizing it effectively.

Start that company page.

Use that company page.

Make it part of your daily routine from this point forward.

Start to build that digital footprint on behalf of your company.

And last but not least, utilize your social media to establish authority in the space.

This is why giving away that knowledge and helping people is so valuable in this modern day.

It builds authority in the space.

You know, it's one thing to say you're good at something, but it's another thing to be able to show people week over week, month over month, year over year, that you really know what you're talking about, that you actually are credible, that you actually are a valuable company providing valuable information to people.

If you do this, people will notice, right?

Establish authority in your space by giving away valuable information, by educating and inspiring.

Trust me, this is the currency of the new digital world.

We have to make sure that we are okay with giving away our knowledge freely.

This will pay itself back in dividends.

Don't safeguard all this information.

Help people and they will help you.

Number two, we have to follow an active marketing process.

Stop waiting for inbound leads.

Get ahead of the need.

According to Salesforce State of Marketing 2023 data, 78% of high performance marketers use active marketing.

What we teach on this show proactive outreach to engage leads.

From the very beginning of the business development podcast, I have recommended that business developers follow an 8020 rule.

80% active marketing to 20% passive marketing strategy.

What does this mean?

This means 80% of the time I want you tracking down actual contact data, direct emails, direct phone numbers and making calls.

Sending emails, but primarily making calls and asking for what you want, which is a meeting.

Even if there isn't an immediate opportunity.

We want to get ahead of the need.

If we can get ahead of the need, when that need comes up for our customer, they remember you.

They remember who reached out to them and booked that meeting and introduced themselves.

If you're on the other side of it and they are googling for your product and service while they're finding you and all of your competitors at the same time, you have no competitive advantage except for whatever the Internet says about you.

At least if you can get ahead of the need, you are giving yourself a competitive advantage.

By being somebody they know, by being somebody who's already introduced their company, let them know you can't wait to meet with them.

Heck, maybe you're taking that a step further and you've actually established a relationship with that person and you're utilizing account management tactics to make yourself even more relevant when that need comes up.

Great.

But remember, active marketing is more effective than passive marketing, period.

It allows you to get ahead of the need, making you more competitive when that need comes up.

So remember, guys, 80% active marketing.

Direct contact, emails, phone calls, asking for that meeting, establishing trust, establishing that relationship, that is the secret to success.

Don't just wait around for your customers to call you.

I don't care how great your passive marketing strategies are, how big of a billboard you have, how many commercials and ads you've put out in the world, active marketing is still going to be more effective and at bare minimum, way more cost effective than the other way around.

Number three, we have to identify the ideal customers for your business.

I already know there's a lot of you struggling because of number three.

If we don't do the homework upfront, if we don't identify the ideal customers to work with, the ideal buying positions at each of those companies, who are the buyers of your product and services and connecting with them proactively, you're going to be running into challenges.

If you're just calling a company switchboard and saying, I don't know who I need to speak with, but I have this company and I think we could help you.

You're going to run into a lot of roadblocks and it's not going to be easy for you to close business.

Okay?

We have to do the legwork upfront.

This starts with identifying the industry, sub industries and the locations you want to work at.

And I always say the best location is where you are at.

You are always going to be the most competitive in your home base location.

Start in your home base location and work your way out from there.

But we have to identify who are the prime industries that we could work with.

Who then are the sub industries who may service that prime industry?

Who might have a better opportunity for us than even the prime industry does?

And a lot of clients that I work with, I find this the sub industries are actually better clients than the prime industry they thought they wanted to work with.

Who are the main industries?

Is it oil and gas, is it manufacturing, Is it pulp and paper, Whatever.

But then who are the industries that we could also work with?

Who've won the prime contracts working with those companies?

Because nine times out of 10, they bite off more than they can chew and they need that additional support and they can end up being better clients and have been for a lot of my service companies than the prime industries ever could have been.

Because they bite off more than they can chew and they need that extra support and they're willing to pay for it.

Identify industry stub, industry and location.

Once we can identify that, we have to identify who are the buying positions.

And not just buying position, buying positions.

There's usually multiple buying positions for your product and services.

And so we have to identify who can actually make that buying decision for our product and service.

Is it procurement, is it the project manager, is it the president?

Right.

We have to identify who are the buying positions and all the buying positions who could potentially buy our products and services for people to connect with.

Because if we can identify the industry, sub industry location and then we can identify the buying positions and then we can track down the people that are in those buying positions, your odds of closing a meeting that is actually going to turn into real business for your company, go through the roof.

We have to do this legwork up front, okay?

We absolutely have to do the legwork up front.

The detective work I like to call it up front in order to have long term success.

If you can get really great at this, your meeting closure rate is going to go through the roof.

But it comes down to identifying the target ahead of contacting them.

If you can identify that target ahead of contacting them, you're going to be exponentially more successful.

Number four, we have to leverage LinkedIn like the pro you are, okay?

It's 2025.

LinkedIn is king.

If your job on behalf of your company is to grow business, you have to be on LinkedIn at this point, guys.

It's that good.

It's non negotiable anymore, okay?

You have to fully complete your LinkedIn pages.

Look like someone who is trustworthy, dependable and most importantly, real.

Okay?

Real.

We have to ask for recommendations from clients.

Okay?

Start building that credibility.

Bots don't typically have recommendations.

Guys, start asking your clients to leave you recommendations on your LinkedIn pages.

Make sure that we are fully completing our profiles, that they are engaging, that they speak to what we do, that they showcase all of our experience, our credentials, our certificates, everything.

You can complete those pages.

Make sure they are absolutely filled out and make sure that your banner images and your profile pictures are excellent.

No, it's not cool to just like take a picture with your phone anymore.

Go get professional photos, have somebody make you a Beautiful banner.

If you can't do it yourself, find ways to stand out on LinkedIn.

It will help you with your business development efforts.

If you look relevant, if you look credible, if you look like somebody, somebody wants to know, okay, so fully complete that LinkedIn profile.

Make sure that you look trustworthy, ask for recommendations.

Get a business account.

If you do not yet have Premium, you need LinkedIn Premium to do business development.

At this point, guys, a basic business account is required.

It gives you unlimited searching ability, which is ultimately what we need as we move forward.

Okay, we need to make sure that we are connecting with 100 potential prospects each week.

You have a hundred invites a week on LinkedIn, guys, for your personal pages, 100 per week.

If you don't use them, you lose them.

We have to make sure that we are fully utilizing our 100 invites each week, connecting with potential clients.

You also have 250 invites for your corporate pages.

So if you've created a company page on LinkedIn, each month you get 250 invites to send to potential clients.

Once again, to follow your corporate pages.

Use all 250 invites each month at the beginning of each month, and as people accept, you actually get more back.

So I always do it at the first of each month.

Send out all your corporate invites to your corporate page.

Send out.

And then as people accept them, continue to send them and try to get, you know, 300 if you can, each month to grow that corporate page.

Okay, now what is the benefit of growing our LinkedIn with potential prospects?

Now here's the thing.

If we go back and we look at passive ad strategies like billboards, tv, radio ads, everybody sees them.

What are the odds that a potential client sees it?

If you are not a B2C business?

Okay, well, if you're not a B2C business, the odds of a potential client seeing it are very, very low.

Right?

Everybody's seeing it.

So you're just kind of shooting in the dark, hoping to God that somebody sees your ad that can actually buy your product and service.

If you connect with 100 potential prospects each week and you've done the legwork upfront and you know you're connecting with potential buying positions.

Now every single time you post something on your LinkedIn, whether it be your corporate page, whether it be, whether it be your personal page, every time you share something, your potential prospects are likely seeing this.

It is a better value proposition, period.

It is a better value proposition for you to grow your social media presence than it is for you to utilize passive ad strategies like billboards TV and radio ads at this point because you can make sure that you connect with only potential prospects for your business and they are seeing your ads.

It's like one of the best things that's ever happened for marketing.

So we have to be utilizing our social medias effectively at this point forward.

I can't knock this home hard enough.

Make sure that we are also posting and sharing in our LinkedIn groups as well to maximize exposure.

If you're in construction industry, if you're in marketing, whatever you're in, there are groups, really effective groups for you to join and you can post and share your stuff in there as well.

20 per week by the way, you can post 20 group posts per week.

So start to utilize your group posts.

Start to use up all 20 of your group posts per week.

Sharing your valuable marketing materials, sharing your valuable insights with groups.

Further growing your personal and corporate pages.

Okay?

Start to utilize all of these free avenues available to you once you are on LinkedIn to grow your marketing presence.

You can get tens of thousands of impressions over LinkedIn guys with potential prospects for absolutely free, free as part of your LinkedIn subscriptions.

Many of you may not know that and so start to utilize LinkedIn groups.

Start to join relevant groups, see which ones give you the best engagement and double down in them.

But start to get that information out to the world and watch people start to follow you from those group posts.

It's really incredible.

Guys, start utilizing LinkedIn groups if you are not doing so yet.

For both your personal and your corporate posts.

Number five.

We have to double down on our digital introductions.

Okay?

Send brief digital introductions to all new connections with those potential prospects and let them know that you would love to connect virtually or in person.

Okay?

When you connect with somebody, send them a message.

Introduce yourself, be personal.

Attach a brochure.

Let the brochures do the selling and the talking.

Right?

Let the brochures build the interest.

You just introduce yourself.

Let them know, hey, I work in X, Y, Z business.

I do this.

I'd love to meet you sometime.

That's it.

Be personal.

Be a human.

Come across as a human, not a robot.

Stop using canned AI where possible.

Or if you're going to use canned AI, make it as personal as you humanly can to truly make that great connection.

And don't forget to let them know you would love to meet them.

And make sure guys that you add all new contacts to the digital introduction stage of your CRM.

We're not diving deep into CRMs today.

If you want to go back and listen to a previous show.

I have many, many, many shows on CRMs.

But the very first stage in all of our CRMs is our digital introduction stage.

So what does that mean?

It means once we've connected with somebody on LinkedIn, we've sent them an introduction introducing ourselves, we've attached a brochure so they know what our company is and what we do.

We add them to our digital introduction stage of our CRM so that we can contact them later.

Okay, so this is essentially building our funnel.

All of these people who you are making aware of your company, of your products and services, they are now warm leads.

Put them into that digital introduction stage for later.

And when you guys are looking to add people to the weekly contact stage, you pull from digital introductions with the relevant companies you want to work with.

This is incredibly effective and I've been utilizing it at capital for years to grow my customers businesses.

Number six.

We then must find the direct contact data for leads and move them to weekly contacted stage.

Okay, so once we have, you know, let's call it 30 companies in our digital introduction stage, it's time to start moving these companies over to direct contact.

Okay.

We have to find the direct emails and the direct phone numbers for each of these contacts for the weekly contacting stage.

If you can't find one but you have the other, that is fine.

It is still direct contact.

But we have to make sure that we either have the direct email to this person or the direct phone number to this person.

Once we have that, we can move them into the weekly contacted stage.

Okay, and if you're struggling to find the email for these people, it's never been easier.

Guys, hop onto Google, type XYZ company email.

Like I said, there'll probably be 10 companies that pop up that sell data and what they'll say, they'll, they'll want you to buy it, but you don't have to buy it.

Most of them will have a little thing that says 99% of the time this email works for this company.

Give it a try.

Honestly, it's worked for me so often, I would never pay for data.

It's easy to find.

Use that email format and you can find that email fairly quickly within one or two tries.

Okay.

The other thing is, if you're looking for the phone number, guys on LinkedIn, look for the corporate office that is close to the location that the people are at.

Nine times out of 10, they work at the location in their town or in their city.

So don't be afraid to call the main line and say, hey, I'm looking to speak with Jane Doe or John Smith.

Can you put me through?

And nine times out of ten they will.

And if you can get to their voicemail, this way counts as direct contact.

Utilize that number from this point forward to get in touch with these people.

But nine times out of 10, finding that direct contact data, it's not that hard.

It's going to take some detective work.

And heck, sometimes if you look at LinkedIn and you click the contact data button, they even have their phone number and emails right there.

So depending on the people, they may be more free to do it.

If you have to track it down, call the main line at the location closest to them and ask to speak with them.

That works for me most of the time.

And even with some of these newer companies, they have robo dialers that's super easy to operate and you can get through fairly quickly.

So just find that contact data, move them to direct contact and follow up weekly until you either disqualify or get the meeting number.

7.

Stop hiding behind emails.

Okay, emails are great.

I get it.

I use them too.

I totally understand.

But guys, most of the meetings I book, I book them through my voice.

Okay?

We must call and connect with our voices.

It is the most powerful tool we have as business developers.

Leave voicemails at a rate of 2 to 1 over emails.

Okay?

So make two calls to every email you send and you're going to have way, way more success.

It works really, really well for me if I have the direct phone number and I have the direct email.

Let's say that I call two weeks in a row and I still haven't gotten through.

I may drop an email.

But then the next week I'm going to go back to calling because at the end of the day, I know that if I can get them that one time on the phone, I can introduce myself.

I've left, let's call it five, six, seven, eight great voicemails, maybe two to three great emails.

And I say, hey, it's Kelly with XYZ company.

I'm still looking to book that introduction meeting with you.

They know who I am and most of the time they give me that meeting.

You are going to be far more successful booking meetings over the phone.

Hear that again.

You are going to be far more successful booking meetings over the phone.

Please pick up your phone and make the calls.

I know it's hard, I know it's scary.

I know we don't want to do it, but it works.

It works.

And it works better than any other medium.

We have to this day, if you want to book more meetings, you have to make more phone calls.

Number eight, we have to leave great voicemails.

Okay?

80% of your calls are going to be voicemails.

They're going to go to the voicemail.

Leave voicemails that you would call back.

Put a smile on your face, have a little fun with them.

Leave voicemails that are entertaining, that are memorable, that are kind, that are happy, that let them know you can't wait to meet them.

Those are voicemails that people will be willing to call back.

Okay?

Keep the voicemail short and sweet.

Keep them confident and let them know what you want.

You would love to meet them.

You want a meeting.

You have a product and service that'll be valuable to their company and you can't wait to chat with them about it.

Leave great voicemails and you will book more meetings.

Number nine, There is no magic script.

Hear that again.

There is no magic script.

Trial and error will get you there.

Guys, I've been doing this a long time.

I don't have a magic script.

I make a new script for every single company and I change it, usually multiple times in my tenure with that company.

Why?

Because there is no one size fits all dialogue for every single client.

Okay?

Don't worry about the script.

Don't worry about it.

Trial and error will get you there.

Actually, your biggest hurdle is you and your confidence in the call.

Okay?

Once you understand the company and what they do, you can talk about it with anybody.

Don't worry about creating a magic script.

The magic script is not what is holding you back from booking meetings.

Okay?

There is no replacement for just making the calls.

And there's so many people who feel like, oh, I don't have a script, so I'm not going to make the call.

Okay, don't do this.

Don't do this.

No great business developer has this one script that rules them all.

They just don't.

It's different for every customer.

It's different for every product and service.

And it can change every couple of months, right?

Get comfortable with something, but just start, just start.

Call, introduce the company.

Don't be afraid.

If you're new to say, hey, I'm new, bear with me on this.

But I work with X, Y, Z company.

We have this product and service and I think it might be valuable to you.

Would you like to book a meeting?

Don't be afraid to do something that simple.

I really mean it.

But really, there's no Replacement for making the calls.

You could have the best script in the world.

Maybe it took you six months to figure it out.

But if you didn't make calls for six months, you're gonna suck at that script just as much as somebody who's winging it.

So my point is, you're better off just to make the calls.

You're better off just to trial and error and learn what works as you go.

And don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Heck, you're going to make mistakes.

I make mistakes all the time, guys.

For real.

I still make mistakes all the time.

On behalf of all of my clients, on behalf of myself and my own business.

Right?

I have mushmouth.

I have mushmouth on this show.

You don't hear it.

Cause I cut it out a lot of the time.

But it's okay.

It's absolutely okay to make mistakes.

What's not okay is to not make the calls because you're afraid of making mistakes.

Okay?

We all make mistakes.

Every single one of us.

No matter how great of a business developer you are, we make mistakes.

We forget what we're going to say.

We have mushmouth moments.

Okay?

It's okay.

It's okay, because the next call will be better, right?

If you have one bad call, no, no big deal.

The next one will be better.

It's a numbers game.

We have to make the calls.

We have to, have to, have to make the calls.

You're going to make mistakes.

It's completely okay.

Don't let that hold you back.

And remember, when you get these people on the phone or you get them on the voicemail, always, always, always ask for what you want.

Be brave.

Be brave.

Right?

Fortune favors the bold.

Fortune favors the bold.

When you get these people on the phone, don't forget to ask them for the meeting.

When you have that great voicemail, don't forget at the end to say, hey, I can't wait to meet you.

Can we set up a meeting in the next couple of weeks?

Give me a shout back at xyz X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z.

Whatever.

Ask for what you want.

Ask for what you want and you shall receive what you want.

Do not ask and you will receive nothing.

Ask, don't forget, no matter what.

Always ask for what you want and you want that meeting and 10 believe you can do it.

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right.

Once again, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right.

Which means if you don't believe you can book the meeting.

You can't.

If you believe you can book the meeting, you absolutely can, and you'll put in the effort to make it happen.

Okay?

Believe in yourself.

Believe in yourself.

You are capable.

You are absolutely capable.

If you're not booking the meetings you want to book, double down and make the extra calls.

Do the thing you're afraid to do.

I can almost guarantee you right now, if you're struggling to book meetings, if you're struggling to grow the company, you're struggling because you're not doing the thing you're afraid to do.

And that thing is probably, pick up the phone and make those calls.

Okay?

We have to, have to, have to make the calls.

We have to be brave enough to make those calls.

I know it's the 21st century.

I know we live in the social media age.

I know emails are like the way of the land, but trust me, even to this day, I book more meetings with phone calls than I do with any email or any social media pitch ever.

I mean that for real.

Direct phone calls are powerful.

They're absolutely powerful.

Pick up that phone.

Pick up the phone.

Do the uncomfortable thing and watch your meeting rates absolutely, absolutely rise.

You have to hold yourself accountable.

You have to do the work consistently and weekly, and you have to always ask for what you want.

And last but not least, do not let failure be an option.

If you are not winning, make more calls.

If you're not hitting the results you need to make, put in the extra time until you do.

Guys, we can't let failure be an option.

I've been great at business development because I flipping hate losing.

I absolutely hate losing.

Which means some weeks I put in extra effort.

Some weeks I can make five calls and book five meetings and be like, oh, I'm done.

That's great.

Other weeks, it could take me 50 calls to book those five meetings.

But the point is, we have to make the calls.

There's no replacement for the calls.

Yes, some weeks are going to be better than others for you, but you have to double down.

You have to do the thing week over week, month over month, year over year.

It's consistency over time that breeds success.

Consistency over time is the secret to success.

There is no secret.

You have to put in the effort and you have to do it every single week.

If you can do this consistently, you will book meetings consistently.

I have three more bonus tips for you guys today as well.

Number one is utilize your CRM to keep on track.

Guys, I live by my CRM.

Every time I do my connections on LinkedIn, I add them to my digital introduction stage of my CRM.

Every single time I book a meeting, I move them from weekly contacted stage to my meeting stage of my CRM.

Every time I disqualify, I remove them from my weekly contact stage of my CRM.

And I'm constantly working to keep about 30 to 50 contacts in that weekly contacted stage on my CRM.

And I use that as my metric of success.

I use that to show my teams where I'm at.

Utilize your CRM.

It is absolutely incredible.

It's great for keeping track of where you're at and it's great for knowing what you need to do week over week.

Utilize your CRM and utilize it consistently.

Second, schedule your time.

Seriously, guys, schedule your time.

We all have, you know, Outlook or Google Calendar at this point.

Utilize them.

Utilize them.

Book times to make those calls.

Book times to send your digital introductions.

Book times to do your social media, Book times to evaluate your marketing materials or whatever else you got to do.

Start to be more efficient with your time.

Guys, if I don't schedule my time, I waste a ton of time.

And I know you do too.

We have to get better at managing our time and doing focused work.

The currency of the future is focused work, okay?

It's so powerful.

One hour to two hours of focus calls will yield more meetings than eight hours of unfocused work.

I guarantee it.

Focus that time.

Slot that time in your calendar.

Whether you're doing your LinkedIn connections, whether you're doing your calls, whether you're doing your data entry, whether you're doing your CRM updates, whatever it is you're doing, slot that time and start to live by your calendar.

It will change your life.

Mark my words.

Efficient use of time will change your life.

No matter whether you're an entrepreneur, a business developer, an executive of all types, schedule that time.

Your time is your most valuable asset.

Treat it like it's worth $1,000 an hour and you will be worth $1,000 an hour.

And last but not least, utilize a daily to do list.

Okay?

A daily task list.

I like to call it top things to do today.

Every day I sit down and I write out top things to do today and I write down the top five things that'll make the biggest impact in my business that day.

Whether it be make my calls, do my digital introductions, create content for my sponsors, whatever it is, write down the top five things that will absolutely move the needle for your business that day, and then also do a move the needle list for the week what are the top 10 things that would move your business forward if you did it this week?

I do a weekly goal list and I do a daily goal list.

And don't be afraid to do both.

They will change your business.

They will change your efficiency.

They will make you better.

Trust me.

Goal lists are powerful and anything you write down actually gives you a 42% higher success rate of completing it.

So write those goals down.

Daily Goals and Weekly Goals.

If you or your team are struggling with business development, you're not getting the meetings you need.

You're not following a weekly process.

I can help.

My Business Development Mastery Program is a three month masterclass on business development.

We're going to help you guys accomplish your growth goals in 2025.

We're going to enact effective process at your business and we are going to inspire you and your staff to accomplish goals like never before.

Reach out to me podcastapitalbd, ca or book a meeting directly from my LinkedIn page.

If you are struggling to book meetings, it's very likely that one of the 10 things that I named are not in alignment.

Always ask yourself 1.

Do my marketing materials build enough interest and represent me well?

Number two, Do I have the right targets with my potential clients and am I contacting them directly?

And three Am I putting in consistent weekly effort and asking for what I want?

Do those weekly.

Review your marketing materials.

Make sure that they're adequate for the people you're targeting.

Make sure that you are targeting the right people and then make sure that you are putting in consistent weekly effort and you will close more meetings.

There is no magic button.

You have to put in the effort.

You have to put in the effort and you have to do it consistently.

But trust me, if you start to put in consistent effort, even if you start out real sucky within a few months, you're going to be really damn good and you're going to be booking meetings like nobody's business.

Okay?

Trust me on this consistent effort.

There is no replacement for it.

Meetings are where the magic happens.

Measure your success in meetings and watch your business soar.

My goodness, guys, I hope this helps a lot of you.

I know, I know.

I get asked about it all the time.

I get asked about meetings all the time.

I'm struggling to get meetings.

I can't do it.

It's not working.

Working for me.

Guaranteed.

It's one of the things that I just discussed.

Okay, shout outs this week.

Jamia Zagel, Tim Zagel, Colin Harms, Michelle Sammy Wiebe, Nathan Plum, Rodney lover, Zale Moransky, Ross Hewitt, Lauren Graff, Gary Noseworthy, Eric Portillo, Jamar Jones, Susan Paseka and Jason Chakalakal.

Until next time, you've been listening to the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

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.