Business Development For Startups and Tech Companies

2. Welcome: - Hey, - Scott. - Britain here. - And thanks so much for making this investment yourself before we dive in. - I just want to say hey and welcome you to this course. - I am so excited to have you here because I've seen the power of the things you're gonna - learn in this course firsthand. - And they've changed my life. - I want from flailing, - trying to figure out how to grow my first start up to joining a team. - Or we use business development to get our product in the hands of tens of thousands of new - customers, - build out an immensely powerful partner network and ultimately sell the company for $100 - million. - In this course, - you're gonna learn everything we did behind the scenes to make this happen. - By the end, - you'll have more tools and tactics in your arsenal than 99% of people out there doing his - death. - If you commit to honing this skill set and practicing and implementing what I teach you, - you will take your company and career to new heights. - If at any time you have any questions in the course, - the best place to ask them is in the discussion section on the right hand side of the - course dashboard. - Lastly, - the course is broken out into six modules, - and I highly recommend that you view all of them to get the most out of this investment. - At the very end of the course, - will be giving away some details about where you can get access to all my favorite business - development tools and APS, - so make sure you stick around to the final section. - Of course, - for all the details already enough talking, - let's dive into this course. 3. Introduction to Business Development: - it was a background to understanding. - Biz death. - Let's talk about some of the other growth channels that start ups typically use number one - . - There's direct sales. - Direct sales is very straightforward. - It essentially means building out a sales team of people that directly are engaging with - customers or users. - This can be over the phone via cold calls. - It could be in person and one on one meetings. - The key here is direct engagement. - Marketing, - just like direct sales can take many forms. - At its core, - though, - it basically means driving leads or traffic to a website workplace, - where eventually aggregating people that you eventually want to convert into customer for - users. - So this often takes the shape of a sign up form on a website, - a place, - a page where there is a phone number to call. - Essentially, - you're driving people to a place we're eventually going to try to channel these people and - convert them into a customer or user. - And then there's biz death. - What does biz dad actually mean? - Because I know when I first started out and start ups, - a lot of people out there were saying, - I do business development, - but I really had no idea what that meant, - And even when I started doing it, - I wasn't necessarily sure how to describe it at a high level. - To my friends and family, - well, - here's a definition that I really like, - and I think it really gets to the core of it. - Business development is developing partnerships and relationships that allow your company - to reach new customers and markets. - It can also mean developing partnerships and relationships that provide value to existing - customers or even enable you to extract more value out of them for your business. - Why is this an attractive channel? - Well, - for one, - it's very scalable times. - Think about it. - You could hire 50 salespeople, - or you could create a relationship. - Were a company that already has 50 salespeople sell your product. - Which one takes more energy and resource is business isn't all just about selling things or - generating revenue directly. - It can also mean creating partnerships that allow you to essentially enhance existing - functionality or creating new functionalities that attract and benefit existing users. - Think about it. - If there's a feature that I know that my entire customer base audience user base would love - , - I could spend all the resource is building it, - or I might be able to integrate with the company that's already build it and provide that - feature at a much easier, - faster rate. - With a company that already doesn't well, - it's pretty scalable. - Another reason that Bt is attractive is your company can achieve, - enhance credibility and really, - really improve how your brand looks just by the association with established companies. - If there's a company in the market that all of my customers trust, - feel good about all my, - all my potential customers feel that way about associating my company with that company is - gonna make my existing customers feel better about our relationship. - Could optimize the conversion rate for potential customers because they trust that other - brand. - It's associative mind. - So let's talk about three common types of biz Dev relationships. - The test of his dead relationships that I see most frequently are ones that enhance the - product, - provide distribution or enhance the brand equity of a startup. - Let's go through these product visit deals again. - These are relationships that enhance an end product, - and by enhancing and product, - they provide value to existing users or potential ones. - Let's let's dig into an example here in order to show you a little bit more What that looks - like. - The one that comes to mind immediately for me is is single platform on Trip Advisor singing - platforms, - a company that I previously worked for So before single platform trip advisor on a lot of - their pages did not. - They had restaurant pages for the top places that you could go to find places to eat at - particular destinations. - And they had the name, - address and phone number of the address, - maybe even some follows. - But one thing that they didn't have ubiquitously and for many of these restaurants, - if any, - was the menu. - So it was impossible for me as a trip advisor, - user or somebody, - and maybe even arrived there in the first time to see what these restaurants actually sold - . - This data set was something that single platform acquired through providing a product that - allowed restaurants and other types of businesses to distribute this data and through an A - p I relationship with trip advisor. - We allow them to display this data that their existing and potential users wanted directly - within the framework of their site. - And you see the arrow there, - uh, - pointing to the menu button where that AP our relationship exists. - When somebody clicks menu, - they get a pop up I frame that shows them exactly all the dishes that this particular - restaurant serves, - and you'll even see theatric Yushin image of single platforms data on that menu. - This is an example of really a product biz depth deal that is essentially enhancing - connecting to companies to enhance the end experience of a product and for single platform - on the product side. - Having the data distributed in another place where restaurants potential customers are - searching for dining options makes our product better as well. - So it's a win win relationship for both parties. - Let's talk about distribution is depth deals, - distribution. - Business deals is basically what it sounds like. - It provides distribution for your product or service. - So by leveraging somebody else's audience customer base user base, - whatever is, - you're essentially getting distribution that you would have not received, - and this can also manifest itself in providing additional value for your users. - This this concept is a little bit easier to explain through specific examples, - so let's go ahead and do that right now. - One example that comes to mind is. - How about we and New York met? - If you're not familiar with, - How about we? - It's essentially a dating site where people can suggest different activities to dio and - connects people. - So how about we can before doing his Deb deals? - Maybe they were trying to drive people to their website via marketing the, - uh, - social media, - whatever it ISS. - But through the Biz DEV Channel, - they could have essentially received distribution on places where their target audience is - already hanging out and get customers that way. - So this particular deal was between. - How about we in New York magazine, - on the front page and on every page of New York magazine? - You'll see a little area here that says Dates Now I don't know if this I don't know if this - even existed before these this biz dev relationship, - but when you click that button now you're taken to this page, - which is a co branded. - How about we Page that essentially is driving New York magazine readers to sign up for How - about weight? - And essentially, - this is this is providing access to an audience that they might not have reached before - just to demonstrate the power of these type of biz Dev relationships. - How about we published a pretty cool statistic on the block over the past two years? - The 40 different partnerships, - whether it be with New York mag or other types of content destinations, - now account for over 25% of new user acquisition. - That's huge, - considering the lifetime value of a customer of a dating site could be hundreds of dollars - . - The fact that these relationships are now driving 25% of a user base, - which I'm sure is in the tens of thousands, - if not hundreds of thousands or even millions it is pretty amazing. - If you want to read more about that, - you can check out the article. - How about we block? - Let's talk about brand enhancement business deals, - deals that enhanced brand to exactly. - They sound like they connect to companies, - and both companies stand to benefit from the Positive Brand Association. - And again, - these help you reach new customers, - convert customers at a higher rate, - reached new markets, - a lot of positive things and commodities. - A great example is TechCrunch and you. - To me, - there's a site called Crunch You, - or portion of the site on TechCrunch called crunch you. - And if you're not familiar with TechCrunch, - it's one of the most popular tak content destinations that report stories and news. - And all this stuff about startups and you to me, - is an online course platform. - So it's if you want to learn about entrepreneurship. - If you want to learn about how to build products. - If you want to learn about coding, - it's essentially a place where anybody can publish courses on those different disciplines. - And what crunch you is is basically a portion of courses from you to me that have been co - branded on this TechCrunch site that are basically recommended by tech runs. - Now. - I never heard of you know me before, - but I was an avid TechCrunch reader, - and I came to this site all of a sudden I am gonna have a lot more trust for this unity - thing. - Given the fact that they're working with TechCrunch, - it must be good. - Otherwise, - TechCrunch's the brand that I love and have been reading for a long time. - Wouldn't wouldn't partner up with these guys, - and so you, - to me, - is getting a huge win here by not only potentially getting access to new customers. - But when they reach those new customers optimizing conversion just because of the trust - that's already been built, - given the piggybacking on top the TechCrunch brand now TechCrunch is constantly looking to - deliver excellent content to their users and generate additional income streams and by - associating themselves with a amazing source of educational content like you to meet their - driving a ton of value to their users. - And also you may be even monetizing this, - I'm not sure, - but this is just a total win win relationship for both sides. - That's making both of these brands look even better in the eyes of their existing customers - as well as perspective, - customers or users. - Another type of biz Dev deal that I want to highlight That kind of fits. - The framework of distribution is channel partnerships, - and this can also fit within the brand umbrella as well. - Channel partnerships are basically when two companies with similar customer or user - profiles former relationship, - where one company explicitly introduces the other product or service to their audience, - user base, - customer base, - whatever it ISS. - And these can often look like re marketing deals or reselling deals where there is a - revenue split at the end. - If there's transaction. - A great example of this is single platform and blue Net single platform Again. - What the company allows local businesses to do is distribute their most critical business - information everywhere that people are looking for their business online. - So name, - address, - phone number, - their menu products and services photos, - all the stuff that people are looking for. - Mine Blue Net is the largest wire service provider and digital partner for 8000 plus force - across the country, - and they brought a lot of amazing services for the businesses. - They work with one of the things that they would love to I would have loved to provide. - Before this relationship was the ability for all these businesses to easily get found - online. - What the single platform and Blue Net relationship looked like was basically Blue Net - introduced our product to their 8000 plus customers and resold it, - re marketed it and allowed us to reach an entirely new audience of people that would drive - a thana value from our product and Blue met as part of this deal. - For every single sale that we made, - got to take some of the revenue and this is just a great example of two companies realizing - that there's a chance to provide mutual value on both sides and striking up a channel - partnership where one company introduces the others product to their existing customers - provide value in a way that drives revenue for the company to these deals to occur, - something very important has to be in place, - and that's the mutual value of Shane's on both sides of the equation. - If one company is getting all of the value and the other isn't, - it's just not gonna be fruitful for the customers. - For the people doing the deal for the company's relationships and moving Ford, - you have to make sure that there's a mutual value exchange. - And honestly, - a lot of cases, - if there's not a deal, - will never, - ever get done. - If the people that are working on the deal are smart, - so get in this place. - In this case, - the value is clear. - Single platform was getting to reach a new audience that previously wouldn't have access to - , - and Blue Net was getting introduced, - a product that drove a ton of value to their existing users while monetizing relationship. - Both sides were let's talk a little bit about the difference between sales and business - because they often get co mingled, - and it's important to really understand how they're different. - First difference is that I personally think his death is a little bit more strategic and a - little bit more scalable again. - Sales is often you are selling a product directly to a consumer. - So here is this thing. - Here's what it costs, - and I want you to trade me money for this. - There's Devon. - The other hand is often manifested in somebody else in creating relationship. - Where somebody else is selling directly, - or something that happens to the product is gonna help result more sales. - And this is why I often say that goals of Biz Dev are often higher in the funnel. - So instead of me worrying about directly driving sales, - I'm going to create a relationship with another company that maybe enhances our product, - gives us distribution, - whatever it is that is gonna eventually going to result in more sales. - The last thing that I want to bring up this is a very important at the micro level, - like what you'd actually be doing as a business developer is sells a very product ized - offering. - So here's this thing I'm selling. - It's not really gonna change that much. - Do can I convince you to give me something for it? - We're like about business. - Development is you're often had to be extremely creative about the offering, - a relationship that you're positioning a potential company and these air things. - This is This is a process that requires understanding what somebody's particular needs are - . - How you might be able to service them with your available resource is it's often less - product ized. - And that's not to say that all sales are product sized or that there is Biz Dev - relationships that are not product sized. - A lot of business is actually about scaling a product ties relationship, - which is something that will discuss Maurin depth later in BT playbook. 4. Effective Business Development Mindsets: - welcome to the mindset section. - Now a lot of people will see this and say, - You know what? - This is important. - I want scripts and tactics, - But getting these things right and in line is going to be justice critical to your success - as all of the tactical information scripts strategies in the world. - So I really want you to pay attention closer to this section because the bottom line is - that you want to have the most success. - As a business professional, - you need to have the right mind set in place. - I think the best way to understand the appropriate mindsets you can have to really set - yourself up for success is understanding the challenges that is de professional, - typical face getting to the right person to make a deal happen to even get a meeting. - This requires a ton of overcoming rejection, - being comfortable with failure. - Putting yourself out there is not easy creating win win relationships, - prioritization so understanding that not old deals are equal. - They're not all going to move the needle the same extent for your company. - And really, - in a lot of cases, - when a company is doing well, - it's not the number of opportunities. - That is the biggest problem. - The problem is, - is focusing on the right opportunities, - not getting too distracted by shiny objects pushing deals through the finish line. - You have the meeting set up. - You have a good relationship with the person on the other end. - But at the end of the day, - it gets really tough to get these deals through the finish line. - And honestly, - a lot of these mindsets that you'll have to be the core of your being able to get things - done. - So let's talk about the first mindset. - People do things for people that they like. - This is so important. - To understand your ability to get things done is highly contingent upon basically making - people like you and not only having a great product but having the relationship that is - gonna make somebody put their neck out on the line for you. - Because as a start up as a young company, - as an unproven player, - in many instances people are taking a chance and they're and they don't know everyone at - your company. - They don't know the ins and outs of product that they do. - They know you, - which is why it's so important to get them to like you and to build that trust so that they - do something that's a little bit outside of their comfort zone with the potential for - upside that you promised. - Let's talk about how to call to make this month pretty straightforward. - You want to take an active interest in the people that your dealings with lives and this is - not just what's going on in the office. - This is What are you doing this weekend? - What is interesting? - You what your passions, - building relationships around the things outside of purely the deal is going toe largely - enhance your ability to make people like you and ultimately do things for you, - continuously being attentive to the relationship. - It's so important to be proactive. - And this means doing things like sending thoughtful e mails, - making sure that if somebody is in the city that you're working in, - giving them a place to say, - Hey, - you know what, - you can work out of our office today trying to get face time with these people. - This is really important, - and I think that a lot of times people think that if they just get on a call every three - weeks. - That's relevance relationship. - That's enough. - And to be quite frank, - that's not enough. - And that's often why people can't get the person on the other side because they haven't - built the relationship strong enough. - Do you ultimately do something that's a bit of a stretch? - I think it's important that you acknowledge the value of these actions because a lot of - times it can seem like, - you know, - this isn't necessarily moving the deal for directly. - This might be wasting my time spending two hours with this person talking, - going and doing an activity that has nothing to do. - The deal. - You need to acknowledge the value here because you don't see the value, - this, - this type of activity, - then you're probably not gonna do it, - which is why it's so important that you're just cognizant of it as you do it. - Practice, - Empathy, - involvement. - Tori A. - Love This one of the most powerful forces in developing relationships is being vulnerable - because it demonstrates that somebody else that you feel strongly enough about them, - that you're willing to open yourself up and expose yourself to criticism to judgment. - So if you practice vulnerability and empathy throughout the entire time, - odds are gonna be much closer that personally other side. - And this could be a simple as let's say that something didn't go your way or you forgot to - do something just being completely candidate being honestly, - sometimes I get really forgetful, - and it's one of my biggest flaws. - But I'm working on and unfortunately, - that was why we didn't get a chance to do this thing. - And I'm really sorry. - It's it's honestly a personal thing I'm really working on. - Obviously, - you want to manage your balance, - that with seeming like a reliable person but generally vulnerability and empathy, - you're extremely powerful. - Forces in relationship strive for FaceTime early and often. - You can have as many e mails many phone calls as you want, - but nothing is gonna be able to replace the connection that you're able to build when you - get in front of somebody. - So I always try to get in front of someone as soon as possible. - Once I understand that a deal is potentially going to be there and then just continuing to - see that person as much as I can, - assuming it's important so that we can really kind of get the face time in there to really - build and strengthen that bond Mind Set number two to be successful. - Business Death being metrics driven The beautiful thing about metrics is, - is they don't lie. - It's the best barometer for your decisions, - whether it's how much time you should be spending on a partnership, - whether you should be kin continuing to do the same type of partnerships or even expanding - a partnership metrics should be at the core of all of your external decision. - It should also be at the core of what you're reporting to partners. - In order for them to really feel like there's a valuable relationship. - They're the best thing you can do is provide hard evidence through metrics that you're - driving value for their company. - So being metrics treatment is extremely critical for your ability to be successful, - to prioritize and make sure you're spending your time and energy on the things that are - going to move the needle the most for your company. - Let's talk about how to become metric shipment, - and this is important because I'll be completely candid. - I wasn't always a metrics driven person, - and when I started to adopt this mindset and really build just a habit of being metrics - driven person, - I became infinitely more productive not only personally but also for the people that I - worked for. - First thing you can dio define the metrics before engaging in partner activities. - It is much easier for you to be metrics driven and to be evaluating your decisions using - Metro Apps. - If you just start out with a framework of how you're going to measure the success of - something, - so the best way to do that is to define the metrics before you even go go about. - Start working on the deals. - Once you have the metrics in place that you want to monitor and measure the effectiveness - of a particular relationship. - The next thing you need to do is set up proper monitoring systems and not only set them up - but schedule regular reviews because it's very easy to have all these systems in place, - set them up and then never look at them. - So I've found that the absolute best way to make sure that this doesn't happen that you - actually review the data is to schedule regular reviews and also conduct postmortems. - So once something goes live like a launch or a particular pilot, - whatever it might be that same day at that moment. - So you don't forget schedule a postmortem. - Maybe it's one week out, - one month out, - three months out. - Maybe it's all of them. - But actually schedule that so that you go back, - You look the metrics and you can determine whether this was actually a valuable use of your - company's energy time. - And I like to take it a step further and really forced myself to compile a written analysis - of the metrics with reports. - Because all that data, - it's great if you will get it. - If you don't make the effort to understand it and what could potentially be manipulated in - the relationship in order to drive most value, - it's really not worth a whole lot of good. - And if you have trouble keeping yourself honest about this schedule presentation, - get other people involved so that you know that you're gonna need to understand these - metrics and what they actually mean because other people are gonna be waiting for you to - give a presentation to that. - I've seen this a za really, - really excellent strategy to keep yourself accountable to being metric should being metrics - driven ties in nicely to Mindset three, - which is focus on prioritization. - I love this quote. - We can do anything, - but we can't do everything. - This is so true in startups, - especially as a business development person. - There's tons of potential opportunities to achieve growth by creating relationships with - different companies. - But ultimately you have to identify the ones that are going to drive the most value and - avoid the ones. - They're just gonna be black holes for your energy. - Time and resource is. - And this is why I personally believe that one of the greatest challenges that you're gonna - face not only as a startup but as a business developer in the early stages is to make sure - that your prioritizing and spending time on things that matter. - And this is why oftentimes getting getting and no is better than getting yes, - because a lot of people, - yes, - you to death and nothing will ever come out of those relationships. - So I personally think getting to resolution on a deal, - whether it's yes, - let's do it. - Let's go or no, - I'm not quite ready at this is a good fit for us, - yet is honestly, - sometimes a great thing. - Instead of just constantly getting yeses that never go anywhere. - Let's talk about ways to cultivate this mindset. - First thing you can do is establish your priorities literally. - Right out party number 12 and three If you have three off the business development function - in order of reporters, - so few examples of this could be to drive new user sign ups dr existing engagement or - extract more revenue per customer. - Whatever it is, - it's important to write these out and have them present and top of mind at all times that - you know that you're prioritizing your energy and your time appropriately before you - encounter any major decision. - You wanna have these priorities top of mind, - which is honestly, - why I keep them on my desk at all times. - Just so I know that hold on a second is this thing that I'm about to do our thinking about - doing in alignment with what I've established as the most important priorities before my - business and lastly use these metrics performed postmortems and test frequently in order to - understand what's really moving the needle most for your business, - and I call this the marketer mindset. - Ah, - lot of biz dead people out there. - Honestly, - they're great salespeople. - They're great relationship builders. - What did not great at is prioritizing their time and energies and really kind of taking a a - marketer's approach to testing diligently on all the things that they're spending their - energies on. - So taking a marketer mindset as a is dead person is generally, - I think, - an awesome practice mindset Number four e comfortable with rejection. - The bottom line is you're never gonna get something unless you ask for it. - In business development, - you're gonna have You're gonna find yourself asking for things, - Aton. - Whether it's hey, - can I have that contract back or can we get on the phone call next week? - Or can you ask your boss what his feedback was? - Because I haven't heard from them and I really need this to report back to my CEO. - There's just gonna be a lot of situations where there's a little bit of discomfort with - asking for things because you might get rejected. - So you have to become comfortable with this idea of rejection. - And I'll even say that for a lot of people, - their ability to ask is actually a strategic advantage because there's a lot of people out - there that aren't comfortable with projection that ultimately don't get things they want - for their business and for the deals that they're asking for. - So how do we get comfortable with rejection? - I think one of the best ways yet comfortable is just to reframe it in your mind instead of - instead of taking it as a personal offence, - reframe rejection as data collection. - So every time that you get rejected, - that just means a greater understanding. - Oh, - maybe they rejected me for this reason, - maybe it's because I didn't position this correctly. - Whatever it is, - if you look at rejection as a tool that allows you to learn Mawr calibrate appropriately - and Ford with the higher likelihood of success, - you're going to become more comfortable. - The rejection and this quote, - I think, - is amazing. - It says only through walking will I know the path, - and it's only through doing things and getting rejected. - Well, - you have a Mork crystal clear idea of the best way to approach things. - Another strategy that helps for becoming comfortable rejection is separating yourself worth - from the rejection. - So a lot of times when we ask for something and we get a note we think it's because of us, - and we feel bad about ourselves and get down on ourselves. - The truth is, - is that people that reject you in many cases they're not rejecting you as an individual. - The rejecting what you said the person that you cold call that doesn't want to get a - meeting with you. - They don't know you. - They don't know the type of person that you are and all the amazing things that you - accomplish in your life. - All they know is the 15 seconds that you talk to them on the phone. - Or maybe the four senses that you're quoting now. - This is why it's so important to separate yourself from rejection and realize that it's not - you rejecting. - It's just whatever you wrote or whatever you set in most cases. - And lastly, - any time you feel the onset of fear of rejection, - anxiety around something just general hesitation, - schedule that activity, - a lot of the activities that go hand in hand with rejection like cold calling cold, - emailing asking, - you're asking your partner for something they don't want to say yes to or hesitant around. - But these are activities which should be scheduled because when you schedule something, - you're establishing a pact with yourself and you have a natural desire to be congruent - consistent things that you say you're going to dio. - You're more likely to do those things. - So schedule things that you sense hesitation around, - possibly because of rejection. - Right now, - I actually want to go through a quick exercise you can do to become more comfortable with - rejection and overcoming fear. - I have to give credit to gain Maxwell in the guys, - the foundation for this, - because I actually got these questions from a video where they helped other people become - comfortable with rejection and overcome limiting beliefs. - And the idea is, - is when you're uncomfortable with doing a particular action and you realize that you have - some anxiety around it because you're afraid of getting rejected, - you can ask yourself this Siris of questions and hopefully reframe your mindset and rewire - it to becoming more comfortable with the potential for rejection that you ultimately do - that thing that you know you should be doing. - If you want to be successful at getting that meeting or getting getting on the phone and - calling a partner that you've been avoiding, - whatever it ISS So this is just a series of questions you can ask yourself, - hopefully rewire your mindset in order to do the things that you know you should be doing. - Okay, - first question. - What is the activity that you're not doing? - Let's just for this. - For example. - Purposes use asking a partner for a contract. - So why aren't you doing these this activity? - Well, - maybe you're not asking the partner for a contract because you're afraid that they're going - to say you know what? - No, - it's not ready. - You really need to stop emailing me every day. - It's getting really annoying. - How do you feel when you approaches activity? - So how did it feel when you approach asking somebody for a contract that you've been - waiting on for a while and, - you know, - you know, - they should be getting back to you, - But for whatever reason, - have been avoiding you. - Maybe you feel anxiety because you feel that if you ask them for the contract. - But you know, - you shouldn't you need Teoh. - They might say no. - They might never talk to you again. - They might just completely flake and you might lose the deal. - What would be the opposite feeling? - of that particular belief. - So what's the opposite feeling of you feeling anxious around? - Ask defense contractors. - You're afraid that deal is going to go still? - Maybe the opposite feeling would be that you feel so incredibly confident they're going to - get back to you with positive news that you just can't contain yourself. - That you that you just know that this deal is gonna come through and the only thing that - stands to treat you and getting this deal done is asking What would you do right now if you - possesses believe so, - if you possess this belief that there was no down remind this person was going to get back - to you with an ink contract because they were so excited to work with you and the only - reason they got didn't get back to you is because they forgot or there were on vacation or - something. - What would you dio? - Well, - hopefully at that point, - if you felt that way, - believe that hopefully that means what you do is send that email immediately, - asking for where that where the contract is or where the deal is, - or how come you heard back from them it would be absolute worst case scenario with this new - belief. - So let's go ahead and say that you do you ask for the contract and that they get back to - you and say, - You know what? - I'm not interested. - Or maybe they just don't get back to you. - Let's dissect what the actual results that are. - So if they say they're not interested simply because you asked for something, - you were gonna get that result anyways. - And all you did was expect the process and get it faster. - If they don't get back to you, - then that's no different than where you were before you asked. - In most instances, - the absolute worst case scenario off an action that people are hesitant to doing because of - fear of rejection, - really isn't that bad and honestly, - actually, - can even be a good thing. - Mindset number five master. - The art of making things here jerk is the easier. - You make things for other people, - whether it's something you ask for, - whether it's a favor, - whatever it is, - the higher likelihood that they're going to say yes and the reason is is just because - generally people at opt for the path of least resistance. - They don't like to do work. - So your job is if your goal is to make the likelihood of compliance for saying yes, - as high as possible. - You must make it easier when you ask for something. - So let's let's go ahead and see a few examples of that. - This was an email I received from a good friend who runs Biz Dev at a company called - Shutter Shop that recently in public, - he's got We're looking to hire Biz Dev Superstar to lead a P I A promotional partnerships - for shutter stock. - Is it pretty? - Any given with lots of latitude at a successful New York Tech company is a ton of a minute - . - Here's a job description. - If you take five minutes to consider who might be a good fit for this, - let me know who to reach out to it mean a lot to me. - You're the best PS linked in is great for this could cure to see which of your linked in - connections that business development in their title. - My friend had a couple things here A you linked to the actual job description. - Twice I've had other people send me an email like this about any links to the job - description and act, - which is basically asking me to go to their website, - go to the job section, - find it super difficult to do. - And that's just a lot of friction for me actually going about doing this. - Secondly, - he auto populated and linked to a search on LinkedIn where I could see my connections. - You have business development in their profile. - This is a an idea. - Probably have never thought of be making it as easy as possible for me to take that five - minutes to consider who might be a good fit for this role. - This is just an excellent example of somebody really taking the art of making things easy. - In terms of optimizing the compliant. - Torrie Hart is a great job. - Did you get another example? - I got this another example directly from my email inbox from one of my friends who has - company called Institute Institute, - she says. - How you could help us crush our goal, - make a contribution. - She's links directly to where I could do that. - Secondly, - she asked me to share on social media. - Now, - instead of saying hey, - be awesome, - if you could share it, - she literally takes the thinking out of it by giving me pre constructed tweets and Facebook - posts. - This is absolutely awesome. - And not only are they reconstructed, - she sends links using a service that all I have to do is click the link in order to tweet - the particular thing that you suggested. - I don't think you could get any easier than this. - And to be totally honest, - I did click one of these pre constructed tweets that you sent to me, - and I don't know. - I would have done that if she hadn't made it so easy. - So let's talk about how to cultivate a art of making things easy. - Mindset number one. - You wear it all times that most people generally opt for the path of least resistance. - When you understand this, - you'll start to naturally just developed a tendency to want to remove all friction from - people saying yes, - something you asked for. - Number two build the habit of doing postmortems that explicitly focus on bottleneck - identification. - So when you ask somebody for something and they don't do that thing, - it's important to look back and review and ask yourself, - Why didn't they comply here? - Why, - why didn't they say yes, - and just getting in a general habit of trying to understand not only would perform the - action of asking but understand why somebody did or did not do that thing that you and - asked him for is an amazing practice just to build this part of making things easy, - muscle and you Eventually you'll just start to see yourself having a room need of - understanding that allows you to preempt these compliance breakdowns. - At first, - this was definitely something that I had to practice diligently. - But now it just comes naturally to make things easy as possible, - because I had put in the post mortems and just the diligent practice of really building - this mindset so that I didn't have to really think about it eventually. 5. Is Business Development Right for My Startup?: - for a lot of the reasons that we described earlier is that could be a very attractive - option for start accelerated growth. - Scalable growth. - There's a lot of benefits to building biz devilish chips. - What is that isn't right for every company. - There's certain companies that it makes a ton of sense for. - And they're certain companies that at the point they're evaluating whether his deficit - viable grow channel. - It really shouldn't be focusing on. - So let's determine right now what questions you should ask if you're trying to figure out - whether his death is right for your start up so so important considerations. - His Deb Jules can take a long time, - especially in the game. - Some deals can take weeks, - even days, - but there are certain deals that can take years, - and a lot of this depends upon the type of relationship. - But more importantly, - the type of companies that you work with. - It was important to understand. - The the companies are we're gonna get in this a little bit more later. - But just know that is deaf relationships can take a long time. - Is that deals to be a huge distraction, - all of the energy and resources that you. - Do you divert towards getting a biz debt deal done, - or even exploring these devilish chips must be beautiful lens of an opportunity costs and - that you could be spending these resources time energy. - Well, - I'm sure, - in your customers. - So it's really, - really important to understand that although Dee Dee is an excellent growth tell, - it can also be something that prevents you from serving your customers, - which is, - you know, - honestly, - probably the most important thing at a start up, - especially in the early eighties. - When you engage in this, - get relationships often as a result, - just have less control of your schedule. - All of a sudden you're accountable through all these other parties. - And if there's technical relationships, - there could be instances where you actually can't release product functionality without the - consent of a partner without letting a partner know or might even put a partner too bad - spots. - You just want to do it. - This can be definitely a challenge that you have to mitigate, - and you have to understand your originally evaluating different types of his dead deals - because all of a sudden you're now affecting other people. - Beyond just directly were customers and the development teams and engineers at all, - many of this same once having West controlled struggle. - When you engage his dead relationships, - you're serving an additional stakeholder again. - Not only now, - are you worried about making sure that customers happy, - but you're now making sure that partners were happening well and not only is dead contact - with Product Team of CEO marketing team already, - people are involved in a relationship again. - The challenge years that it could just be a strain on resources and focus and need to make - sure that you decide to produce shoe biz Dev as a growth strategy that MAB resource is to - make all these parties happened so that the relationship on most successful as possible or - job work. - So with these considerations in mind, - what are some questions you can ask yourselves to determine whether our companies are ready - to have been step number one? - Do I have product market fit? - It's important to understand this dynamic because if you don't know exactly who your - customer is and how to serve them, - it's gonna be hard for you to find ideal partners. - Joe. - I think that personally holding off until you really understand who your customer is, - or multiple different customer avatars, - how you conserve them and what other companies cause. - That's a similar audience or way to enhance that experience for your audience. - It might be best to hold off on biz Dev related activities. - Do I have the internal resource is to support BD initiatives again. - All Although BD can be an incredibly attractive girl grow channel, - it needs to be viewed within the lens of an opportunity cost. - Every single developer that you take away from working on your product is a diversion. - Resource is, - too. - It is dead relationship and said directly serving your customers. - Although that relationship may eventually provide enhanced experience for potential - existing customers, - in that moment you are diverting resources. - So it's important. - Understand that you do just decided to pursue this channel, - that it requires resources and that these resource is are ones that are being taken away - from other things that can move your company forward. - Do I have any leverage in the market? - You're so your ability to not only get deals but get deals on terms that will be best for - your company depends on how much leverage you have in the market. - If the more you have more leverage, - you're gonna get better curves. - It's gonna be easier for you to get deals and to outmanned competitors. - Also important, - uh, - for party making sure you don't run into party mismatch party mismatches when a - relationship is an incredibly high priority for you and your company. - But it's not really that interesting for partner. - You don't have any liver leverage in that situation. - Basically, - you are at the mercy of that part. - But all of a sudden, - if that part, - if you have a ton of leverage and it's really important for that for me to work for you, - you can make sure that those instances don't happen so that you can be certain you're only - spending time on deals. - They're actually gonna be implemented. - Get down with Neil for your company. - How relying is my company on partners to be successful? - If your entire business model is contingent upon you being involved with other people, - that's kind of a scary place to be. - That's not to say that relationships with other companies can be incredibly important to - your success to your customers experience, - too, - ultimately making your product what ISS But If you're 100% of the line upon this partners, - that is very dangerous. - And you want to be able to self sustain yourself for the worst case scenario that something - doesn't work out of partners or there's a change in that changes the market dynamic, - whatever it may be. - But I think it's always a good place to be able to sell. - Sustain yourself at least to a certain extent before going out and engaging with partners - is my product or service far along enough to present to potential party. - So this is This is kind of a Harry face here because I think it's best to actually true. - Self is deaf relationships, - so do not even have built a future or product on it. - You're potentially interested in creating relationship around. - Yeah, - at the same time, - when you go to these different partners, - you want to be taken seriously and they're gonna be they're gonna ask to see things, - maybe even just a mock up. - But they're gonna ask for evidence that demonstrates that you're the type of person that - can actually actualize this relationship that you propose. - So if you are nowhere near that and that is just ah, - far off pipe dream that's gonna be really hard for you to do. - You might want it whole off of it on worried about growing from BT growth strategy and - focus on getting to a stage where you can present opportunities that would be attracted to - additional partners. - And I just have an example. - Your you are TV was a company that I first time did is that for and our products just - consulate broke. - It was never and so far technically from where it needed to be. - And I was out there talking all these partners, - inviting them to essentially see live demonstrations of the product because with the - product was was a live interactive video platform, - and these partners would come and see the products and it would just break immediately. - It would never work. - And that made it really challenging for me, - not only to get these relationships down, - but tohave continuity in our dialogue is the first experience that I showed them with. - Our product was so poor. - So in retrospect, - I I honestly would have probably been better served holding off a bit on going and pursuing - be channels aggressively as I did until our product was just a little bit tighter. - So let's talk about the ideal company steam to aggressively pursue a bit his debt growth - strategy. - And again, - these are gonna be answers to a lot of the questions that we just asked. - So number one, - you have product market fit again. - Here's where you know your customers or users you know how to serve in, - which allows you to basically go out and choose partners effectively so that if you're - going to expend all this time and energy and his dad relationship, - you're making sure that it has the highest chance off serving your audience effectively. - You have some leverage. - No. - When I say leverage, - I don't mean that you have more levers and every single partner out there. - Everyone has to work work with you. - You don't need to wait until you're at this point, - but you need to have a little bit of leverage in order to command. - Respect and attention is that things actually get done. - If you have no leverage, - you run the risk of priority mismatch. - It's gonna take much longer to get deals done, - and honestly, - a lot of cases people don't really have as much of incentive to work with you now. - The exception here is something we're going to go over later called friendly comfort - companies. - Starter strategy. - For the most part, - you wanna have some leverage before you go out and decide that you're really gonna pursue - business growth strategy? - I agree you have enough internal resource is to actualize potential deals and divert - fortunate ease through the Growth Channel versus Onley. - Working on the practice, - your customer if you go out and you think all these deals and you're ready to go, - But you don't have any developers or engineers, - designers or whatever the type of relationship that you proposed to actually make this - happen, - you're not only gonna disappoint your own team because you just spend a bunch of time on - something that isn't really gonna happen. - But you put a strain on the relationship with the partner that you just worked on going and - going and constructing this relationship with. - So you want to make sure that you actually have a resource is to go and make things happen - Before you spend a ton of time and energy proposing potential relationships for your - company, - your business can sustain itself without depending entirely on partners. - So it's It's a bad place to be if the only way that your company can be successful is - contingent upon these. - His death relationships existed because I've seen it. - Relationships can evaporate like that. - Somebody can come in, - and if you don't have the proper ring and set up, - you can lose your partners. - In instance, - when a bigger, - better player comes along, - it's important that you can be self sustaining to a certain extent before you go in. - Aggressively pursued be and it just affirms example here, - single platform. - So our company, - literally the biggest value out of our product, - was that somebody could enter in their information. - So their name, - address, - phone number, - menus, - photos, - and we would distribute that information across all of these publishers like Trip Advisor, - Yellow Pages Force for Yelp, - Google Places. - I mean, - the list goes on, - and for us I mean, - if we didn't have those relationships with the publisher partners to display the data where - our product would not be is valuable, - we would not be able to sell it to the degree that we were. - However, - even with me complete nonexistence of those relationships. - Our product did it a ton of things that warranted value show social media updates, - updating your information on your own website. - There was value there that we could build a business out of, - even if we didn't have business relationships that really made our products super powerful - . - But the truth of the matter is, - is that a lot of people, - the reason they sign up for us is because of that publisher network. - Okay, - so it's when your company possesses these characteristics. - But I think it's the ideal state to aggressively approach of his debt growth strategy. - Now you don't necessarily need to have all of these sick guarantee success, - but I think it does help when you have these things in place to make sure that your initial - Biz DEV efforts are as successful as possible. 6. Determining The Best Business Development Strategy For Your Company: - So let's talk about determining the right isn't development strategy for your company. - Doing this starts with defining the function of B D. - And doing that starts with defining the levers and metrics you're looking for business - development to grow. - So what are some example? - Potential BT Growth lovers. - You could be looking to drive active users. - Advertisers, - syndication partners, - revenue, - new vertical customers, - publishers. - The list goes on, - and ultimately it's depending upon what your company goals are. - But the first thing you need to do when you're looking to figure out what strategy works - best and how you should focus your business efforts is to define his lovers and not only - define them but prioritize them in terms in order of importance. - So I personally think a great thing to do is just list these out. - Number one. - Add grow user base, - whatever it is number to extract additional revenue from existing users. - Literally order this out and use this as the framework for your decision making. - Now there's a lot of different things that business developed. - Relationships can improve early on in stages of your company, - but it's important as a young startup where time is your most valuable asset to focus on - things that affect your bottom line. - Optimizing things like user experience is just not as important as focusing on things like - revenue, - direct savings, - growing user base. - These are the type of metrics that are really gonna make your company allow you to do - things that raise additional funding, - maybe even get acquired. - I've never heard somebody say that we acquired this company because they have such a good - user experience. - No companies get acquire, - raised money because you're able to show growth in their most valuable metrics. - Which is why you should really focus on prioritizing these qualities quantitative metrics - versus softer quality to things like you, - your experience director, - you to find your levers and metrics. - The next thing that I think you want to do is come up with just a few ideas and how the - different types of BT relationships you mentioned earlier was just to give you a refresher - . - Were product brand and distribution might be able to grow these lovers. - When you do this, - be honest yourself. - Is business development a realistic channel to grow these things, - and ultimately, - at this point, - you can only really make hypothesis the experience that you'll have actually trying things - , - testing things in the market, - talking to prospective partners, - even looking at similar companies that have tried deals like this will determine whether BT - is an effective channel for you. - Let's talk about what type of business growth strategy makes sense for you again. - It comes back to understanding. - What BT letters You're trying to drive by creating mutually advantageous relationships. - What you haven't understanding and these lovers and metrics return agro. - You're just gonna have a much better for him working of how you might be able to drive it, - whether that's a product, - relationships, - distribution partnerships, - bringing his memberships. - But in order to understand which one might be best, - you've got to start with foundation, - which is determining which not trick she wants. - Drive every done. - This is it's time to really take a good look at your customer and user basis and try to - really get in. - These people's hasn't understand where do they hang out? - And not only were they hang out, - where do they hang out with intent? - Because there are certain situations and instances where customers air primed to take the - action that you want, - whether that's signing up purchasing whatever your growth metric is, - and they're certain situations where they're hanging out and there have no intent at all, - son of your service and your ability to understand their intent at these different - potential partner locations, - whether it's on site in their application, - whatever it might be, - there's going to be very important for determining how effective these potential - partnerships, - my big. - So let's let's dive a little bit deeper into this and talk about understanding, - customer or user penetration. - The reason that I want to talk about this is because I see a lot of business fell in - relationships that air unsuccessful because people didn't get this part right. - Bottom line is a lot of services and a lot of different types of products. - The customer base, - our audience that a particular startup is trying to grow, - isn't looking for their service. - They're going about their regular life. - Whether that's running a business, - whether that's surfing online, - they're not looking for the new thing that you're offered. - Basically, - your job as a business Melber is to grow. - Its to get in front of these people were creating these relationships that grow whatever - your growth metric ISS. - Here's an example that hopefully shines a little bit more insight into what I'm talking - about. - So our company, - single platform, - the product that we built initially served restaurant owners, - and I'm not sure how well you know, - owner for a restaurant, - that these people are not on Google searching for marketing solutions day in and day out - there, - making sure that the foods return for that evening, - that the open sign is turned on the front door and that people are showing up to work on. - And this is ultimately why we went direct sales now in terms of business development. - It wasn't in our best efforts to go out and try to get on all these digital marketing - restaurants ice initially because again these people were growing their business. - So because we shows direct sales, - the best thing that we could do was used business development to empower our ability to - sell these people directly. - And that's why we went out and build a massive publisher network that not only made the - product extremely powerful and much easier to sell, - but also got in front of us, - got in front of all of these restaurants by power menus on the sites that they knew that - people were already finding a business on. - If you go into a restaurant today in a major city, - you'll see a trip advisor sticker Yelp, - sticker on Urban, - maybe even an urban swim sticker. - And that's why we decided to create relationships with these sites because we knew that - this was important restaurant and naturally were already hanging out. - So let's expand on this a little bit, - because again, - I see a lot of people make this mistake and ultimately spend a lot of time on Bizet deals - that are successful by taking a look at what an audience without intent looks like. - So Google Mass. - When people go on Google maps, - what are they trying to dio? - They're trying to find places in the physical world, - usually directions. - Maybe they're walking around the streets. - They want to figure out where this restaurant is, - or this gin, - whatever it is, - this place where they want to go. - A lot of people might look at this and let's say they're doing through a food ordering - business like seamless or something like that, - and they would say, - Oh, - my gosh is great people are searching for restaurants. - It makes total sense of to be able to allow them to order right there while they're - searching. - But when you think about it, - does that audience really have in 10 when somebody wants to order food on a Sunday? - Did they go? - Are they going to Google Maps, - Teoh, - Then maybe place in order? - Or are they going to Google Maps because they're gonna want to go walk there and go to the - restaurant? - And I happen to know that certain partnerships similar to this exact one that I describe - yielded little are alive for either company because there was no intent of the audience. - Yes, - viewing restaurants is an action that people frequently take on this app or website. - But that doesn't mean that there's the intent there for their true to be our ally in this - relationship. - You know, - let's talk about his death deal where there was an audience with intent Spotify, - one of my favorites terraces to find new music. - So what? - What is what is the audiences intend when they go to Spotify? - I'd argue that still listening there fever favorite music and discover new music. - Now the deep integration with Facebook, - and I'm not sure if you're familiar with Spotify. - But essentially, - when I go on Facebook, - I can see through a special immigration all of the songs that my friends were listening to - in real time. - This was a beauty deal. - So displaying Facebook friends in at Behavior is highly relevant for finding new music, - which is again. - Part of the audience is intent. - And this is why this is an example of an excellent BD BD deal that was highly successful - because there was synergy between the two, - what the two companies objectives were and what the audience is intent waas in both - services. - So after you understand your letters where your customer and usual days hang out where they - do it with intent, - this is a great place. - And then ask yourself the critical question. - What is the best rate of riches people? - Is it product? - Is it brand, - or is it a distribution focused relationship with another company? - And again, - Time is the best barometer of what will work best for you. - Ultimately, - experience will determine effectiveness, - but these questions should serve as a framework to develop a good hypothesis to get started - . - Okay, - once the function of business development and your strategy are defined, - or at least the hypothesis is fine. - The next step is defining your ideal part, - and the things that you want to specify are are ideal Partner Sold serves this very - specific customer or user. - They have this many users for customers that we might be able to tap into with relationship - . - They possess this type of company, - D n A. - Maybe that's their fast movers, - or they care ton about design or they're really, - really focused on providing a rich experience for their customers. - And this is really important for determining how well you're gonna work together, - which is all often a fundamental predictor of whether the relationship will be successful, - fruitful for both sides. - It's important to understand the benefit that they desire from relationship and the reason - that this is a not only so that you gonna pitch them effectively. - But in this stage of the game, - it's so that you can understand whether a relationship, - but then will be a priority again. - The last thing that you want is to get sucked in to using a lot of your time and energy on - relationship that there's a priority mismatch where they're not as focused as making a - partnership. - Successful as you are, - last thing you want to ask yourself, - Will this partner ever build this themselves? - Personally, - I don't want to spend time on partners that plan on building things that I'm like proposed - that now you don't know this until you engage in a conversation, - but it's just important to keep in the back of your mind that the ideal partner for you, - it let's say you're doing a product Integration never plans on doing this future themselves - . - And maybe that's even a question that you explicitly asked them in the beginning of the - conversation. - Let's talk about the partner market evaluation. - What this really means is is getting understanding how rich the market is with ideal - partners, - given your integration strategy. - And this is one of the things that skin determine which route is right for you. - Because ultimately, - if there's not enough meaningful partners for a distribution type of relationship that you - envisioned, - or maybe a product integration one, - then maybe it's time to read to start back at Square one and rethink about what strategy - might want to use for your go to market business growth strategy. - Once you've determined how rich the market is, - and this is literally just a research exercise, - you want to ask yourself, - Are these relationships in this rich partner market repeatable across partners? - Or is there conflict of interests? - And one of me by this is our relationship with one of these ideal partners? - Is that going to prevent me from doing it the same exact relationship with other partners? - Because ultimately, - what your your job is that it is a business developer is to create a meaningful women - relationship that drives growth for your company and then product ties, - and repeat that for every single partner that it makes sense for. - And that's scalable business film Now, - just to kind of give you an example of what a potential conflict of interest would be again - . - Single platform. - Our company On the publisher side, - we were a data provider where we provided initially men used to other sites that did not - have this information. - Now you can imagine that getting to menus for every single restaurant out there is a huge - task and something that honestly, - we couldn't do ourselves, - and there's other companies out there that had menu data. - So maybe that was menu pages or all manage dot com or whatever it is. - They're also collecting this data. - One might have said, - You know what? - Maybe we do a partnership with them, - and we use their many data as well in addition to ours. - So we have a more expansive data set that allows get other partners. - The thing is, - though, - is if we were used another third party sites that actually displayed the menus, - this is an important distinction we never had. - A destination site like single platform dot com was not in. - Many cite these other many providers, - like menu pages, - and all menus did. - So we started taking in their data and then went out to a site where a competitive site - where a restaurant provider for people searching for restaurants like Trip Advisor Urban - Spoon, - all men user many pages they might not have been so cool with us giving their data to - somewhere else. - That was their secret sauce that drew people of their site. - So we set a second essentially be cannibalizing our ability to do additional partnerships - that drove value to our customers. - If we were to pursue that scent of his dead relationship. - These are the important considerations that you want to ask yourself when you're trying to - figure out again what strategy is right for you and whether this market is rich and - conducive to creating repeatable, - scalable business relationships that you want. - Let's talk about a few other considerations that you should take into account when you - craft your beauty growth strategy. - Number one. - What route in your company realistically handled this point. - Do you have enough engineers to do product relationships? - Because it, - honestly, - things like a product really shouldn't might not be right for If you can't handle it, - maybe you should focus on things like email list. - Partnerships are a little bit easier lower hanging for when we're doing. - Where do you possess leveraging market again? - More leverage you have, - the more you're gonna be able to accomplish effective partnerships, - get them done quickly and be able to test what channels are effective for you. - And along those lines, - you would ask yourself, - What can you test quickly? - It's a certain type of business relationship that you think might be a good fit, - but you're not sure is gonna take no months years determine the our ally, - then maybe that's not the place that you start. - Maybe eventually get there and focus on something a little bit easier to test to determine - what channel might be best for you. - Why you're getting started again because as a startup, - time is your most valuable asset. - And when you're looking at your ideal partners, - this is also not a question. - Ask yourself. - Is this person somebody that we'd be able to get a test out with quickly? - Or they somebody that has history of being incredibly slow and really hard to work with? - Understand that best for a channel, - whether it's product brand distribution, - even even the nuances within each one of those second relationships again is an inter - process that you will begin to understand. - Once you start to have conversations, - test things put things in the market, - do pilots, - all of which will talk about very shortly. - Let's go ahead and give a concrete example here of single platform, - my last company's business development strategy. - Again, - the product waas, - a tool that allowed restaurants to enter in the most critical information and display - everywhere were consumers were making decisions. - It was That's what it ended up being and given our demographic of restaurants who were not - looking for online marketing solutions but instead are worrying about putting food on - plates and making sure the wind. - Last year Queen we had to sell them directed. - And that literally looks like a bunch of people making cold calls during direct phone sales - . - So the best use of our time because we knew that direct sales is the best way to reach our - ideal customers was stent. - Empower our sales team to sell more effectively by building out a publisher network that - really made our product a no prayer, - just kind of paint a picture of exactly what the product did again. - Custom would come into our platform and other menu or listen Project services and that - would information get pushed out to all the sites have been partnered with. - So some examples off the business relationships that we had in terms of Publisher network - were four square New York Times Yelp Trip Advisor, - Yellow Pages. - If somebody made it shape, - it changed to press a mistake on the remaining from $9 to $7.25. - That information instant maybe reflected through an a P I relationship that our biz. - That team developed with all of these companies pretty powerful stuff, - especially for businesses like restaurants that rely so heavily on having accurate - information and usually natural tracks, - people that are looking for the business. - So how did those biz Dev relationships grow? - Our bottom line Number one, - they vastly improve the product are building to allow customers to publish your information - everywhere. - Consumers are making decisions online, - really armed ourselves seemed to be successful and ultimately have an amazing practice. - L that just converted at a much, - much, - much higher rate when they were calling these businesses. - In addition, - we were able to provide more value to the original customers that signed up and for - subscription, - recurring revenue business like ours. - Lowering that Children rate is incredibly important to the health of business. - Other cool thing that these original business relationships did was really get us some - amazing exposure that resulted in a ton of warm leads for us to call so across all of the - sites where we're providing menu get on the bottom of the menus, - you would see an attribution image that said many Friday by single block from dot com. - Whether it was a consumer or business that click on this image, - they would be directed to Aly Generation Page that would people could since submit their - information and receive a call from our sales team. - And these leads, - after seeing to themselves that we were managing this data across the most important sites - online, - converted at an extremely high rate, - which was just almost a marketing channel created through the business relationships. - Which is great now, - after this initial type of business development relationships that we did with restaurants - and building a publisher network just focus on a few other things for his death number one - . - We wanted to grow beyond just restaurants because they're 600,000 restaurants in the U. - S. - But over 13 million different types of local businesses that people are searching for - online. - So what we needed to do was get relationships with non restaurant specific publishers like - Yelp like it'll page dot com Google places. - They allow us to provide the same value to businesses outside of the restaurant Burkle. - In addition, - we also needed to extend the data seven we're providing, - so we started off with menus because we started off in restaurants, - but after that, - and for us to provide that value, - we needed to get our publishers to take more data from us. - So name, - address, - phone number, - photos, - hours of operation. - All of these data points were not only incredibly valuable for the existing customers that - we had, - which were restaurants, - but also for all of those new customers that weren't necessarily as focused on the list of - products or services or the menu as we like to call it. - It's also really helped us sell enterprise clients you and many. - Kansas is just focused on getting their information listed and getting all of these - different franchises and stores just out there, - because that was a huge problem from them for them for a long time, - because very few places did this effectively when we started business. - Lastly, - we eventually moved into channel partnerships and just a refresher on channel partnerships - . - It's when somebody else with similar user base or customer base that hasn't tend introduces - your processors to their audience. - So we were basically doing reselling and re marketing partnerships. - Another example of this outside of room example that I should earlier is mind body Mind - Body is the largest software provider for spas, - salons, - wellness centers, - and what they do is they provide websites and mobile APS. - And essentially, - you were there, - listing management partner and in addition to all these amazing services that they already - were providing their customers. - We worked with them to to fill in that would space, - making sure they were listed across all the most important sites. - And they had that rich data, - like their menu of services there hours, - their photos that people really want to know beyond just the name dress for. - And here's an example on the mind Body website, - where their existing customers confined single platform and be directed to you sign up. 7. Honing Your First Deal Strategy: - So let's talk about leaning your first deal, - starting with mindset and then how to actually go about doing this. - Your first partner is incredibly important, - not only because it determines what type of leverage you're gonna have and who else you - might be able to attract in the future, - but also because it sets the tone internally. - If this deal goes incredibly well, - people are going to be more vested internally. - To give you the resource is energy and support for future deals moving forward. - So what is your ideal first partner? - Look like? - My personal opinion is that you should be aiming for somebody that's meaningful, - but not necessarily the biggest fish in a pond. - Hey, - if you can get an exclusive with a rule or Facebook, - great. - But odds are that's going to be really tough to dio. - However, - you do want to make sure this partner does have some clout. - So for all the subsequent people that you approach after that, - you can point to somebody that they respect and trust, - which is going to make them more likely to want to do a deal with you were the goals in the - first quarter person foremost of drive growth. - That's why we're doing business. - Film in the first place would grow our business in a scalable way number to obtain and - understanding about this girl child again. - We can hypothesize around what's gonna work, - what's not gonna work. - But ultimately it comes down to experience and iterating that will really determine what is - going to be the most effective use of our limited time and energy to grow in the B channel - . - Number three Chief Verifiable results. - One of the things that you're up against in business development is basically being on - return to someone that working with you is a good idea and the absolute best way to do this - . - It's have concrete evidence that you can point to that says, - Look what I've done for somebody else. - There is no question my mind that I could replicate these results for you and much along - the same lines here. - You you want to get social proof, - right? - So very viable results certainly help with buying, - but so does just the mere fact that you're working with somebody else. - If somebody else that people respect has bought in, - it's gonna be easier for them to say Yes, - there's just not as much risk there or perception of risk once somebody else has bought it - . - So why is it necessarily a good idea to your street for the biggest player in your market? - Well, - first impressions are Andruzzi. - When you enter these discussions, - it might be your only chance getting from this person. - So if you think that your first chance before you have any partnerships that you're gonna - be able to touch is effectively as when you might have things in the future like case - studies, - social turn, - all the things that people that make people more likely to comply, - then by all means, - go ahead and try to pitch the biggest partner. - But usually people don't have these things and they don't have any other partners. - Which is why I recommend that you don't start out with going with absolute, - biggest, - baddest person in your market. - Yeah, - once you get a few deals on your belt and you get the assets like the case studies this - social proof, - the results you can point to then you want to get to the big, - big players. - At this point, - you're just more likely to get by in because there is an inherent risk and work with the - startup, - and you just want to make sure that first impression is as positive as possible. - So what's everything should you be looking for in your first partner? - Number one, - You want to make sure that they are big enough to actually create impact. - You're going to spend a lot of time on doing some type of speculative initial deal. - He wanted to be big enough, - so they understand. - The second relationships are a good fit. - Do you want to make sure that there's a good culture fit there? - And part of the culture fit for a startup means being able to move quickly? - If your first deal is going to take a year to yield any understanding or even our ally, - it's probably not a good a good fit for you. - So one of the the ideal cultures for first partners for startups is that the companies that - you're working with are agile, - and they want to see things executed quickly. - What's along the same lines here? - You want these people toe realize that they're working in a startup, - they need to be flexible. - Somebody that's incredibly rigid is going to be challenging to work with it probably are - gonna provide metrics or to talk about the second. - And it's just gonna make it difficult for me to really get the understanding that you're - looking for in this initial deal. - You want somebody that's going to agree to give you the metrics gene to create case study - because once you have that deal and you have a case study that shows you can provide - verifiable results, - it's gonna be much easier for all their other dominoes to fall. - And for you just go out and pitch people effectively because again you have what everybody - wants results. - You would look for some type of indication that the relationship with your company is going - to be a priority. - The last thing that you want is to go work with somebody that doesn't necessarily care - about the success of this relationship, - because all future potential partners, - we're gonna look at this relationship as a proxy. - Whether you'll be able to drive value for that. - Let's quickly talk about what tend to be Cem ingredients for what I call Black Hole initial - partnership. - So you want you want to avoid these type of companies for that initial deal and honestly - for deals, - period. - So number one, - they have a history of being a big, - slow moving organization again. - It's about speed to understanding and working with somebody that's gonna take a long time - to drive value early on. - It's just not who you want to work with. - Number two. - They work with any and everybody. - If somebody works seven and anybody, - it's gonna be very hard to make not only getting the deal done a priority, - but making the deal successful a priority. - You want to work with somebody that really cares value and wants to make the success and - wants to champion this so that this relationship can be as fruitful as possible for both - sides. - Number three Again. - You don't want to work with somebody that doesn't realize what it's like to work with a - start up and start ups. - Things were sloppy. - They get slower, - it can take longer. - There's more surprises. - If somebody is from an incredibly corporate environment and they've never experienced this - type of thing, - it could be challenging string on. - The relationship might even fall apart, - so that first partner it's it's ideal if you can get someone that understands we're working - with the startup, - knows what these air like and is willing to be flexible and work with you. - Okay, - so the content that we just reviewed should give you some ideas, - thoughts and frameworks to really establish. - Wouldn't want that first partner to look like? - No. - Before you go out pitching like a madman, - it's important to understand the dynamic it place that you can do it effectively. - For starters, - urine unproven. - Start up. - Which means that for many people, - especially larger companies, - you're a risk. - And it's not only the company that's assuming the risk, - but that individual person, - whether it's biz, - dad, - product, - whoever maybe that's an individual risk in them working with you as well. - So you need to be very mindful of this and need toe honestly actively look for ways to de - risk the relationship, - however you can, - as well as figure out ways to maneuver around the fact that working with you might be a - risk for the company. - We'll get into that later, - but just just something to be mindful of. - As you start to think about that initial approach, - let's talk about incentives and these incentives are what you can lover to get somebody to - buying, - even when you're a risk, - because your startup number one cent for pretty much every company is to make money. - If you can satisfy that, - it said, - there's gonna be a strong inclination for somebody to want to do a deal with you. - Another set of that companies have is obtained something novel that enhances their position - in the market. - This might be a new piece of data that nobody else has. - Maybe a new feature that everyone has been asking for, - but nobody's been able to look at. - If you can give them something you need that nobody else has. - There is upside there that you can take advantage of to get that first partnership, - even when you're just a start up, - do a lot of the bigger companies. - A huge incentive for them is just a pure cutting edge. - They had a big status friend. - It's not necessarily attracting the younger audience they're looking for. - Maybe the tech adopters or whoever it is. - These people want to appear. - Cutting edge and doing a deal with the startup is one way to achieve that. - I mentioned that when you're dealing with these companies. - It's not Onley convincing a company. - It's good idea. - It's also convincing the individual. - And that's why I wanted distrust you, - that there is individual incentives that flat and everybody that you talk to wants to look - good in their office. - They want to please their boss. - They want to look good in front, - their colleagues. - So you need to convince this person conveyed in doing a deal with you is going to be a big - success, - and it's going to make them look great. - Journalist. - You also want to convince then that there's not a lot of risk. - Even though there might seem like risk, - the more you congee risk your relationship and prevent any perception that something bad - might happen, - the higher likelihood that somebody is going to want to work with you at the individual - level. - So we're looking at additional partner doesn't accomplish any of these things. - The answer isn't a resounding yes. - You need to figure out how you can position relationship so that it does, - and we're gonna go more into position later. - But you need to be able to at the on set at least be able to convey that relationship - between another company and yours is going to accomplish either the ability to make money, - the ability Teoh enhance their position in the market, - the chance to make something good in front of the boss, - maybe to make the company pure cutting edge. - It has to touch one of these things. - So it's really important that you can a least accomplished one of these things in your - position. - And again, - we'll talk more about position later. - Now there's two schools of thought when it comes to approaching getting that initial - partnership, - there's people who think the best way to go is going after a friendly company. - Maybe you have somebody who is a friend of yours who has a company that that might benefit - from doing a deal. - Or maybe you know somebody, - a particular company that makes total sense to do a deal. - And the reason that people gravitate towards going after friendly companies for that first - deal is it's easier to get initial buying when you have a friend or contact at the company - and again, - once you have that first deal, - you could just have a whole lot more momentum from things like case studies social crew - verifiable results. - So often people choose to go after a company or they have an existing relationship for that - first initial partnership. - Then there's people that think the best rounds goes actually to go after companies where - you don't have a relationship. - And the benefit of this here is that you get unbiased feedback about the type of - relationship that you're proposing. - No, - A lot of people just have to go this route by the folks. - They don't necessarily have a company where they have a friendly relationship. - Uh, - that meets their ideal partner criteria. - Here's my humble opinion on where the best place to start is. - You want to look for friendly companies who have a great brand in real business. - The reason I think that this is the ideal scenario is a because you have a relationship - with the company. - You can get to a resolution often faster than if you didn't and you get all the other - benefits that we talked about earlier. - You can use this initial partnership with this company to get more credibility. - Yet the case study get all the things you need to go out and generate more partnerships, - and because this person has a real business. - They're not going to make the decision just because your friend they have a real business - run. - So you you also can get that unbiased feedback necessary to ensure that this type of - relationship that you're proposing can be replicated across partners and that they're not - doing you a favor just because of relationship. - Now, - if your first partnership, - whether you have a few companies that you have existing relationships with, - that might make sense where you don't have any friendly companies, - here's a simple early partner evaluation framework that you can use to see whether somebody - might be a good fit to be that first partner. - First thing you could evaluate is the size of the opportunity, - and the waited to do this is to look at your pre defined key metric that you're trying to - drive and measure that against the correlated partner Metric. - So, - for example, - if I'm looking to do a channel part ship and I assume that maybe 1 to 5% of customers that - are introduced my to my product are going to convert, - then I can basically look at okay, - how many part how many customers does this partner have. - And if they convert at 1% or 5% does that opportunity see meaningful to my business? - Secondly, - you want to look at is whether their culture fit. - So what does this company care about? - Do they value the same things? - My company is this somebody who's going to be an ideal partner for the long run and that - really I can lean on to model out all of the future partnerships. - This is super important that you get this right, - because again this person sets the tone for all of the relationships moving forward. - Lastly, - what is the track record of this partner now? - They could be a great partner two years down the road. - But are they somebody that wanted to that first partnership with? - They're gonna be somebody that's easy to work with that's flexible enough to work with a - small start up, - or they somebody that slow moving in a giant pain. - And it's gonna take a long time for me to understand whether this type of relationship - yields a high, - are alive for my company. - Now there's certain ways that you can figure out all three of these things before actually - even talking to partners. - And I call this partner evaluation. - Recount reconnaissance. - Let's go ahead and take a look at this. - The first thing you can do is look at their website or articles about that company - revealing their metrics. - So again, - if you want to see if the size of opportunity is even worth pursuing trustees of any - articles out there that reveal how many users they have or how many customers they have a - lot of times people, - publishers and press releases Teoh, - you know, - brag about how well they're doing. - So you want to look it look for their scent particles to see if this actually represents a - meaningful opportunity. - And once you found those metrics, - you can actually go ahead and take it a step further and model out the opportunity just - together. - Uneven, - more definitive sense on what the our ally of the relationship like So I just put together - a little example here and excel where I was. - I look at if I was potentially doing an email swap where I was trying to convert somebody - else's user base to subscribers of my service. - Look at OK, - here's somebody active users they have. - If I assumed anywhere from 1/2 a percent of the conversion rate to 5% Treasury. - How Maney new users would I get if leads at this every single month? - How many new users with that represent a month? - If there was a sure ate, - what would that look like? - These are all things that you can really kind of try to predict and hypothesize around. - That gives you a better sense of whether this is an opportunity that is worth your time and - energy at this point for figuring out whether there are culture fit and their track record - . - You're gonna want to lean on people that have worked with them before, - so you can pin your own personal network, - and I like to go on late did and see who shares common connections to that company. - Or you can even go as far as looking on their existing partners or clients Page and see if - there's anybody that you already know. - Or maybe you have a friend that's connected to one of those people that you might be able - to just ask. - Hey, - what was it like to work with these guys? - Were they easy with a flexible did you get things done quickly? - Doing this due diligence up front can see you save you a ton of time and energy. - So it's definitely worth just doing a quick partner. - Re calm before and then, - lastly, - you can look at task deals and try to get a sense of whether they were successful and if - they were, - wasn't because date, - because you're And lastly, - you can look at past yields and try to get a sense before they were successful. - If they were successful was because they weren't easy to work with. - Maybe they didn't have a culture fit or they didn't necessarily care about making the - relationship succeed again. - There are people that you can reach out to you and ask these questions that you can figure - out before you spend a whole lot of time on the relationship, - whether this is somebody that you actually want to work with. - Okay, - so you talked a lot about this whole initial partner first deal and how important it is. - So let's just try to kind of put it all together here and just have three takeaways that - you should be thinking about as you define your go to market business strategy and who that - first partner might be. - Number one. - Figure out your most important important metric and the best way to drive it number to - narrow down your ideal user customer and their intent and see which potential partners have - a captive audience off those people and all those potential partners. - Which ones match your ideal fit in terms of size, - of opportunity, - culture, - fit, - track record ability to get things done. - This should be a good friend work for you. - Determine which business Roger you want to go after and who that first partner might be. - Let me tell you about single platform solution partner. - We ended up having a warm introduction to somebody at The New York Times that God is a - meeting which allowed us to figure out what they were looking for During that meeting. - We asked them of all the things they were interested in, - and it turned out that driving engagement on their dining section was actually something - that was high interest in at that time virtues, - different types of pieces of content that might be interesting. - They indicated that having menus was something that they really wanted. - Well, - she found this out. - We've Riegert came back to them and said we could get 100% coverage of all the menus that - they had on their dining site if they were really to work with us. - And they said that absolutely, - that this is something they wanted. - We then provided them a non binding letter of intent which said that if we went out and got - this content, - that they would put this content directly on their website, - formalizing our relationship and just a few months after the implementation went through - and went lot just gonna show you what that looks like today on the New York Times dining - guy. - You'll see this menu tap here. - And when you click the menu tab, - all of this information is provided by a single platform. - And before, - there was no menu tab at all, - and you couldn't even get this information. - So this is actually the first deal that single platform ever got and ultimately allow that - scraps of hundreds of other partners and replicate this relationship in order to provide an - incredibly value service to our customers. - Now, - how we actually got this deal in terms of the meeting to pitch all these things we're gonna - go to later. - So don't worry if that seemed a little big 8. Building Your Initial Pipeline: - okay. - In the last section, - we talked about your strategy for landing your initial partner. - Let's go ahead and get into the weeds a little bit and talk about how to actually do this - more tactically. - So remember, - depends from which strategy choose. - There's the friendly company strategy where you go after a company where you have an - existing relationship to lend an initial deal. - And there's the unfriendly company strategy. - And what you decided do from here depends upon which one you choose. - Let's start by talking about the friendly strategy. - So you've determined that you know what? - For this first deal, - I want to try to work with somebody that I already have a relationship with. - Your first step is to determine all the companies that you have warm relationships with - that might make sense to work with, - and you literally want a list these out. - Now, - before you go about creating a pitch that you proposed the exact solution and all the - things that you want, - you should just take the mindset. - The best thing you can do from the initial Deco is just to have a candid conversation to - really understand whether there's any chance of your company's working together, - given their hierarchy of priorities and needs after you've had that conversation, - then, - is when it makes sense to come back with a more defined pitch. - This special include things like a clear value proposition. - Frictionless, - set up to get started, - agreed upon process for the two companies, - yet started moving forward and then, - lastly, - the specific follow up to the next steps. - So this could be like getting a letter of intent sign or connecting our product team for a - calls they could talk about the integration again. - We're not always gonna have a wealth of companies that we have existing relationships with - that we can use to start with this friendly partner strategy. - So what do we dio? - Well, - this is what I call hitless building time, - And it's the first step to essentially building out of his depth pipeline for companies - that you don't necessarily have warm relationships with. - Probably with the term hitless. - It's basically and list of every perspective partner, - client customer, - whoever you're trying to reach, - and you're gonna use this not only to manage your outreach, - but I haven't used my initial hitless to manage the entire deal process Here's some - important components that you want to have on your hit list. - 1st 1st company names of who you're with, - the company that you're perspectively doing a deal with our partnership with the last time - you spoke to the person at this company. - That's your current contact. - What? - That activity waas on that last day of contact. - So was it an email? - Was it a meeting? - Was it an in person meeting or a phone call? - This type of information is really important to take note of. - And, - you know, - it will just make it easier to manage the entire deal process. - Who? - The specific steak order, - older or decision maker. - And this could be multiple people at that company is that you're talking with what their - contact information is, - and then, - lastly, - what I call the prioritization mechanisms, - this is, - uh, - that size of opportunity that we brought up earlier. - And the reason that this is so important is because they're certain fuels that are going to - drive 100 times more value for your company than others, - and you want to be sure that you're spending your time most effectively at all times. - So I like to I like to within my hitless literally have this right in front of my face. - So at all times, - it's just a nice little reminder to make sure that I'm spending my time wisely. - There's a few options that you can use for your hit list. - There's sales tracking software, - So salesforce, - high rise Sugar serum tom them out there. - There's another tool that my friend Andrew du Mont built called Stride, - and this is a little bit better for low volume, - high leverage opportunities. - So let's say you only have ah 100 deals in your pipeline. - This actually is a great tool for those type of situations, - and salesforce mean that those type of tools really scale. - You could have thousands of leads and opportunities in there, - and it can get really sophisticated if you want it to be. - Lastly, - you just use a spreadsheet or gruel. - Doctor Man is this. - And honestly, - I'm super old school. - I just used a Google doc, - and this is literally a picture of an example of what my hitless template looks like. - And it's very simple. - Just company name. - Last day of contacts. - What That activity waas some type of scale to measure the size of opportunity to make sure - that I'm spending my time wisely. - The contact, - the stakeholder, - contact name and again, - this give you multiple people what their email address, - waas and phone number. - If I want to include that, - ultimately, - really what it comes down to, - all this stuff is it's not about the tool. - It's about your diligence falling system. - If you can manage it on a simple Google doc, - that's great. - But if you want something more sophisticated, - go ahead and opt in for the sales sales force of the high rise and generally a big. - The reason that I don't like those tools is I find them rather clunky. - They're often built with the sales manager in mind for them to run reports on number of - meetings or teams holding who has the most calls. - And quite frankly, - I don't need that sophisticated metrics and analysis on top of my list. - I just need a place where I can have all my contacts. - The last time I reached out to them what that was, - what that context of that outreach waas what their information is. - That's really all I need and, - you know, - for the actual notes that are appended to those meetings. - I just again use a Google doc on, - and I called the working agenda, - and it's just a giant running document that every time I have a meeting or conversation - with a potential prospect or existing prospect, - I just put the name of the prospect, - the company and the date and then just bullet points of what that meeting was about. - And this is this is not super sophisticated. - This is very straightforward, - but it's just something that works for me. - And I follow the process diligently, - and that's why it works. - And right here is just an example of a screenshot that I took with actually my personal - meetings agenda. - So I have. - I have one of these for Biz Dev, - elated activities, - but also just keep one. - Just for all the personal meetings that I have for personal networking connecting people. - And it's just very much the same, - and we'll go over more specifically later on the exact notes you should be taking for this - . - Now I go about building my hit list. - I think the most effective way you can do it is using batch processing if you're not - familiar with ash crossing. - It basically means doing all the same tasks at once to avoid cast switching. - So what this looks like is is I'm gonna go ahead and find all the companies like a - potentially work with first and just focus on getting that company section of the hitless - filled out. - After that. - I'm gonna go ahead and find all the stakeholders at those companies. - So who is the person that likely is managing this particular initiative at that company? - And I'm gonna just focus on filling out that section for each company. - And then after that, - I'm going to go ahead and find all of these stakeholders email addresses and their phone - numbers if I need you. - And this is the reason that I do it this way is it's just the most efficient way to do it. - If I'm on lengthen, - I want to stay on lengthen. - If I'm using tools like reported and Male Chester that will go over later to find contact - information. - It's more efficient for me to just continue to use those tools and execute process than to - go from find a company, - find a stakeholder finding email address. - There's a lot of past switching their, - which can result in lost time. - So I personally think that using batch processing when building out this hit list is the - most efficient way to do it. - So let's talk about ways that you can do the first step, - which is identify companies. - I have the 1st 1 Are you here because it's pretty pretty? - Uh, - familiar? - Hopefully, - is Google so literally just Google the terms that would help identify particular companies - you might want to work with? - Let's say that your let's say that you're trying to find people that sells but Celta - forests and sell software so literally just googling the term florist management software. - Whatever it ISS super simple concept, - I'm not gonna go to too much step here because it should be pretty straightforward. - Next place I go to think about companies that I should work with is my personal network. - So there's a lot of people that might be in the same space. - They might have familiarity with the industry I'm working in. - I just send these people emails and ask, - How do you know anybody who might be a good fit to reach out you or any companies that - should be on my radar Adam to the hit list after I get feedback from people that I already - know Now this is a little less obvious, - but your competitors sites are an excellent place to mind for companies that you could - potentially do deals with specifically in their partners. - For clients section these are all people that you might be able to pick off. - And honestly, - there's a lot of times where there's late in seeing these sections were people that you're - competing with have partners or clients listening, - and they don't even work with anymore. - Don't let that deter you from trying to reach out to these companies, - because again, - you're you have to look out for number one. - And if you think that you have the superior product, - you shouldn't feel bad for a second about going after somebody else's existing part of your - clients. - You're doing product integrations like the example that I showed with single platform. - We're looking for size with dining information. - A great place to go is similar suits, - site search dot com and basically what this tool does is you can type in a specific site - and then find a bunch of different sites out there that you might not have been aware of - that have similar content. - So for us, - I mean, - I remember searching yelp dot com and finding just a ton of sites that I wasn't even aware - of that ended up driving a con of value to the business is we work with. - A great example of that is menu is, - um I had no idea that menu isn't existed, - but it's because of the CEO that the site has is one of the most popular places People go - to find restaurant menus We ended up doing a A P I deal with menu is, - um, - and again it drives a Thanh of value because of the traffic they receive. - I would have never found this site if it wasn't for me. - Finding menu isn't dot com obvious similar site search. - Another resource that you might want to check out is mansa dot com. - Manta dot com is a great tool because it allows you to apply filters to businesses that - often aren't available on other places that you might go like yelp or yellow pages. - If you're selling to place that physically have or trying new partnerships with place that - have physical storefronts. - Do you see here that I typed in? - I believe it was just a fitness center, - a CrossFit, - And what this allows me to do is take advantage of these advanced filters on Vienna that - just typically isn't attached on a lot of other business directors. - So things like company revenue, - number of employees you know who the owners are, - where the location is. - These are all just excellent pieces of data that you can really use. - You build a more sophisticated and targeted hitless score dot com. - If you're not familiar with core it, - it's not only an amazing place in mind visit have. - The opportunity is just a great place to find valuable information, - essentially a question answer site where anybody can ask any question, - attach it to a specific topic and have members of the community answer it for you. - Where you see here is a question that just shows how you can use this for business. - So the question is what APS companies are focused on the restaurant CMS market. - So the city background here is this person might be looking a partner with restaurant CMS - platforms because they have a complementary offering, - and they want to do a channel partnership now. - What they could do is go out and search Google or Pan. - Other resource is to find all of these particular potential partners or what they did here - is just asked a question and let the community essentially answer and provide these - companies that it might make sense for him to partner with. - This is an extremely efficient way to fill out that company section for your hit list, - and an incredibly great place that I didn't even include on that bullet section is length - in. - And if you're in business development or your new business development, - you're gonna find yourself just spending a whole lot of time on like then. - Here's a few ways that you can use LinkedIn to find potential companies to partner with one - existing prospects previous work histories. - So if you already have a few prospects, - maybe started out with the friendly strategy or where you just knew a few Pete few - companies that you wanted to have on here and decided to go ahead and fill out that initial - stakeholder, - you want to look at those stakeholders Previous work histories, - a lot of times people at super industry specific with their careers and end up working for - competitive companies, - you know, - throughout the life cycle of their career. - So they worked for a company that that you're going after now. - Maybe they work for a very related company that was in the same industry before. - So you want to take a look at the stakeholders? - Were previous work histories to maybe find some new companies you wouldn't be where another - place you want to go is Look at me. - Company followers on lengthen so each. - In addition to individuals, - companies can have pages, - and many do have pages on LinkedIn. - And a lot of times people follow their competitors to stay up to date. - So you can essentially use those followers as a source of implicit data for who might be - somebody that you might want to partner with. - And I mentioned that company Page one valuable on the right hand side bar. - One valuable resource that they have is a people also viewed, - and there's a lot you have to realize is on LinkedIn. - It's a lot of recruiters, - his Devon salespeople. - They're doing the same exact thing that you're doing They're trying to find companies and - individuals to partner with cell, - too, - whatever it ISS and they're all viewing similar companies. - So you want to take advantage of this. - People also viewed block here on the right hand side of a company page to find other - potential people that it might make sense to partner with. - Okay, - so you found companies and you filled out that initial company section on your hitless. - The next step step for you is to go ahead and find the person at that company who's - responsible, - or at least you think is responsible for the particular initiative relevant to a - partnership. - And at this point, - you're really just looking for the stakeholders name. - And the reason is is because you're going to be approaching by email first. - And once you have their name, - you can actually use that using a variety of ways, - which will cover soon to guess their email address. - And even if email doesn't work, - you just want to get the name have somebody to call into. - Now it's important to be aware that the stakeholder and the decision maker are often two - different people. - Sometimes they're the same, - but you don't really know who the decision maker is going to be until you start engaging - with the company and having conversations with them to really understand how decisions get - made, - the processes and who are all the key stakeholders that are responsible for pushing things - through. - So this is the progression that I used to basically fill out this hit list with - stakeholders before actually reaching out to them. - And again, - I'm just looking for names here, - and I'm gonna go through each one of these. - But there's definitely a rhyme and reason to the ordering of my progression and how I - basically go about this is first lengthen, - then the corporate website, - my personal network, - An informational cold call press releases Twitter Common section on relevant articles and - former employees. - Okay, - let's dig into each one of these, - Um, - and just real quick talk. - Why I go about it this way. - The progression ordering is just based on what I find to be most effective, - quick and non obtrusive. - And you just try to strike a balance between all all three things affected. - This is most important because if I don't get the right stakeholder, - then all of my outreach could be complete, - completely fruitless, - because a lot of times when you have the wrong person and you're came trying to communicate - with them, - especially when you go in cold, - they'll just see it as a relevant and not even for it along to the right person. - So effectiveness and getting the right information is most important after that. - You know, - I want to do this in an efficient manner. - I want to do it quickly, - and there's certain things that take longer than others. - For example, - doing an informational cold call in there in the appropriate way can get me the name of - whom trying to reach out to in 30 seconds. - Now it might take me 10 minutes to try to get that person's name by scanning press releases - online. - So you know there's there are ways that air just generally faster than others. - Now, - what you need to balance this with is trying to be in obtrusive as possible, - and there's certain things and cold calling is one of them that No. - 10 interrupt somebody's day. - Reaching out to somebody directly on Twitter can be a little obtrusive, - can be getting into their space that they're not used to communicating with. - So you want to try to balance these. - And I think all of the ways that I mentioned can be done effectively without being overly - obtrusive. - But it is just something to be Kong's enough as you go through the particular ways to find - these stakeholder names. - Okay, - so let's dig in. - It's the first place I go Islington, - and specifically I go to the linked in profile description. - The challenge is that on linked in, - a lot of people just don't have a real descriptive profile. - For example, - this one here, - a regional director, - Travelzoo. - I have no idea what specific focus this person has, - and as a result, - it's it's really hard for me to determine whether they're relevant to my what is often very - particular relationship focus. - A much better example is when you confined lengthen profiles of company employees that - specify exactly what somebody does. - So, - for example, - one of the guys that I used to work with this is what his LinkedIn profile description says - , - and it just gives me exactly what he is responsible for, - which is building and managing the entire customer experience. - So if I was trying to do a deal with single platform. - I was trying to sell software that optimized customer experience. - This gives me insight. - And this guy is literally the exact person that I need to talk to, - or at least the perception that he is definitely an influence or in this sphere and could - get me to the appropriate decision maker if it turns out that it's not him. - So right now, - I want to do a live demonstration on how you are actually able to go about using Lincoln to - find these stakeholders. - Okay, - so I'm just going to show you right now how I use LinkedIn. - Do you find stakeholders in this initial hitless building phase and then use the company - that my friends work at called news credit and pretend that I'm trying to find somebody in - marketing there to talk about a co marketing partnership? - So first thing to do is type in the company's name in the search box up here, - and everyone there isn't. - There is a news dread. - So once we get to the company page, - we're gonna want to go here to see all so see all the employees that are on lengthen and - then when we get here, - you can you have some search facets on the left hand side. - I'm just going to go ahead and click the advanced search facet and in key words, - I want to search marketing. - And this is gonna isolate everyone who has marketing as a key word in their profile that - works at news credit. - So the first people they're going to come up our people that I'm connected to my friends - Kyle and Andrea. - Then it's going to start soon. - Marketing people. - So marketing strategy. - Okay, - this person has online marketing in their past. - Director of Merchandising strategy, - Integrated marketing. - Ah, - here we go, - director of marketing at News Credit Alicia and And when I go down, - I look at her profile and I see in the job description it describes exactly what she does. - Amazing. - So it looks like, - given the fact that she manages all these elements of marketing, - that she would be a good initial stakeholder to reach out to and broach the topic of a co - marketing partnership. - One common thing that might happen here is there might be a number of candidates that might - seem like the right person, - and this is especially true when we're talking about bigger companies. - So there's a few things that you can do in order to disarm the situations and find that - right stakeholder. - And one of my favorite things to do is use this skill section and the implicit data there - to understand what somebody's focuses. - You're not familiar with the skills section. - When you scroll down, - somebody's linked in profile. - You can see different skills or expertise that people there now we have endorsed him for - now. - When you look at this particular example who was just listed as a marketing director, - by the way, - do you think this person is responsible for social media or managing the advertising budget - ? - Well, - considering 12 people have endorsed her for advertising and one person for social media, - my money's on the fact that she manages the ad budget for this company. - There is just a ton of ways you can use this implicit data when there's not available in - the profile description, - you really hone in on who might be the specific person. - Naturally, - before another place, - Ugo is just reviewing previous job descriptions. - So again, - people often have career focuses where if they were the sales director, - The last company, - they will be responsible for sales here. - So this is just the profile of against somebody that I used to work with, - and it looks like they were the vice president of sales, - and they managed the customer experience if I was trying to figure out what that person did - as a regional director at Travelzoo, - and I had no other options of who to reach out to. - My guess is that they're doing something with sales or merchant services, - because that's what they did before. - And often people are hired for rules that they have experiences. - No, - if I can't find anything on lengthen the next place I go to find a stakeholder is the - company website usually on the about us or the contact of the team section, - You confined specific people who you might be able to reach out to you. - Here's an example of a just on our team. - Photo off on intercom dot io, - a great little email company in New York. - And if I want to figure out who I should talk to you about product well, - it looks like Colin used to be the head of product at Challenge Post on Bond, - another company and John's. - Also engineering does engineering. - So I want to get in touch. - Somebody does product these air probably my guys. - And again, - I found this just by simply going on to you. - The company website. - Another excellent place to go is your personal network. - And let me show you how I lean on my personal network in an efficient way to figure out who - the appropriate stakeholder might be. - Again. - I go back to Lincoln Lengthen and I start off with the company search. - What I look for here is specifically whether somebody I know has a lot of connections to - that company. - Only then here's an example of what that looks like. - So I search the company Vista print. - And if you see in the top little thumbnail there under Dan John and firing my friend Chad - comes up. - No, - that signals to me that for whatever reason, - Siad has a relationship with Mr Print. - Maybe he worked there. - Maybe he's done a deal there. - Maybe he just is gaining somebody and ends up going to the happy hours and becoming friends - . - Everybody that works out. - Whatever it ISS, - bottom line is this is signal to me that maybe Chad might know the appropriate person to - talk to us. - Now. - When I identify the strategy, - the next step is the email, - that person. - And here's an email that I said to Chad when I was trying in touch. - Somebody at Mr Print him. - You go. - I'm trying to get connected with somebody at Vista. - Print was on the team that works on their website builder product to talk about integrating - single platform. - Do you have any insight into the right person or even department to talk to my thing? - It's a huge company in any direction. - Here would be awesome. - You know, - another news? - How summer been just a per personal anecdote? - Chad gets back to me a few minutes later. - Yes, - I worked on the product team and really good friends of the product manager and director of - online services group. - How you prefer in in droves. - It could be that simple, - and I just want to talk about some specific things and this email. - You wouldn't be mindful. - I was very specific. - Not only the fact that I wanted to get connected do this company, - but why I want to get connected this company, - because this person needs that. - You need to give this person that context for why reaching out so that they can potentially - direct you in the appropriate direction. - Notice how I didn't ask for an introduction right off the bat here. - I simply asked for who the right person or even department that I should be looking to - should be. - And the reason that I did this is there's It's just a lower friction asked, - and the lower friction asks. - Make somebody more likely to comply. - So it's just not just not as risky for Chad and tell me who the right department ISS or who - the right person is as it is for him to just go ahead and make an intro, - because I don't know the context. - At this point. - I don't know the context of charge relationship to that company, - so there's just a few things you want to keep in mind when you said this type of email and - you know this is how I tend to, - you know, - my personal network and identifying stakeholders for might list. - Now, - if you still can't find a stakeholder name, - a very simple thing you can do is just doing informational. - Cold call to your company is important to understand that this fees the goal of the call is - to simply find out who's in charge of the specific initiative that your relationship will - be focused on. - You're not trying. - Teoh. - Sell the person. - Pitch the person you're just trying to find out. - The name of that person is that you can, - ideally, - going through email and how to do this is just again usually linked in Make. - An educated guess who oversees the relevant initiative so that you have a name to call. - And then when you do that, - find the corporate number on the website, - have a script for an out and then call that try to get in touch. - That particular person and you think might be the decision maker is to verify whether they - are responsible for the particular thing you're interested in. - You're things again. - Do not do If you do an informational, - cold call strategy, - don't try to pitch the person on the spot because you're interrupting them and they're just - not prime to be receptive. - We'll go through how to broach. - If you do end up getting connected directly to Decision Maker very soon, - but you don't want to pitch them on. - You want to pitch him on the spot when you're just doing an informational cold call? - When did you get in touch with somebody at that company? - I realized that they probably get a lot of phone calls, - and most people approach phone call are cold calls as a monologue where they just do all - the talking. - You don't want to do this you want. - You want to try to engage them in dialogue as quickly as possible. - So that's why I think that you want to ask them a question very early on so that they stop - and realize that you're just looking for a little help. - You're not trying to sell them something. - And when you're when you take this kind of approach, - people are more receptive and more likely to give you the information that you're looking - for. - If you don't have anyone to call, - meaning you don't have this particular name to call, - and do I recommend just calling someone in sales? - These people are so happy that somebody is actually calling them versus them going outbound - that they'll just reveal any and everything. - I had plenty of success when I couldn't find any name to call, - didn't know necessarily the right department. - Just calling somebody in sales and just figuring out who I needed to talk to her, - even what department I need to focus on. - So let's go over a script here, - and I'm gonna basically just read this and full and then go through each section - individually and described the thinking here so high. - Scott Britain from X Company here was hoping maybe you could help me out. - Laws looking a connected person who manages the social media marketing at your company. - Any chance you know that being now at this point, - they're gonna try to either get off the phone and give you their information or respond to - you that they don't know who the right person is? - Let's let's just go ahead and say to give you the person's name. - Oh, - yeah, - that be Jim. - Great. - I just want to shoot them over some information about how he helped other companies like - yours do Whatever the great thing that you do is any chance you'd be able to provide me - their email address. - Thanks. - Well, - let's Let's go through this line by line and describe the method to my madness. - Okay, - first sentence. - That's Scott, - written from X Company here. - Notice how I don't say hi. - My name is generally Hi. - My name is is what Every single person who's cold calling says. - And what what happens is that creates a trigger for this person. - To I usually think of this is a This is a cold call and just turn off their brain. - I know when I get cold calls and I immediately recognize that I'm essentially in the - mindset of okay, - I'm not gonna think about this person saying anymore. - How can I just politely get off the phone as fast as possible so you can accomplish the - same exact thing where you're announcing yourself in giving the context of the company that - you're calling from just by saying your name and then the company that you're from now The - second sentence alludes to the point that I brought up earlier that you want to engage them - in a dialogue as fast as possible, - and you don't want it to be a monologue. - So the question I like to bring up is or imply rather is. - I was hoping maybe you could help me out, - and then I'll pause. - And the pause usually results in them. - A few seconds They were going. - Yeah, - sure. - Or Okay, - cool. - How can I help on now? - What you've done is you've created a dialogue because this person is now participating in - the conversation next part. - This is where you essentially want to just state exactly what you're looking for, - which is on understanding of who the state quarter is. - So a simple statement, - like looking to connect with the person who manages whatever the relevant initiative to - your partnership is any chance you know who, - that being that simple. - And at this point, - basically a few things might happen. - Um, - they might say, - Yeah, - sure, - that's whoever is. - And honestly, - that happens more frequently than you'd anticipate, - because people generally don't like to stay on the phone along with strangers. - So the easiest action strategy for them is to literally just give you the name. - Um, - And when they say that typically when they give you the yes, - Typically, - where I like to do is seeing myself a little bit of time in the future by asking them. - Just give me your email address right then and there. - And this way I'll know I'll have the correct one. - And I don't have to go through the process of finding this person's email address, - which we find out later so you can enhance the compliance rate of giving the email address - by offering up something valuable before you ask for it. - So one way to accomplish this is to say something like, - Great. - I just want to shoot them over some information on how we helped other companies like yours - grow their user base, - maximize engagement, - whatever, - whatever it is that your particular company does, - any chance you'd be able to crime in their email address if they can? - Great. - If they can't, - it doesn't matter because you've already got this person's name and you know the company. - You are L, - which will allow you to guess their email address later and just began. - Make sure that you give them incentives, - give the email address. - So shooting over information about how you helped similar people is valuable flat out. - Just asking for their email addresses on any context isn't necessarily going to result in - the same level of compliance. - What if they say no? - What if they say no? - I don't actually know who manages that. - What do you do that? - Well, - a simple thing you can do is just ask if there's someone who might know who the right - person would be. - Remember, - the gold this point is just getting the name. - And again, - I like to Sprinkle in the fact that I'm gonna be sending them information that's - potentially valuable. - Just the optimize, - the chance of them complying and giving me somebody who might know the right person. - Let's talk about another tactic that's worked really, - really well. - That's calling and asking for someone that used to be the stakeholder. - So how this typically unfolds is you find somebody on LinkedIn, - and it turns out that there it used to be the right person to talk to you, - but you can't find the person who replaced them. - So what I do in this situation, - it's basically asked for that person who I know used to be the right person. - Hey, - can I speak toe wherever that person's name is, - and you can expect them to say I'm sorry, - but they no longer work here, - and you fully know that that's probably what they're going to say. - Well, - I knew they used to manage the specific initiative that's relevant to you. - Any chance you know who their replacement? - This. - Let's talk about why this can be so effective because you're referencing somebody that used - to manage something, - and then you know that you're essentially signaling familiarity with the company. - Oh, - how did they know that this person used to manage this thing? - I guess they must have worked with us before. - This type of signal separates you from the people who are just carpet bombing and cold - calling blindly, - which means there's a higher likelihood that they'll give you the name of the right person - you need to talk to. - I actually sometimes even start out at very big companies. - Well, - you can just start out looking for the person who used to be the right person. - And you can do this on lengthen very simply by seeing all employees at the scene, - all employees of a company searching for your keyword and then highlighting the past - company facet, - which you'll see here and this isolates people that used to work at that particular company - that have that associative keyword in their profile, - and this is an excellent place again to find ex employees who might have been the right - person if the informational cold call doesn't work or you're not necessarily comfortable - doing that. - Another place that you can go to isolate and identify stakeholders is quotes from articles - and press releases. - Often when it articles published around certain initiative or the features the company key - stakeholders at the company will be quoted. - And how I like to identify these is just using Google and searching for things like the - likely stakeholders position, - plus the company name. - Press the press release an example that would be VP of business at single platform press - release. - You can also do simply the position and the company and the words said for identified - quotes, - or even just the initiative at the company, - because a lot of times will be reports that will feature that person's name. - And just so you make sure that you get relevant recent results, - what I like to do is phone use, - the Google search facet on the left hand side, - and the way didn't you populate the search? - Fashion is by first hitting news I'm making sure that you're searching using Google News - query and then within that you can isolate. - Okay, - I want within the past week Month. - Here are custom date range. - Whatever you want to be in this way, - you make sure that you're getting the VP of marketing or VP of is never whoever it is - that's currently working there, - not one that works there. - You know, - a year ago or two years ago, - whatever it may be much along the same lines. - It's not just with any articles itself that you can find the right people. - You need to talk too often. - If you go down and you look at the common section, - you can isolate and identify who the right person that you might need to talk to my being. - Because stakeholders, - if something is related within the article to their specific initiative, - they will often be charged with responding to that inquiry directly within the comments. - Feed just to kind of show you an example of that on core dot com, - uh, - which is again another which more or less thought of as a common section In some, - some ways, - somebody asks, - Is there 1/3 party library that provides access to read menus. - Well, - the top answer is one from myself. - And basically, - if somebody was trying to get in touch with with single platform and needed to figure out - who they should talk to you about getting menu data, - hopefully this answer would indicate to them that I would be somebody that could help them - . - So again, - Hora comments of articles, - both excellent places to identify who the right person might be. - No, - I don't like to do this, - but something you can do is use Twitter to find these people. - And I try to avoid this just because you're calling somebody out in a public forum and it - just is a little intrusive, - and it can makes it can turn people off. - And again, - the first impression is very important. - I have seen this work very well for small companies and startups, - especially those that really love social media. - In fact, - often this can be easier than email, - because for companies and Pacific people that I really just love social media more than the - now. - So a simple treat, - like whatever the company handle is, - Hey, - I'm trying to get in touch with the person who manages this. - I want to send them something on how to improve engagement, - how to Dr New User Sign ups, - how to grow in this particular channel. 9. Finding Anyone's Email Address: - Okay, - let's talk about how to find email addresses. - What you might be asking. - Why email first? - Well, - I always try to calibrate with my prospects. - Ideal communication media. - They're on email. - Then that's what they talked to their business contacts. - I had them up on email. - If they prefer the phone or aren't very computer savvy, - maybe I'll give him a call. - But the bottom line is you want it calibrate and interact with these people in the way that - they're used to interacting in this context. - And for the most part, - I find that business executives, - whether it's in the technology sphere or nutritional companies, - typically interact the email. - Another reason why I really like email is because it's just less obtrusive. - It's asynchronous, - which means they can get back to me on their own time and again it matches their preferred - method. - If I'm going in cold with somebody, - the last thing I want to do is, - during the first interaction, - interrupt their day while they're doing something important. - That's not to say that this can't be effective, - that there's times that called for this, - but if I could get them via email and in less intrusive way. - That is how I want to originally approach them to get a meeting. - The first tool that I used to guess email addresses is a Gmail plug in that can be found at - report of dot com. - It's, - it's called reported, - and basically what it does is it populates social profiles on the right hand side of Gmail - when you have the correct email address and, - essentially, - how you can leverage this in order to figure out people's email address is just guess. - Popular common emails in taxes. - So that could be their first initial last name. - Just the last name, - just their first name at the company to mean you get the picture. - But basically what you can do is plug in all of these different popular sin taxes. - And when you actually get a correct guess, - more often than not on the right hand side of your Gmail inbox, - you will start to see social profiles. - When you have the correct address, - let's go ahead and do a live demo demos. - You can see exactly what I'm talking about, - so here is a live view of reported in action again. - How you use this tool is is basically guessing popular email sin taxes within Gmail. - And if you have the correct one, - often a social profile will come up. - So let's just go ahead and try the my own email address at my company website, - which is lifelong learner dot com. - So if I was to gas, - let's just say Scott at life long learner dot com See this box up here on the right hand - side? - How has my twitter length in all this information? - This is an indication that this is the correct email address, - because basically what this does is it pulls from 1/3 party service called Rapley that - identifies what email addresses are associate ID with what social profiles online. - Now, - if I tried something like S. - Britain at lifelong wonder dot com see what happened? - Nothing here, - which is an indication that although that doesn't mean that this email address doesn't - exist, - it's we certainly can't feel very confident that it is the right one at this point. - So this is reported. - It's entirely free. - They're actually bought by lengthen, - and right now it is only available for Gmail users. - Now it's important to know that sometimes reported doesn't work even when you have the - correct email address. - Often there isn't publicly available data on the social profiles that are linked that email - address so you you need to. - Sometimes you rely on some other tools, - and the next stop that I usually go is male tester dot com. - Mel testers It just a free service that checks whether server has a particular email - address on it. - And again, - you can do the same thing where you guess popular sin taxes and see if they work just kind - of show you what this looks like. - ISS. - Basically, - you type into popular syntax. - You check the address. - And if it is the if that email address does exist on a server, - you will get eventually in all green box here. - That says email address is valid. - You have an incorrect guests, - and if there's no address on that server, - you're going to get this this red box of the bottom here. - What out says there's no email address that exists on the server. - Sometimes you're gonna get in a yellow box. - It basically says that there's something on the server which blocks you from determining - whether that email actually exists. - Another place Ugo is jigsaw dot com or data dot com. - They're both the same thing, - and our were purchased actually buy Salesforce not too long ago. - Essentially, - what jigsaw dot com is is just an open source contact database where anybody can contribute - the name and contact information of particular people at companies. - In exchange for contributing to the database, - they can get contact information for people that they're looking for. - You do get a few free credits for signing up, - and I will say that when you do get email addresses from this service, - always like to try to double check them with male tester reported. - Just to be sure, - because people because the data is self reported a 10 being accurate at times just to show - you what this looks like, - so you enter in the company you're looking for, - Then you can search by position, - department level. - And when you click on one of these contacts that you can purchase for points, - which you get by either literally paying money or adding new contacts, - the Davis you can get the phone number and email address for this person. - Pregnant little service. - That's definitely helped me in past another great free tool is e mails for corporations. - Essentially, - it's a Google site with some of the top, - I'd say top 500 corporations out there that just provides the email convention they used - for the mail address. - So you'll see right in the middle here that they have company the email convention, - email domain and just the main phone number. - So if you know you're going after, - like Fortune 100 Fortune 1000 companies, - these air ah, - 100% accurate and you could just go to this girl right here that you have on the screen, - which is also available in the resource is the length section. - Now. - Sometimes you have to go and get somebody's personal email address. - Or sometimes even it's impossible for you to get the corporate email address using all the - tools measure of up. - One creative way, - which I've used to find email addresses, - especially when I'm trying to find somebody's personally now is snap bird dot board, - and essentially, - what you can do is this tool searches somebody's Twitter history, - and very often people communicate on Twitter. - Whether email addresses in kind of a subtle way, - you know, - outright state their email address but will state the maybe the naming convention and then - the word at whatever company named dot com. - So just kind of show you an example. - My old handle. - Scott Brit. - We searched my timeline, - and the word that I searched for was Gmail. - You could imagine you can put the company name in there, - and basically what this does is it surfaces an instance in my Twitter history where I give - out my personal email. - So there's probably instances where your prospects either getting out their corporate email - . - Personal email. - If there are social socially savvy, - you can use contact them now. - I definitely don't recommend in the biz Dev. - Context at least hitting somebody on their personal email, - unless you absolutely have to always, - always, - always go corporate e now, - which again you can find on somebody's Twitter stream. - But there isn't since just for personal networking, - wherever where you might want somebody's personally melt. - And this is an excellent way to identify those that's often much harder to do than finding - the corporate email address. - Another great tool again, - free database is true for dot com to for is actually a service started by one of my buddies - . - Max, - who used to run Viet Attorney thing, - now has an awesome conference called the Sale Sacher Confidence, - and it's pretty much the same thing. - You search for a particular company or a person, - and it surfaces the correct email address that they're pulling from a variety of data - sources. - Pretty cool. - Few other tactics. - If none of these work, - you can call and ask again. - I've had a ton of success just doing informational cold call and asking for somebody what - their email addresses, - because I have to send them some important information for really small sites were. - Maybe it's a wonder three man operation, - and all you get on the site is just a contact form, - which he generally want to avoid. - By the way, - you can go to register dot com and actually do in reverse, - who is look up to see who purchased the domain. - So what you do is go to register dot com. - Then you're gonna click reverse who is? - Look up type in the actual domain, - and you can see if the Doreen is not protected. - The administrator's email address. - You purchase that site. - So, - for example, - bt playbook dot com the site, - which this course is hosted on, - or one of the places that toasted on you can see the administrative email is my personal - email right there pretty cool and, - you know, - interested enough. - I have gotten deals with very small operations who actually run powerful businesses by - using a reverse site who is look up to find out you know how to get in contact directly - with a person's email address. - They check not the contact form, - that they have a secretary or assistant check their tactics. - Uh, - you can search slight share. - Actually, - all of the text available on slide share is searchable, - and at the end of a slide show, - people often put their contact information. - So, - for example, - I just searched at lifelong learner dot com, - my my personal website and again, - you the reasons you search at life learning and not Commons because typically, - the at sign, - the only time they were going to see the at sign with the Domain is in an email address. - Syntax. - When I searched that one of my presentations that I gave on networking to the CTO school - showed up and when, - you know, - at the very end there is and email address to contact me pretty neat, - and you can get some really, - really high end contacts email addresses by leveraging this slide share trick, - and not a lot of people do it. - So definitely, - definitely gonna try. - Lastly, - Final Tactic is just grueling your best guess and hoping that there's a press release or - even just some generic docking it out there that has somebody's email address on it. - And you can you can use search modifiers emissions to the generic email convention you we - talked about earlier to try and accomplish this. - So if I wanted to go trying to find a PdF for a press release but somebody's email address - , - I could just search a popular email convention at the company name dot com with these - search modifier on their file type PF. - So it on Lee searches for PdF's documents that are hosted on websites which contain email - addresses. - Often, - some people say, - Well, - this seems like a paying to do all this. - Find an email address. - I found them on lengthen. - Can I just linked in This is, - um Well, - I actually very much try to avoid lengthen messages at all costs and I have actually - produced a video on Why do this? - Check it out if it's sky here, - coming to you from the kitchen. - Deeper tone. - So a lot of people when I teach skills, - are class and stuff? - Asked Scott. - How do you feel about linked in messages? - Here's how I feel. - 95% of people who reach out to me on lengthen are irrelevant. - They're recruiters, - random people from the Philippines or people trying to sell me stuff. - So when you reach out somebody on linked through a linked in message versus an email, - you essentially put yourself into those buckets off people right? - And that's literally the last place that I want to be. - So I personally, - never, - ever, - ever reach out to somebody on LinkedIn through linked Edinson email. - Unless I absolutely have to. - I mean, - I'll seriously hit somebody up on their pager before I go to linked at, - um, - and there's a 1,000,000 ways find people's email addresses. - I know somebody who wrote a post about it went quick, - So personally, - I don't think you should ever reach out to somebody through LinkedIn message unless you - absolutely have to. - And also like the communication mechanism, - like just is also a pain as well. - Like I have to log back in a LinkedIn, - communicate through there, - and then it goes through my email. - It's just confusing. - You want toe message people through the medium that they're most comfortable with and that - where they're valuable connections are already messaging them instead of putting yourself - in a bucket of people that ultimately is your own it. - So I thought, - say that Lincoln messages don't work. - I've certainly gotten partnerships through Lincoln Message as well as people reach out to - me that I responded to Lincoln Message. - The bottom line is, - is it is not the optimal communication channel. - It's much better to try to go through email or even phone, - um, - over linked. 10. The Initial Approach and Email Introductions: - Okay, - so let's talk about the initial approach and getting email introductions. - First, - let's establish where we're at. - At this point, - after getting the email addresses, - stakeholder names and companies that you want to potentially partner with, - you should have your hitless filled out and ready to go. - You should also know whether you're going to be taking the friendly company approach with - the unfriendly company approach out. - If we assume the ladder, - you have to bring some ordering to this big hitless that you just created. - I highly suggest that the best thing you could do is group or order 5 to 15 companies that - match that initial partner framework we talked about earlier. - Again, - the initial partner framework is about figuring out which company would make an ideal - partner or which 5 to 15 companies hitting the consideration. - The motion. - More important metric is this developments. - Trying to drive who your ideal customer or user is and what their intent is, - and then, - lastly, - whether this partner is a good fit culturally as well as from a priority standpoint in - terms of being a good first deal partner, - remember, - you don't want to start with the King Fish unless it happens, - being easy win. - And this is because first impressions are important and often times you only get one chance - . - So if you don't have the things like the case studies like social prove other partners, - it's just gonna be much hard. - It'll land and it's. - And if the meeting doesn't go well because you don't have these things, - it might be difficult to get further meetings in the future. - Let's take a look at how this looks in terms of selecting 5 to 15 companies on that big - hitless you just created that are going to be the initial ones that you reach out to. - What I honestly I like to do is just denote this because I'm old school and use a rule, - doc. - It's just to note this by color coding. - So right here these are the 1st 6 partners that I'm going to go after, - and the reason that I chose these is because being matched my initial partner framework the - best out of all the other ones, - and I think that the color works really well because it just keep it just brings a focus of - his hit list, - which can eventually be hundreds of potential partners on and a little overwhelming. - If you don't have something that's really kind of in your face top of mind about where - you're focusing is today. - So what's the best way to attack these initial targets? - In my experience, - it's getting an email introduction. - If you have a mutual connection with the stakeholder you're trying to reach, - always try to re lovers that relationship for an introduction or referral instead of going - cold. - And the reason is just because the personal context and being introduced from somebody you - know and trust just results in a higher response. - Ary people are more likely to want to meet with you more excited to meet with you when they - do, - and it generally just results in a much, - much higher response. - Saree in terms of getting meetings. - So how do you approach this? - How do you purchase getting email introductions? - For me, - the workflow looks like this. - First thing I do is that isolate the stakeholder on lengthen, - and then I see if there any warm second degree captions. - You don't know if they're warm from the get go. - But what you're really looking for initially is just the connections and whether they exist - . - So it looks like an example here is if I wanted to connect with Joe Dolan, - who I actually know. - But let's just say I did it looks like I have three friends here and 31 other people that - might be able to introduce me now Just because two people are connected on lengthen doesn't - necessarily mean there close. - There are tons of people that I'm capped with. - Lengthen that, - honestly, - I have no relationship with at all. - And for better or worse, - I just decided that to accept their connections. - So then the ideal situation you're looking for is the warmest mutual connection between - both of you. - So your next steps at this point are Do you isolate your connection that you have the - warmest relationship with and see if they have a warm relationship with the person that - you're trying to get in touch with? - And you can accomplish this by setting the following. - You know, - we're gonna read through this and this is called the request for introduction email, - and I'm gonna break it down and explain each sections. - You understand exactly why this is so important. - Let's just say about mutual connections. - Name is Peter and the stakeholders name is Joe. - From which bank? - Hey, - Peter. - I was looking to get introduced to Joe Dolan from Deutsche Bank and saw your connected him - . - I'm not sure how well you know it, - but if the relationship is strong, - I really appreciate insurer of a chat about ways my company can help him with generating - more revenue for science. - Please let me know if you feel comfortable making the introduction and I'll send over and - note with some work context you can simply afford to him to see if he's interested in - connecting. - Thanks. - Okay, - let's break this down. - The first sentence is pretty much just context. - Hey, - I was looking introduced this person from this company. - So that's why I'm reaching out to you. - And the reason that I'm asking you is because I saw that you were connected. - The next sections about gauging the strength of the relationship. - The last thing you want is for somebody who doesn't have a strong relationship making - introduction for you. - And people shouldn't do that anyways. - But the best, - most effective introductions are going to be from warm contacts. - So you want to make sure that this person has a warm relationship. - If they have warm relationship, - usually they're more likely to make the intro. - So to accomplish this understanding, - you can say something like this. - I'm not sure how well you know him, - but if the relationship is strong, - I really appreciate an introduction. - Now it's the next clauses about giving context that introduction, - because when people make an introduction, - essentially what they're doing is they're offering up the other person's time. - So you want to make sure that you're adding value because the connector will only want to - connect you if they perceive that there's going to be a mutual exchange value. - Otherwise, - they're just again offering up somebody else's time, - which, - you know isn't necessarily the best business practice if there's not gonna be Value - exchange. - So it's important to say something like you chat about ways my company can help with. - However, - you add value again. - You want to convey that this is gonna be a connection that's going to make the person who's - introducing you look good. - Okay, - last section, - please let me know if you'd feel comfortable making the introduction and they'll send over - a note with more context, - and you can simply ford him to see if he's interested in connecting. - This last section is about two things. - A making me ask and saying, - Please let me know if you feel comfortable making an introduction and being making is - easiest possible to see if the other side is interested in connecting. - Typically, - introduction should not be blind. - Both sides should indicate they want to connect before connection is made. - So what you want to do is just say, - I'm literally going to send you something that you can forward to that to see if they're - interested, - because somebody might look at this and say, - Oh, - great. - Now I have to conjure up a reason why this person would want to connect to this other - person that looks like work. - I am not gonna do it. - If you want to optimize the compliance of this person, - agreeing to see if the other person's it shouldn't connecting. - The best thing you can do is make. - It is easiest possible telling them that if the relationship is strong, - you haven't know that you can literally just send and taken forward so they don't have to - do any work. - So this is a proper way to ask for an email introduction, - and it's important that you do it this way because if you do it appropriately, - there's going to be, - ah, - higher likelihood that somebody is going to be willing to make the introduction for you. - In addition, - your business reputation is something that goes with you forever. - If you come office somebody that's not respectful, - people are going to be less likely to want to do business for you, - less likely to want to work with you in the future. - So it's always just important to use best practices when you ask people for things like - email introductions. - Let's look at a bad request for introduction, - and this is one that I got. - I guess it was March 4th. - Hey, - Scott, - I hope to see Male finds you well moving. - You could help me out. - Make a warm introduction to Blank. - I've been researching, - was hoping so and so might be able to guide me direct right direction. - Can you make me a warm introduction of Marcos that I could have a quick conversation? - So what's wrong with this? - Hey, - I hope this email finds you well. - It's just phrase you should never use an email. - This person emailed me on multiple email addresses so you could say it's to Scott to me. - So they hit me up across email addresses, - which is this kind of a little disrespectful on. - I'm hoping you can help me out and make a warm introduction. - So I don't know what difference between making an introduction and a warm introduction is. - I guess you want me to talk highly about them. - Generally, - I would just avoid asking is explicitly for a warm introduction. - They don't really tell me why That this why this is gonna be valuable to the party they're - looking to connect with all they said is they've been researching. - And I hope that I can guide them in the right direction and that if I'm asking again, - if I can make it so they can have a conversation, - I have no idea. - What you want to have a conversation about is that something is going to be additive to. - His business isn't something that he has no interest in. - Every single time you make an introduction on behalf of somebody else year putting your - business reputation on the line. - So this is why it's so critical to do things like provide context, - to ask in the right way. - Because, - quite frankly, - I have no idea whether this is gonna add value and make me look good to the this guy Marco - that he's looking to connect with. - So this is what you don't want to do when you're making a request for introduction. - And no, - I actually don't think I made this introduction, - Okay, - so let's get back to the good email introduction. - So if after the request for introduction, - if the person says, - Yeah, - you know, - I do have a strong relationship, - What happens next? - Well, - here's where you send a similar email to the person who's going to make the introduction, - but with a greater emphasis on why the stakeholders should want to connect to you. - It's essentially like a sales pitch, - right you wouldn't make it. - Is the opportunity to act with you seem as attractive as possible in order to give yourself - the best chance for this person. - Say yes. - So this is This is what that email looks like. - Hey, - person is making introduction. - I was hoping you might be able to introduce me to the stakeholder at the charter company. - I wanted to connect them because our analysts targets a similar demographic with limited - overlap. - Seeing is our products or non competitive. - I wanna touch basis. - See if there might be a way to ride mutual value to our respective audiences in a way that - helped each other go Arlys. - We did this with X Company in the past, - and both parties received a 15% lifting new subscribers. - Any help is much appreciated now. - The person who is receiving In Shirt and who is offered to make the introduction received - this email and simply Ford's it over to the person that you are trying to catch with and - which might say something like any interest here. - You chose a different street, - this email and the request for introduction. - You know, - it's this middle paragraph here which much more explicitly outlines why I want to connect - with this person and the value that they will get from connecting with me again. - It's almost like a sales pitch. - You wouldn't make it as attractive as possible. - And one thing that I did in this email to make it even more attractive to try to optimize - the compliance on the target side is reference. - Another partner. - Social Proof, - is a powerful force, - and nothing is more powerful, - powerful and attractive to perspective Parcher partners than verifiable results, - which you can replicate for them. - So after you send this email to your mutual connection, - this is what to expect will happen next one. - You'll either get introduction from the person who's catching you guys. - Do you receive an email from the connector that the other person can't connect? - Right now, - we're number three. - You won't hear anything back. - Let's go through each one of these situations and discuss the appropriate way to handle - them. - You end up getting an introduction. - It's really important that you're the 1st 1 to respond and that you do it promptly. - And the reason is that remember you with one that was asking for their time. - So you want to make sure that you seem appreciative for this favor and that you demonstrate - that connecting to them is important to you and again, - being prompt is an effective way to do this. - What happens if your mutual contact says that the other person can't well, - in this situation, - you want to make sure you understand why if the mutual contact doesn't explicitly state - this, - and when this person gets back to you and give you a why, - what you want to do, - is it possible try to disarm that? - Why? - So if they said you know what, - They're just not interested right now because they haven't seen a lot of return on their - social media. - That's a sitting. - You might reply to that with something like Able, - Do you know that our original partners thought that as well, - and then after work more unless they saw a 50% list in some 50% lift in subscribers after - putting a greater focus on social media? - So this is a good chance to try toe put a blue bottle in there to disarm the fact they - don't want to connect or if it's, - you know, - something that seems like there's just no chance off the connection you need anytime soon. - You want to move on, - so if you get this response, - why is it important to ask and or removal? - Well, - you want to ask because it allows you to get feedback, - and this feedback from your prospect might be indicative of how you could improve or - tighten up that four double intra request. - Remember, - that's like a sales pitch if it turns out that the reason that the person doesn't want to - want to connect is just because you haven't communicated and your value proposition effect - actively. - This is excellent feedback that can allow you to tailor this and improve it for future - partners. - Also, - the reason that you might want to move on is that your goal is just to spend time on - working on things that are likely to close or at least have a chance. - If something's a flat out now, - you're much better off just moving on, - looking for a partner that is excited about working with you or that you have a chance to - work with instead of wasting time on deals that aren't going anywhere. - What happens that you don't hear anything if you're contact you offered to make the - introduction, - never makes it or gets back to you, - it's important that you follow up with them to see what's going on. - Simple. - Hey, - I just want to see if Prospect ever got back to in this injury. - Thanks again for doing this is really, - really important because sometimes people forget and they actually wanted to make the - introduction. - Sometimes it turns out that the prospect give feedback. - They don't want to connect, - and they just forgot to get back to you again. - Just getting context here is going to get you to a resolution that's either going to a - hopefully get you that introduction, - or at least figure out why the introduction never had so again. - Always try to get an email introduction to open the door to a company if you can't and even - if you can't get introduced to the exact person you need to getting connected, - the someone at that company whose might even be in it it adjacent apartment is still a very - , - very excellent thing to do when trying to get your foot into the door. 11. Cold Emailing: - Hey, - everyone, - I hope you're enjoying the course up to this point right now. - Real quick. - Before we dive into the next module, - I want to go ahead and give you a quick heads up on something. - It's one thing that people always want to know is what particular tools are you using to be - more effective, - to get more deals done to be more efficient when practicing business development? - So I went ahead and created this Bt Insiders Kit that includes within their my tool kit of - tools that I use and just kind of show you what that looks like. - Just a ton of different things in here. - How I use them, - um, - and all types of things that are gonna make you more efficient and get more deals, - more meetings. - And so this is something that you want. - I updated regularly on my site, - which is lifelong learner. - So if you go ahead and go to a lifelong winner dot com backslash bt insiders, - you can get access to this kit that contains all my favorite tools and APS how I use them, - how I'm more productive with them. - Aziz. - Well, - a some other good free stuff so again, - that is lifelong learner dot com slash BD insiders, - and you can go ahead and get access to all that stuff. - Okay, - so let's talk cold emailing When do you use a cold email Onley. - When you can't get an introduction from a mutually warm connection, - do you want to use a court? - That's not to say that cold emails can't work frequently, - but it's just again always best to go in through warm introduction. - If you can do to the higher response Serie An additional context that that provides now, - before we go into very specific tactical ways to write effective cold emails, - I want to talk about what I think is the best mindset to take when writing these and I - really tried. - And I really think that the best thing you could do is try to emulate copyrighting. - And if you're not familiar with cooperating, - it's essentially people who focus on sequencing words in such a way that people take the - action that you want them to take. - So in this instance, - the action that what we want people to take is to reply to our email and hopefully agreed - to a meeting or follow up call or whatever it may be. - So the way that copywriters think when they're writing ad copy is that the goal of the - headline, - first and foremost, - should be to get somebody to read the next sentence. - Yes, - what the goal. - That next sentence is to read the sentence after that. - And I think the same framework should be applied when we're writing emails. - So the goal of the subject line is to get somebody's attention so that they open the email - up and read that first sentence. - And guess what? - After they read the first sentence, - The goal of that sense is getting to read the second sense and so on and so forth something - else that you should take any consideration when crafting your subject line is the - environment that you're competing it for. - A lot of these big time execs, - whether in the air in the marketing department, - that his death department, - whatever it may be, - these people are getting literally hundreds of emails a day, - and the people are getting emails from our probably from people that they already know. - So you're competing for their attention as somebody that they don't know. - With this growing body of colleagues that they already have. - Why this is important is that you cannot make it difficult for them to understand why - you're reaching out to them. - The harder it is for somebody to figure out why you're trying to get their attention, - the less likely they're going to respond. - And this is because generally people want to focus on what they know is important, - and generally they just opt for the path of least resistance. - So this is why I think it's a best practice to convey exactly why reaching out in the - subject line you don't want. - You don't want to make it seem like a lot of work for somebody to figure this out. - Okay, - so I know the goal off the subject line is to get somebody to open the email and read the - first sentence, - and I know that I should be incredibly direct, - so they know exactly why I'm reaching out. - But what specifically should you be focusing on? - Another excellent lesson that we can take from copyrighting is the focus on appealing to - individuals desire and this kind of treads the battle of future verse pain, - a huge mistake that I see a lot of people make is try to grab somebody's attention by - bringing up a future. - So a perfect example would be our new product automates syndication of your social media - properties. - Okay, - that's cool. - But why is that important to me? - It's important because it solves the pain of something taking a lot of time to dio or - potentially costing your company a lot of money because you have to have three people do - what one person could be doing with a tool that automates syndication, - sir. - Generally, - it's a best practice to always focus on the desire or the pain that it solves instead of - the future. - Another important principle that is borrowed from copyrighting is the notion of audience - awareness. - So how much is your audience that you're writing to know about your product and company? - If somebody knows everything about your product and it is basically deciding whether or not - they want to do a deal with your they want to buy buy from you, - you're going to communicate to them very differently than you communicate to somebody who's - not an early tech adopters or may never have heard of your product. - So you need to tailor your message to the perceived awareness of the audience you reaching - out to and a huge mistake. - Ice here is, - is just the lack of awareness about what vocabulary to use. - If I was talking to a small business and started using words like a P I, - they would have no idea what I was talking about. - Whoever to somebody like a product manager at Tech Company A p I is basically their native - language, - So it's important to make sure that your calibrating your message in vocabulary with the - education and awareness of the audience that you're writing job. - If you don't do this, - people are going to be less likely to respond. - So let's talk about some good subject line free marks, - one that I like in particular is just simply whatever value that you can drive with the - partnership for whatever part of the prospects business you're optimizing. - So this could be their website. - This could be their app. - This could be their customers experience. - This could be their revenue, - whatever it ISS. - So let's look at some examples dr additional comments on your site, - so the value add is your ability to help them drive additional engagement and we're going - to be doing that is on their site. - Another one could be generate more calls from your online listing, - so the value add is generating more calls and the places you're going to do that. - Is there online listings? - Now you'll see to bullet point titles, - subject line titles under here and what these are our what functionally this might look - like So menu concept for your site will. - Is the menu content the function literally? - The thing that I can add? - Or is it appealing to the desire or pain? - The desire of having additional content on the site is driving engagement, - getting additional users, - getting additional pages, - whatever. - But functionally, - the way to do that is menu content. - So personally. - Although both can work and I have seen both work, - I like to again appeal to the desire here. - So instead of saying menu content for your site, - I might say additional user actions on your dining pages or whatever it ISS. - The same goes for if the way that I was helping businesses generate more calls from their - online listings was displaying photos displaying photos is functionally how I would do this - But the actual desire that they want is from having the additional constant is more phone - calls, - their business or even more customers in the store. - If you want to get more specific, - another very similar framework that I liked and you could just read reposition it is just - the value that you add and your company need. - And this is this is good to use if somebody is somewhat familiar in the space. - So you could say if I was reaching out for From Discussed, - which is a comment platform, - and I saw a major block that was currently not using us. - Maybe they were just using WordPress comments. - I could just say Dr comments on your site discuss. - And again, - it's the value add than the company name that you're writing from and just to kind of show - you what functionally that might look like just to point out the difference. - Comment widget for your site. - Discuss I personally again. - I think if I'm looking at these two headlines right now, - I like the top one better because A it appeals to my desire and be It also is a little bit - more curious if I've decided in advance that I don't want a comment widget on my site that - I'm going to immediately discount this email. - However, - if somebody says Dr comments, - maybe that could be some type of picture optimization. - Maybe it could be a tool that I've never heard up, - so that might inspire somebody to open the email that might have otherwise never have done - that. - So let's look at some examples of what I consider to be bad subject lines that I've seen - frequently in the field. - Your help. - This does not appear to be driving value to the prospects life When they read this. - This is basically asking for something. - This this might even be insinuating that they need to do work, - which again people generally up for the path of least resistance. - So that doesn't make me want open that email at all. - Hey, - is non descriptive it. - I have no reason that I should open this. - Honestly, - it looks like it could be one of those spam emails that contains the virus. - Your company name. - This kind of goes back to audience awareness. - If somebody's maybe heard of your company and it's foaming at the mouth to work with you, - that could be interesting, - but just stating your company name doesn't really appeal to any desire. - Doesn't appeal that any pain you can help solve. - I have no idea why I should open this email. - It's all about you instead of about the prospect again A pending this too away. - What you can drive value might make sense. - But just by itself isn't really all that appealing opportunity. - This isn't descriptive enough. - I guess it might appeal to something. - But, - you know, - is this an opportunity for me to join it A pickup basketball league? - Or is this a way that you're going to help my business grow? - I don't know. - Quite frankly, - I have 50 other emails I have to get to, - so I'm just going to continue moving long When I see this getting together, - This basically is implying that somebody should give you their time before you've proven to - them that you're worth giving their time. - For I think that this is a common assumption that I that I see a lot is that people just - think that other people should give them their time before they proven their value and the - value that they could drive Ah, - and you never want to make this assumption. - It can actually really turn people off in acting again. - That's it's not really descriptive enough. - Um, - I don't know if this for personal networking. - I don't know if this is for something very specific that I'm looking for. - It just is very vague to me. - Which, - which means that I'm not gonna sign a high importance to it. - Touching base again. - Not descriptive enough. - I have no context here. - Why should I touch base with you? - This is some type of email that I often get from like, - recruiter. - So you're falling into a potential bucket there? - I not. - Not necessarily a strong subject line. - Do you have time this read? - This is a little more direct, - but again, - it's assuming that you've proven your value to somebody else. - And before anybody's gonna give me their time, - you need to convince them that you're gonna be able to drive value for the business. - So you don't want to assume that in the in the subject line like this, - this is just a little presumptive and can actually turn somebody off. - Okay, - so it's not to say that any of these subject lines can't work. - It's just that I think that you could do a whole lot better. - And this course is about giving you the best information, - not information that may or may not work. - What about questions? - Subject lines? - Does it ever make sense to ask a question in the subject line, - too? - Maybe inspired curiosity, - and you get somebody to open the email? - Well, - these can definitely work again because they inspire curiosity. - But if you do this, - you need to pay close attention to the words and what you're asking. - So a good example would be is driving more traffic of focus, - right? - This is a good example because it gets right to the point of wire reaching out. - If somebody is interested in driving more traffic to the website, - yes, - what? - They're going to read this email. - If somebody is not interested in that, - there probably aren't going to read the email. - But But if they're not interested in what you're having to offer, - then that's a good thing, - because you don't waste your time on somebody who isn't ever going to be a potential dealer - partnership. - Rio. - A bad subject line that uses your question Why don't you have this? - I bring this up because a subject line like this might get somebody to open the email, - but it just comes off. - As to Internet marketing and in the context of business development for start ups. - Internet marketing headlines just don't kind of give off the right vibe. - You're looking to establish a long term business relationship with somebody, - a relationship where both parties trust each other, - even a friendship in some instances, - and this kind of direct Internet marketing headline just kind of starts the relationship - off on the wrong foot. - So generally, - if you're going to use a question, - I think the best thing you can do is is be very specific so that people know exactly why - reaching out, - and if this is interesting to them, - there's a high likelihood of them responding. - Okay, - let's talk about the best way to address the prospects, - and this is the first thing that they're going to see after they open the email because you - just wrote an awesome subject line. - Generally, - I like to just say hi in their prospects First name, - or maybe even some cases. - Hey, - they seem really friendly in their picture on linked in or wherever I saw things that I - don't think our best practices Not having any former address or just going directly into a - sentence. - Hey, - have you seen this? - Hey, - I wanted to touch base. - This is not an email to an old time friend. - This isn't email somebody who has never met you. - So that's above casual air is not necessarily something that is appropriate at this point. - To whom this may concern or deer. - This is incredibly formal. - And people that use this type of language just don't come off is very familiar or fun or - like somebody that I'd want to, - particularly up on a phone call with. - So I generally just go pretty informal and just say Hey, - and the prospects first name, - the woman said, - Could I see all the time? - Is messing up the naming convention of the prospect? - A lot of times on linked in people state their proper full name instead of what their - friends and colleagues call them. - And again, - you want to come from a place of familiarity. - This is not attendance in first grade math class. - You want to convey in the address the name that the friends and colleagues called him. - So how can we make sure that we do this? - Well, - there's a ton of places online where you can find what somebody's proper naming convention - is. - Recommendations on a prospects linked in profile as well. - A social profiles that are publicly available, - like Twitter and Facebook and even their personal block, - which you can sometimes get by Googling somebody are all excellent places to figure out - which what's the name of their friends and colleagues? - Call them. - You can even use that tool reported, - uh, - reported dot com, - which was mentioned earlier and how to find email addresses. - Let me just show you what a linked in recommendation looks like. - Case you've never seen one is this is my friend. - Have a graph. - His formal name is probably on his birth certificate, - and nowhere else is Patrick. - But if I go down and look in the recommendation by a product designer at his previous - company, - OK, - Cupid, - you can see very evidently that people that know him well, - call him Pat. - So in this instance, - if I was writing pad a cold email and I saw this, - it would be much, - much better to say hi, - Pat instead of Hi, - Patrick, - Because again, - I want to come from a place of familiarity. - Let's go over some cold email rules of thumb. - Now that we've covered the subject line and the address, - this is going to be much more focused on the body content off the email number one. - Keep it short and sweet. - I say. - Cold emails are ideally three sentences for maximum. - If you write somebody a Bill Shakespeare novel, - it's just gonna look like a ton of work to read. - And why should somebody read an email that long, - or at least read it closely and attentively to somebody they don't know the shorter and - sweeter and impactful you could. - You could make it the higher likelihood that somebody is going to respond number to use - language and an approach that is conversational or as a matter of fact. - Well, - this advice might be a little unconventional, - so you you could be asking yourself right now. - Scott, - why should I use a conversational tone in an email that it's to somebody that I've never - even met before? - The first reason is the bucket theory. - Generally, - people put other people into buckets according to how they behave when it comes to cold - emails, - their most most people out there are sending emails that read Things like, - Hi, - my name is this and I do business at this and I'm looking to give you this. - And 99% of those emails, - at least in my experience, - don't provide any value to me. - So I don't want to write an email that comes off like that because I think that people will - immediately put me into a bucket of somebody that's not going to provide value to the life - again. - This is the same reason that I don't send linked in messages because primarily the length - in Mrs I get her from recruiters or people trying to sell me something better low value. - So you don't want to put yourself in the bucket of people that write bad emails. - Number two people do business with people they like. - If you sound like a fun and interesting guy in an email, - or or even just somebody that another person want to have a conversation with at a bar, - they're gonna be more likely to respond. - When I get an email from somebody who sounds extremely formal and strict and just really - boring. - That doesn't exactly incentivize me to want to hop on the phone. - Call this person. - And again, - it's another reason why conversational tone that a normal fun person would take is a good - strategy. - Number three. - You want to avoid signaling that you're running down hit list rigid, - impersonal emails that look like they're just straight out of a template. - Number three. - You want to avoid signaling that you're running down that list rigid, - impersonal emails that look like they're just straight out of a template. - Give off the impression that you are sitting there in front of a giant spread. - She just firing these off, - hoping people respond. - Compare this with a conversational personal email that just looks like you just happen to - find something that compelled you to send an email to another person. - It's a totally different feel, - and that conversational appeal is going to result in a higher likelihood of response than - somebody who just is firing off emails on a hit list, - spraying and praying, - hoping that one hits Let's sick looking, - an example of what I mean by conversational language. - Here's a good example. - John I noticed that whatever happened and I wanted to send you an email just to say Hey, - almost like to just think about like, - bar talk When I was if I was approaching a stranger at a bar and said, - Hi, - my name is so and so and I had did all of these cool things and I've raised money from this - company. - I went to this college and people like me. - I would be like, - Wow, - this person is a tool. - Why? - I don't want them to talk to me. - But if somebody came out to me and say, - Hey, - I just wanted to say I really like your shoes and I'm Scott. - I'd be a little bit more open to talking to that person who's just having a casual - conversation. - So this is that This is the type of feel that I like to go for in emails, - and I've had a tone of success with No, - a bad uh, - example off language is we've recently launched a transformative narrative platform. - I'm reaching out to present an opportunity that this is not casual conversation. - I do not want to hop on a phone call with the person who speaks this originally, - and quite frankly, - it's just really not that personal related to this briefly earlier, - but just a highlighted again. - You want to make sure that you and avoid Internet marketer speak throughout your emails. - It's just not appropriate in the BT context or you're trying to develop long term bonds of - people, - so things like one time limited offers exclusive, - time sensitive Windows free access. - Even if these things are true, - you want to avoid writing these things an initial cold emailed just because it comes off as - like somebody hawking something not necessarily like somebody I want to build a long term - relationship with. - Okay, - let's let's move on to the third cold email rule of thumb. - And it's pretty simple. - Spare the prospect. - The declaration. - So what I mean by this is Hi, - my name is Scott Britain, - and I do business development for single platform re raised $4 million from top venture - capitalists. - This is just a waste of a sentence because it's not relevant to the prospect and the value - that you're going to drive to them. - Anybody who has half a brain can see what company work for by the email address that you - email them from as well as your signature and what your position is. - So again, - the size of the email is critical because it can. - A pure like something is a lot of work to read versus a little work. - And if you spend 2 to 3 sentences declaring and announcing yourself, - it's just gonna make your email look longer and decrease the chance of somebody you - actually Regan. - So you know, - don't be a town crier and say you old My name is this and this is my job and we've done - these cool things. - This is such a common habit amongst cold emailing that I see, - and it just isn't not a good use of time. - We're gonna go over exactly what you should say and said very shortly. - But just think about this. - Is this as interesting somebody as talking immediately about the value that you could drive - my company? - No, - I don't really think so. - You want to find a unique way display that you've done your homework and that this isn't a - can email again coming from a hitless of 500 prospects? - One of my favorite ways to do this is to take advantage of hyperlinks. - So let's talk a little bit more about the hyperlink. - Hyperlinks allow you to do a couple things. - One. - It makes it easy for you to display that they have a problem you can solve. - So one of the things that I really like to do is say something like, - Hey, - I noticed that you guys currently aren't doing this and then hyperlink to that particular - instance on one of the properties, - whether it's a Web page of social media profile, - whatever it is that I can optimize, - make it easy for them to click and verify that they, - in fact, - do you have a problem. - The second thing that a hyperlink does is it signals that they're not just one of 500 can - emails, - even if they are the fact that you went out of your way to link to something and highlight - it shows that you're not just copying, - pasting and that this is an email that is, - you need to them if it's still seeing a little vague about how you should use hyperlinks. - I'm gonna be displaying my favorite way to do this in just a few minutes. - So just sit tight. - Okay. - Cool Derail Rule Thumb number five You mindful spacing? - Spacing your sentences out in an email just makes it easier read and appear less daunting. - When I see an email that has no spacing whatsoever and is six or seven sentences along, - it just feels like a pain to read. - Let's just compare to emails just to see what I'm talking about. - So here's an example of an email with nice spacing. - Its three cents is long and has a space between the sense. - This is the same exact email as the one before which one is harder to read, - Which one feels like it would just be more of a strain on you to read in full. - My bet is the 2nd 1 the one that we're looking at right now. - So for this reason, - you just want to remove all friction. - Do somebody actually reading the email and just, - you know, - a few proper line spaces is one way to accomplish this. - A little caveat here that hopefully most people are already practicing. - But if they're not, - I want to bring up Is that when you're sending business emails out, - you always want to use your company email address and include a signature. - It's just the professional thing to Dio. - No components of a signature can vary according to what you think is important your - business. - But generally I like to include your my name, - my title, - the company, - the phone number that I can be reached at both in the office and Mobile E. - And if you have any positive press, - that's always a good thing to include as well, - because somebody may have never heard of your company before. - And all of a sudden, - if they scroll down the city, - you're mentioned in places like Forbes, - Business Week, - the next Web TechCrunch. - Whatever it is, - it brings some legitimacy to the cold email. - So I've gotten this question about exclamation points and smiley faces and in person - workshops. - I've done so. - I thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention here. - Generally, - the use of exclamation and smiley faces should be calibrated with the context of email. - If you're cold, - email is coming on the heels of article and TechCrunch or some other publication that - shines an incredible light in the company. - It might make sense to use an exclamation point if you're just reaching out blindly just to - talk. - Try to get a meeting, - and there's no particular compelling event or something that happened. - And most emails conduce without exclamation points and smiling faces. - And if I do include one of these elements, - which I again usually don't I try to limit it to one per email. - And that's in the context of both cold emails. - Any emails where I already have reporter somebody smiley faces just a shine even more lead - in those because they can be a little bit more dangerous unless you have reports somebody - you generally want to avoid these. - And even when you do have report, - you should calibrate these with the demeanor and relationship of the person on the other - side. - You have a great friendly, - fun relationship with the person that you're emailing Smiley face away. - However, - if this person is really serious, - they might take the smiley face the wrong way, - so generally avoid and calibrate when it comes to smiley faces. - Okay, - so right now what I want to do is condense all of these cold email rule thumbs into my - favorite cold email formula, - and I call it the Bandage email, - and I've used this for literally hundreds, - if not thousands of emails and had just an incredible response rate. - So the formula goes as follows. - What you want to do at a high level is irritate the wound early and then provide the - bandage. - Let me express. - So the first sentence, - what's your trying to accomplish is basically to glaringly identify the thing which can be - optimized early on so that you get their attention after you've done this. - You want to follow this statement by introducing your solution or ability to resolve the - shortcoming. - Let's look at a very specific email just to kind of shed some more insight into what - exactly? - I mean. - Okay, - let's let's give this a read. - And I guess as just a, - uh, - some context here. - I'll give a specific example and use cookie retargeting software as the thing that I'm - trying to pitch. - But where I have solution in the brackets can be whatever your whatever your benefit is - that you're going for. - Okay. - Hi, - Prospect. - I noticed your site currently isn't running co getting retargeting software, - which typically increases conversions by 20%. - Implementing a retargeting solution is actually something that we help companies like yours - with all the time. - In fact, - it's something that we do for companies like X Y and Z competitors. - There's a day next week when you have 10 minutes. - I'd love to connect so that we can talk about getting this taken care for you. - Okay, - let's go ahead and dig into this. - So the first sentence is about irritating the wound again. - You want to get there attention and the goal of the first senses to get them to read the - second sentence. - So I noticed that your site currently isn't whatever thing that you can optimize. - You want to point it out and make it very easy for them to verify this by using a hyperlink - . - And then you want to give them a reason why it's important that that their site has to have - that thing. - So here, - I said, - which typically increases conversions by 20%. - It doesn't have to be, - although it's more powerful when the there is some type of quantitative measure in here, - like increasing divergence by 20% you could say something like which typically drives - engagement or which simply results in enhanced the user experience. - Whatever it ISS, - you want to give them a reason there. - Okay, - percent. - So that's the wound. - You've irritated it. - You've got their attention. - Now it's time to introduce the solution. - The second block of text does two things. - First, - it lets them know that you can provide the bandage to this wound that you just brought up. - So saying implementing this is actually something that we help with companies like yours - all the time is essentially that. - Next thing you want to do if you if you can, - is basically point to some social proof. - So, - in fact, - it's what we do for companies like X, - Y and Z, - all of a sudden might raise an eyebrow and say, - Oh, - wow, - these other people are doing this. - I guess this really is the best practice that I should take into consideration. - Now, - after you've done this, - your chain, - the wound offered up the solution and the fact that you can help them with it. - Now it's time to basically ask for some time. - And I like to do this and originally in a very casual way, - there's a day next week when you have 10 minutes. - I love to connect so we can talk about getting this taken care of for you. - I love using the freeze, - getting this taking care of because it's totally congruent with the rest of this email, - right? - It makes it appear like this is an obvious thing that other people are doing, - and you need to get this taken care of because the best practice this is a very subtle - nuance but very, - very powerful thing to communicate, - because when somebody feels like they're just not implementing an obvious best practice, - there's a sense of urgency there that often is harder to communicate when you're just flat - all asking for somebody's time. - So let's go ahead and look at a an example of when I do this and the positive results, - because I believe in being open and transparent at all levels of business, - especially when it helps other people learn. - So I said this email to a big time perspective partner that I wanted to do an A p I - integration with so that they would take our menu content. - First part. - Let's let's go ahead and see how your change the one Hi Andrew. - I want to touch base. - They noticed there's no menu content for your restaurant listings. - Without this content, - you're missing out on it. - Additional pages engagement in S E o benefits. - You're also missing out on itemize search, - which I thought you might be interested in. - It is something we power in the Wiping Mobile app and Soon Avatar, - which are both competitors. - Some example. - Implementations with our free P. - I could be seen here by clicking the menu, - New York Times four Square City Seeker Love to connect with your the person appropriate - person. - When you have a few minutes, - Andrew gets back to me. - Definitely interesting having a discussion. - Let me introduce you to Evan, - who is the member of my team, - focused on whatever their initiative is driving on site engagement and, - ah, - the connection is made. - So let's just break this down quick. - Um, - the 1st 2 paragraphs and I kind of didn't take my own medicine here and that it is a little - bit long, - but it worked. - And the reason I think it worked is because very first thing I started with was irritating - the wound. - So I noticed there's no menu content without this content. - You're missing this. - These other people who you're competing with have it. - Then after that, - I introduced the solution. - This is something that we actually power for these people. - And you can actually see exactly what this looks like here, - here, - in here. - If you have time, - no pressure, - because again, - I'm after a long term. - Isn't development relationship ID love the connector, - the you or the appropriate person when you have a few minutes after this email? - I got connected with Evan and the rest of the right people at this company and eventually - re ended up doing an awesome deal with them. - But it all started out with just writing one simple, - effective email, - which just kind of shows you the power that understanding how to cold email effectively can - have. - There's a lot of people out there that say that the best practice for finishing an email is - a direct called action, - and you'll notice it and the bandage email formula. - I actually didn't do this. - I finished email by saying, - If there's a day next week, - when you have 10 minutes, - I loved it, - connects. - You can talk about getting this taken care for you If you compare this to a direct call. - The action maybe something like, - Do you have 10 minutes next week to discuss? - It's a little different. - Interestingly enough, - I just wanted to highlight that I've actually tested with both of these and didn't notice a - statistically significant difference in either direction in terms of response rate. - So if you feel strongly about the direct call to action while means go for it, - I just wanted to highlight in my personal experience, - I found that by the time that people have already gotten to the last sentence of your email - , - they've made a decision whether they're going to respond to you or not. - Which is why I think the 1st 2nd 3rd subject line of the most important things. - Uh, - so that's my personal opinion. - But if you insist on doing a direct called action, - by all means, - you go ahead. - I don't think there's any harm that can be done there. - What a real quick talk about another cold email formula. - I've seen work, - and I actually I got this from a guy by the name of Brian Cruz Berger, - who has a site called Breakthrough email. - Basically, - what he does is try to leverage the internal pressure to respond by emailing multiple - people. - So essentially the structure of this email is that you can pick 3 to 4 people who are - likely related to a particular decision or initiative that you're trying to push through - and essentially email them all these same email just switching out the names indicating - that you're interested in connecting with them about a particular initiative. - This way, - the email doesn't get put by the wayside, - and one of them internally feels necessary to respond to the email. - So an example would be, - Hey, - John, - I'm reading it. - Connect the person who manages whatever the initiative you're supposed to you're looking to - connect with in this percent pursuit. - I've also written to Steve another contact and contact three. - Here you go into why you want to connect them. - I want to connect about how my company blank can help improve whatever value drive with our - solution. - This is something something we're currently accomplishing with social proof, - one social proof to and social Booth three. - Do you have some time early? - Next reaches, - guys. - No, - you take this email and all you do is switch the name. - So here you see, - I've switched Steve and John and send this exact email to 3 to 4 people. - And the hope is that collectively, - these people realize that you're trying to connect them about a certain thing, - and somebody feels the pressure internally to respond. - Now one thing that this email does which I think is great, - is it acknowledges the fact that you're emailing multiple people and it says, - But it's does that by saying in this pursuit I've also written to this person, - this person in this person because honestly, - one of the last things you want to do is cold email and carpet bomb a bunch of people - without indicating that that's something you're doing. - It just looks bad. - It looks like you're mis informed. - And honestly, - it looks pani. - So if you're going to email multiple people at a company, - make sure to acknowledge that and save just B, - C, - C or C seeing multiple people, - or even just just doing a bunch of separate two emails, - you're gonna email multiple people of the same company at the same time. - You want to let them know because they're all going to talk to each other and it just comes - off like you're spraying and brain. - Okay, - let's talk about another strategy that can work amazingly well for getting responses for - cold emails. - And what I would call this is just creating an internal referral for yourself. - The idea here is to basically call above someone. - So call someone's boss and then get that person's boss to indicate that you should talk to - the person that you're trying to reach. - And that person's again the initial stakeholder on your hit list. - And the reason that you want to do this is because when somebody's boss says that they - should talk to you, - that all of a sudden provides a sense of urgency around the cold email that you wouldn't - have gotten before, - which optimizes the likelihood that somebody is going to respond to you. - So let's talk about how to actually accomplish this. - Step one go on, - linked in and figure out who the initial stakeholders bosses. - So, - for example, - if you're trying to reach the director of marketing, - their boss would likely be the VP of marketing and a great place to find this information. - Is that section on the right hand side when you're viewing your stakeholders profile called - Peop 12. Converting Emails to Meetings: - Okay, - so we just talked about sending out the initial cold emails and how to do that effectively - . - Let's talk about converting those e mails and the subsequent dialogue to meetings. - Once you send out a cold email, - there's a few things that might have number one the respond positively, - asking for a meeting. - Number two will respond, - asking you to send more information. - Three. - They won't respond, - and four will just flat out say they're not interested. - Let's talk about some effective ways to handle each one of these scenarios. - If they respond immediately positively, - your job is to basically convert that to a meeting as fast as possible. - Let's say they indicate a day and time that works for them. - The next thing that you do is ask them the best number reaching that and indicate that - you'll be sending a calendar invite. - Once you have this, - here's a simple response to 90 million could use great. - What's the best number to reach you at during that time? - Once I have this, - I'll send you a calendar invite. - Looking forward Now, - this is the simplest, - most ideal scenario After Sameer Cold email, - let's look at a few more what happens if they don't propose a time and they don't propose - the time it's on you to throw a couple times out there. - I generally like to try two days and three times, - and the reason that this is that you want to give them options, - but you don't want it to be incredibly ambiguous because that's just thinking and work that - they don't want to dio. - Additionally, - you can also indicate your openness to another, - more convenient time. - If the two days and three times that you threw out didn't work, - here's an example. - Email response that Miers What I just described Great how this Tuesday from true to 4 p.m. - U S Eastern standard time work were Wednesday at 44 30 PM Work for you. - There's another time more convenient for you, - Let me know. - Also, - let me know the best number to reach you at so I can include it in the counter, - looking for pretty straightforward there. - What happens if they respond? - Asked me to send more information. - This is very important to pay attention closely. - When they say this, - you never should send them an information packet or deck. - If somebody really matters. - And the reason is is because when you do this, - you're letting your ability to pitch your relationship in the hands of just a static pdf - doc, - which is never going to be a good as you on the phone or in person who can dynamically - handover bottle. - You could build a relationship. - You do all the things that make pinch successful, - so typically there were email response from them. - Will look something like you mind sending over some more information before call so they're - trying to get more out of you before committing their time. - I think the aspirin bottle finesses something along the lines of this email right here. - Hi a target. - Our product does X, - y and Z and his best demonstrated live. - More importantly, - for us to really see if there's a fit here, - I'd like to understand your current situation better. - Oh, - things shouldn't take much shine. - Do you have 10 minutes to hop on a call over the next few days? - Let's just briefly go through this email real quick, - so the first ends is just about providing a little bit more context. - So our product does these things. - This is why I should be interested, - and it's best demonstrated life. - So I'm here again. - I'm pushing an imp rhyming for that phone call instead of an email dialogue that eventually - said that eventually sent a pdf. - More importantly, - for us to really see if there's a fit here, - I'd like to understand your current situation better. - Who thinks shouldn't take much. - So again, - this is This is trying to indicate to them that this is an important call that you care - about them. - But you want to make sure that this is all about them and adding value. - And it's not about you just pitching or hawking the relationship that you're trying to - implement. - Um, - and again, - I always try to stress how this isn't gonna take time. - Both things shouldn't take much time. - Do you have 10 minutes top on a call in the next few days? - So here you're asking again in 10 minutes is a magic number because everybody has 10 - minutes there, - it might recall truthfully call might take 20 minutes in my take 30 minutes, - or it might take 10 minutes, - but 10 minutes just seems far less daunting than a 30 minute call or a call even longer - than that was just less friction with 10 minutes. - Other key element of this email I wanted to call to your attention is the fact that I gave - them limited information. - If you recall, - I simply said, - our product does X, - Y and Z whatever the functionality is and is best demonstrated by, - I didn't bring up people that were already work with. - I didn't bring up how much it costs. - I didn't bring up ease of implementation. - All of these things of the years just to give, - as least in amount of information is possible. - That still entices them to want to do more. - Because again, - your best chance of getting them to want to do a partnership with you getting them excited - whatever it is is done through a phone call or an in person meeting, - where you can really calibrate with what's important to them. - So just when you send these type of emails, - it is important to give them a reason to want to have a meeting with you. - But you don't want to get way too much information that forces them to make a decision, - for you have a chance to pitch them Okay, - let's get back to number three. - What do you do if somebody doesn't respond to your email? - Quite simply, - follow up. - It's important to understand that them not responding doesn't mean that they're not - interested. - Let's go over some reasons why people don't respond to eliminate this belief. - One they meant to respond, - and they just forgot. - Two. - It might have gotten lost in their in box. - Maybe they just had too many emails. - And forever reason didn't seem urgent. - They didn't read your proposition thoroughly the first time, - thus didn't realize the value. - These are all examples of reasons why people just don't respond to things that they could - be very much interested in, - which is why it's so important for you to make sure to follow up. - Let's talk about the best way to follow up where what you follow up, - it's all about removing all friction for them to reply to you. - And the easiest way to do this is replying to the original email so they don't have to go - back digging for context. - So what I do is find the first even let you send just click reply, - which should address it to the prospect again and say something simple like this. - I just want to follow up on my email below regarding helping you increase whatever your - values value at IHS, - Is this something you ever considered? - The reason that we do this instead of sending an entirely new email is because you don't - want them to have to go digging through their in box to get the additional context for wire - reaching out. - Why did you get on the phone with you? - When I reply with just a few sentences, - I can point to the contacts. - They have it right then and there, - and it's also increased the odds that they will read it just because it's two sentences - again. - Remember, - people don't want to do a ton of work when they perceive some things. - A lot of work well, - just skim over it. - They won't They won't even read it. - So I know that they will read two sentences. - Hopefully, - or at least there's a higher likelihood that they will. - And if I can get them interested by saying the value add directly in that first sentence, - my hope is that they'll read the email below that on this. - This this is work really, - really great for me. - So let's go ahead and do a live demo of how to do this properly. - Just so you know exactly what I'm talking about. - Okay, - so here we are. - And we're gonna go through a live example of the proper way to follow up. - So this is just a cold email that I constructed for myself. - And it just says, - Awesome. - Plug in for bt playbook dot com. - And I'm just gonna fire this away. - Teoh, - my lifelong learner email address. - So it's in that. - Lawson, - let's say if you let's just say a few days have passed. - I haven't heard anything back from Scott. - How? - What does he probably follow up? - You're gonna find any melon. - You're sent in box. - You're going to reply to that original email and just say something like, - Hi, - Scott, - I just wanted to see if you got my email. - I just want to see if you if there was any interest in my email below regarding the - membership sigh point in that guarantees only the people that have invested in BT playbook - dot com see the premium motor? - Do you have five? - 10 has got 10 minutes this week. - Discuss this. - That's right, - Scott. - Well said. - Then let's let's look how easy and seamless is this. - This is for the prospects, - which is myself on the other side. - Okay, - so here we are. - So here's the email that I just sent and you can see how it is pretty easy to read. - I mean, - it's two sentences and this person wants any more context. - All they have to do is simply click above, - which gives them a little bit more information about why they want to potentially connected - me. - This is a whole lot easier than asking somebody to go back to their inbox gig for the other - email. - Read that. - Go back. - Read this again. - This this is all in one place, - which is again as much more frictionless than sending two separate emails. - Okay, - so you might have be looking at that process and be thinking to yourself, - or that seems like a pain to go back into my sent inbox and identify that email a couple of - days after of Senate and they haven't responded Well, - I actually use a couple of tools to just automate the process of having to remember to - follow up and my two favorites are boomerang for Gmail and follow up, - not CC. - And basically, - what these tools like to do is immediately upon sending the email, - you can set a follow up reminder to yourself that prompts you to remember to follow up. - If you haven't heard back from these people right now, - I'm going to go through a live example of how I use boom bring to do this. - And it works amazingly for just always private me to remember that I need to follow up with - somebody. - Okay, - so we're back in my inbox. - Let's talk about how we can use boom oring to follow up S O. - This is the same exact email that I copy and pasted that I just sent, - and I'm going to just send it again. - So I click send here, - and immediately after I send it, - I click view message on the top of Gmail and I click this tab right here, - which is boomerang. - And I say, - If nobody responds to me, - I want this to be paying back to me and let's just say four days it's a boomerang is gonna - do its work. - And what will happen is is that in four days I will just receive that message back in my - inbox. - Aziz, - Anabel serve as a trigger to remind myself to follow up with that person. - If I haven't heard back from them, - let's just go ahead and see, - like an example of a glimmering message. - So here's a message that I boomer into myself for a bare copper. - Here's the awesome blogger basically sent out the fact that he's going to do a live - workshop. - So what I did was when I saw this. - Wow, - this looks interesting, - but I can't process this right now. - So a quick boomerang. - I had this come back to me Ah, - week later. - And as you can see, - three days ago, - this exact message came back to me and that served as a trigger reminder that I wanted to - watch this. - So I highly recommend boomerang and follow up, - not C. - C, - which you can also check out at just follow up, - not CC. - And these were both just excellent ways to automate the process of having to remember to - follow up with somebody immediately after sending. - You know, - one common question that people have is how long after sending initial cold email. - Do I wait to follow up? - I try to aim for somewhere between three and seven days. - Never wanna wait any longer than a week, - and I try to get him at least three days to respond. - Now, - is there much of a difference between three and five days? - I personally believe that what matters more is the body content of the email and the fact - that that's compelling value proposition for them to want to get back to you. - So I think that within 3 to 7 days you should be fine. - What happens if even when you follow up that second time, - they still don't get back to you? - Well, - if they don't get back to you after the 1st 1 answer, - follow up. - I then tried going for a cold call and what review all about cold calling very shortly in - the next section. - But changing the comedian communication mechanism at that point is definitely a best - practice that works. - Okay, - so whenever we just went over, - what happens if they don't respond? - Let's talk about how to handle if somebody just flat out says that they're not interested, - importantly, - understand here is that you need in order to properly disarm a prospect who says they're - not interested, - you need to understand why they're not interested and when you understand why is when you - can turn and no injury. - Yes, - let's go through some common reasons that people aren't interested 1st 1 that I see a lot - is is I'm not interested because I'm using the competitors software and they think that - your software or your relationship or integration does the same thing. - Let's talk about how to overcome this, - and this typically takes the form of a thanks, - but we're already using X software are already working with Y For this, - My favorite strategy to handle the situation is to position your offering as complementary - to their existing solution were uniquely different, - which, - ideally, - it should be. - Every single persons company software relationship is a little bit different, - so I I think that it's totally, - totally, - totally ethical. - Do you think this way? - And this is this. - This positioning your software from the same thing to something that's complementary - uniquely different is what I like to call reframing. - So let's give just a great example of a complimentary reframe that I saw, - I saw probably about where, - a couple months ago that I just thought was an excellent excellent example of this done - very well. - Okay, - so we're looking at an email from a sales rep named Josh, - too, - a prospect named Matt, - who's basically once talked to him about marketing automation software. - So Josh says, - hi, - that I'm sending you a quick note following up on a couple of attempts to reconnect you. - I'd love the opportunity to speak with you about your marketing automation initiatives. - Mac. - It's back to Josh. - Thanks, - Josh, - for a long time hump spot customer. - And while not a proper and the solution, - it works really well for us. - How recorder and best man. - Here comes the refrain from Josh. - Thanks to response, - man it. - If you're shouldn't take a look at our solution, - let me. - Now we're starting to see more companies using hot spot for their inbound efforts and a - true marketing automation tool for their outbound. - Okay, - so you see what happened here when Matt originally got back to Josh, - He basically said, - Thank you so much for reaching out. - But we are using this, - and I perceive that your software does the same exact thing. - This can be your software. - This could be your beauty relationship, - your data and your FBI. - Whatever it ISS. - What Josh does here is basically saying, - acknowledge the fact that that's great, - that you're using that. - But we're actually seeing companies use our software in tandem with the incumbent because - they're complementary and in this sense, - there complimentary for outbound efforts, - not just invalid efforts. - What? - Which is what the incumbent solution does. - So did this email actually work? - I'm not sure, - but not thought it was so good that he decided to post it on his block at blogged dot - bridge Group Inc dot com, - which just kind of goes to show you that the reframe can be incredibly powerful and again - work. - Let's talk about just some high level thoughts about what you should be thinking about when - you do a reframe for your own efforts. - First thing you wanna dio is acknowledged the existing player in the value they bring. - So something as simple as it's great that you use this actually, - a lot of our partners existing partner Hughes. - This is well or it's great that you value marketing automation, - acknowledge that the existing player exists Number two, - then after that point is when you transition your product in a new light. - So you want to change the perspective from the prospect. - Thinking that your solutions do the same thing to your solution brings something unique - that is slightly different and potentially even complimentary to the tool integration, - whatever it may be that there already engaged, - here's an exact template that you can use just to crystallize what we just described. - I'm gonna read it and then go through each section individually. - That's great that you guys see the value and whatever your initiative optimizes and are - using incumbent software integration. - Whatever it ISS. - One important component of getting the highest return on investment on this initiative is - making sure to whatever your products unique ability does. - Now, - if you have some type of article or somebody else saying this, - that can really pack a punch here. - So I say something like, - Here's an article describing the benefits that you might find interesting. - Currently again, - highlighting unique ability that your pride does is something that our product focus on - which your current software does not. - Let's go through this step one acknowledged that the fact that you think it's great that - they see the value and whatever your particular software partnership relationship optimizes - and highlight the fact that you're aware they're using this software. - Yes, - I could have this email is about transitioning to shedding the importance of your product - and how it does something unique which their current product does not. - So I like to set this up by highlighting first the benefit of the unique value that the - product brings. - So I do this year by saying one important component of getting the highest return on - investment on marketing, - automation, - social media, - marketing, - whatever it is is to make sure that you're doing X. - And whatever you put here is gonna be what the unique thing that your product does, - which see current incumbent does not. - And again, - if you can point to an outside party that talks about why this is important, - this statement just packs a whole lot more punch after you set up the primer that it is - important and that this is why it's beneficial to make sure you're paying attention. - This you then introduce your product in such a way that says this is something that our - product focuses on. - What your current software. - I'm not sure that it does, - which makes us unique. - And that's the unique ability reframe. - So you can use this script as basically a way to plug and play and disarm competitors when - they say that right now, - we're already working with this other person. - Okay, - Back to reasons people say that they are interested. - Number two. - They don't have the budget or resource is. - So if they're buying something literally, - I don't have the money for this. - If it's a software integration, - maybe even just that something as simple as an email this well, - we don't have the manpower to make this relationship possible. - Yes, - what this rebuttal might actually be a good thing, - and the reason is you don't want to spend your time on partners and prospects that will - never close because they don't have the resource is for what you're selling or proposing, - And this is especially case if there's an abundance of other people that you could be - working with, - you want to focus on relationships that have the potential to go somewhere, - not dead ends that are just going to suck up a lot of your time and energy. - Now, - if this prospect that says they don't have the relate they don't have, - the resource is right now is absolutely crucial to your business. - The best thing you can do is acknowledge that you understand the situation but still - demonstrates them the value that's available and do this by pushing to hop on a call. - Here's a script that you can use. - Thanks. - I appreciate your transparency and totally understand. - Even though you currently don't have, - the resource is, - I'd still love to show you the product. - So you're aware of what's available when the time is better. - Do you have 10 minutes next week? - Quickly with you. - If you can convince the prospect to help on a meeting with you sending this type of email, - it does a few things. - Even if they don't have the budget or constraint one. - It gives you the chance to turn them. - A lot of times, - people just say they don't have the budget or resource is to do something just as a way - thio of wood confrontation and saying a flat out no. - So this is actually gives you a chance to turn them it truly don't have the budget of - resource is this just makes you top of mind for those instances when they might actually - evil to work with you. - So there's no real downside to saying this type of email. - And actually, - in many instances people will commit that 10 minutes just to learn a little bit more about - your product. - If these people don't want top on a phone call with you, - there's still another thing you can dio. - You ask if it's okay to occasionally keep them in the loop with new product features and - enhancement. - And what this does is it gives getting their consent, - gives you permission to continuously warm them and email them every couple weeks, - months, - whatever it ISS, - uh, - you otherwise might just come off a spammy if you didn't get the permission. - So this is just a gradual process that can eventually get U meaning if you're just - constantly delivering value to them by saying them an email every couple months and you - want to make sure to get the permission because if someone just starts emailing every - couple weeks, - and I didn't say they could it seems, - it seems off, - putting its like they're spamming me. - Why? - Why are you telling me? - However, - if somebody does this and I explicitly said this was okay, - all of a sudden I have no one else to blame but myself. - So this is just always the best practice to you. - If you're going to do this, - ask for permission or consent. - Here's the script that you can use called to keep them warm Ship. - I can totally understand that you don't have. - The budget of resource is right now we're constantly releasing new enhancements to the - product. - Is it okay if I periodically send you an email just to make sure you're in the know about - important new features as they become available? - Thanks again from transparency. - At this point, - very few people are going to say no, - don't email me. - I don't want to ever hear from you again. - A lot of people saying, - Yeah, - sure keep me in the loop because that's just the easiest way to respond in this email. - And once you have their consent is, - you know, - put him on. - Put set a reminder for yourself. - Every month you send this person email or what amount of less of people that you're going - to email when your company does release new enhancements that they might be interested in - the third reason that people aren't interested and may reply that they don't want help on - phone call you, - you don't see the value or it's not a priority right now. - It's not really How do you know this degree? - This wolf take the form of a short email like this? - Thanks, - but right now we're not focused on whatever your initiative. - This if you haven't already, - Here's where you can lever social proof or proven results. - Proven results are the strongest force in training and no into a yes. - So if you didn't include that in the initial outreach email, - here's where you can take that. - Our out of your quiver example of how to do this. - Thanks for getting back to me. - I really appreciate the canned response and totally agree with the importance of focus when - they're seemingly a 1,000,000 things you've been doing to move the needle. - I wanted to point out that we just finished a partnership with a reference herbal - competitors or someone else in the market that results it in. - It's a 15% increase in traffic. - So whatever quantifiable thing you could bring up, - this is where you insert that. - If you're interested, - I can send over the one page case study. - Interestingly enough, - this wasn't a focus for them either, - when we initially broke the relationship. - So this email accomplishes a lot of things. - Let's start from the top. - And here's where you acknowledge the fact that you understand where they're coming from and - that it's OK to feel that way. - I'm not gonna read this again, - but that's basically what this accomplishes here's reintroduced the reference Herbal Social - proof and or results. - I want to point out that we just finished a partnership with whoever somebody that you can - references that resulted in this awesome thing. - So, - no, - this is just about putting a little bit in front of them. - No, - I understand that we actually can give you these awesome results, - and other people are doing it, - so it might be a good idea. - And from here you're basically broaching on turning this. - No, - not interested into a potential Yes, - So I like to offer to send over one page case study if I had, - and this just reaffirms the results and gives them a way to verify the results again. - You should always be trying to create case studies that demonstrate that you drive value - for people and do it in such a way. - That's very specific. - So the quantifiable numbers are awesome for that. - And then I like to finish finish up with last sentence. - They kind of alludes to the fact that it's okay to change their mind and it's okay because - other people on it. - So this wasn't a focus for them, - either. - When we brought to the relationship just kind of demonstrates the fact that other people - felt this way. - They change their mind, - and they got this awesome result out of it. - This is a great example of a template, - and you can use when somebody has so they don't want to connect right now because they - don't see the value or it's not okay. - So back to reasons that people are interested in having a meeting with you After, - according sometimes people just don't even give an explanation. - We'll just say something like no, - thanks again, - the more context that you have for why somebody's not interest easier and more effectively - , - and you can disarm them and turn that no into a yes. - So here, - here's what I do in these instances. - Go to the website, - their online presence, - whatever it is that I'm trying to optimize and see if they're working with the competitors - again. - A huge reason why people don't work with you is because there's an incumbent player. - So see, - if you can find out yourself. - Here is an example of what you can say. - If you do find out that they're working with a competitors. - Thanks for getting back to me. - I noticed that looks like you guys air currently using incumbent. - It's great to see that you see the value in whatever your initiative is before working with - us. - A lot of our common partners were not aware that in order to get the most out of blank - initiative, - they needed to focus on whatever your unique ability is. - Here's an article that describes the results available with proper, - whatever your unique abilities. - If interested, - I'm happy not. - I'm happy to hop on a call and take you through this. - You get a better sense of the enhanced results. - This could drive, - So this just does, - you know, - follows this the framework that we said that we talked about just a few minutes ago, - where starts off by introducing the fact that you're aware that they work with the - competitors and that you think it's great that they see the value in that you want it - always Coke's good behavior on and then indicate that it's okay to to turn So before - working with us. - A lot of our partners weren't aware of this. - They need to focus on this. - Here's an article that describes the results available with this, - and this is this is educating them on why it's important to focus on whatever the specific - , - unique ability that your company brings to the table. - And then, - after you've done this and provided them with a little ammo to educate themselves, - rose to call again root, - sending them a case study and no focus on the fact that you want to do this so that they - can get a better sense of the value that they can drive or the enhance results. - Okay, - so another thing you could do if you can't find anything on their site of their online - presence on that indicates they're working with competitors, - is asked friends who have an existing relationship with that prospect or that prospects - company. - Whether they have any insight into why you got the cold shoulder. - Your network is not only gonna be one of the best places to connect you with relevant - people, - but even just to gather data on people because again, - a lot of these people, - maybe their friends, - maybe they've done a deal with them before. - Maybe they even used to work there. - These air all instances where you can mind for insight why somebody might not be willing to - work with you. - And I try to see asking my network thes type of questions for instances were only a partner - is crucial. - I don't want to just be hanging my network 500 times when every single partner says they - don't want to work with me saving for people that really matter. - Unfortunately, - sometimes you can't find anything on the partners website, - and you can't even find a friend who could give you some insight. - These instances I'll send an email like this and again the goal is to get contacts so that - you can disarm. - In turn, - Thanks for getting back to me any particular reason why this isn't a good fit right now. - The reason, - I ask, - is because two of our most successful partners felt the same way until we're able to - educate them on the power of every year. - I'm happy to send over one paint case study on the results, - if you like. - So let's go through this 1st 1st part of the email is basically about trying to figure out - by explicitly asking why they don't want to work with us right now. - And once I have that again, - I can use that at ammo for a proper rebuttal, - and then I'll go in and give them a reason. - Why did she get back to me? - So what I did here was basically point to some social proof on why this is might be worth - their time by saying that some other people felt the same way. - And it's better if you could explicitly state who those successful partners were and tell - them that you want to educate them on the power something because people are constantly - looking for ways to grow their business. - So if you can offer up just some educational resource is on the power of Whatever your - unique ability is, - it's always appropriate to price people with that. - No. - And then I go ahead and say I'm happy to send over one page case study on the results. - If you like, - you may be saying, - Why didn't you just a catch the case study that in there? - The reason that you want to ask is because you want to establish a give and take over the - email dialogue, - the more back and forth that you can establish, - the greater the response rate is gonna be in the future. - And that's because you've kind of built a chain of compliance where this person is just - used to responding to you. - When you email them during, - people begin to develop a habit. - They want to be consistent with their past actions. - So this is This is just an excellent practice is to ask for thing. - Ask permission to send things over like case studies so that you just develop a longer back - and forth email dialogue that optimizes the fact that people are more likely to respond in - the future. - And, - you know, - I always like to make that call to action. - The thing that I asked for pretty low friction. - So So if I have no idea why somebody's avoiding working with me or happen in a call, - I won't ask for a phone call or an in person meeting. - I'll ask just to send them something, - and I'm hoping that me sending them something that educational that drives value them is - going to warm them up to. - Then ask for something a little bit more with a little bit more friction, - like a meeting or call. - Um, - and a one page case study is about as low friction as you can get and just what we're on. - The topic of case studies Try to make him wonder two pages. - You don't want to send somebody a 50 page case study because nobody wants to read that - people want to avoid work. - You want to give them something short and impactful. - And when you indicate that something's one page of one pager or two pages, - there's just something increased likelihood that they're going to say, - Yeah, - sure, - I'm going to see that case study so you can even go as far as explicitly state stating, - you know, - would you like me to send over a one page case study or a 11 page of that demonstrates - results instead of just saying a case study because a lot of people they send 50 page case - study. - So when somebody sees that word, - that's what they associate with a case study. 13. Cold Calling: - Okay, - welcome to the cold calling section of Bt playbook. - So here's the thing about cold going and I say cold calling. - Yea, - it's never gonna be an activity that you look forward to. - The truth is, - sometimes it's what it takes to get a meeting that you want, - which can lead to an amazing outcome, - like a deal partnership sail wherever it may be. - A lot of people when cold calling gets brought out, - they feel anxious, - right? - It's they're scared of it. - It is entirely normal to feel this way. - Everybody is scared of cold calling initially, - but there are things you can do to overcome that fear. - And I want to talk about an exercise right now that was mentioned earlier in BD playbook - about how to overcome hold Point number one asked yourself why you're not cold calling the - example Answer. - That would be I'm not cold calling, - cause it causes me anxiety. - I feel nervous. - I feel scared when I go to pick up the phone. - No matter what I do, - I just can't force yourself myself to do it. - Okay, - Second question would ask yourself, - How do you feel when approaching this activity? - So when, - when I'm approaching cold calling, - I just start to get nervous. - I get anxious because I think the other person, - let's say something mean to me for interrupting your day or yell at me or whatever. - Whatever the reason is for causing that anxiety, - what would be the opposite on this feeling and perception? - So the opposite of nervousness and anxiety would be being excited to call the prospect - because, - you know, - than a partnership between your two companies would provide a ton of value. - And because of that, - they're gonna be so happy that you called them and you physically want right out these - answers and really just sit there and ask yourself these questions. - The fourth question. - What would you do right now if you possess this new belief? - So I thought, - in my heart of hearts that the person on the other end would be excited that I called them - because there's going to be a tone of value between a relationship between our companies. - I'd pick up the phone. - Why wouldn't I want to pick up the phone if I knew that they were gonna be really, - really excited and happy to talk to me? - Okay. - What would be the absolute worst case scenario if you took this action with this new belief - you call, - They say, - you know we're not interested right now, - and please don't call me ever again. - I seriously, - that is the worst outcome off you making a cold call and the person on the other end not - being excited about it. - We're asking these questions. - Will you leave live to breathe another day? - If somebody tells you that they're not interested in not to call them, - we have a better understanding of what prospects to spend your time on. - Is there even a high likelihood of this happening? - What I'm trying to demonstrate to you right here is these are all things which you can deal - with and honestly, - walking away with a better understanding of Maybe I shouldn't spend my time on this - prospect is actually a good thing. - And the truth is, - is that very rarely do you call somebody and they tell you to never call them again. - So you know what I understood right now or thanks, - but no thanks. - But the malicious response though it does exist, - it doesn't happen frequently. - And even though even if it did happen. - You live to breathe another day, - you can move on. - So hopefully this exercise can help you overcome your fear of cold calling. - If you do possess it and again, - you know the best thing you can do is just come to the realization that it's it's not gonna - be fun. - It's never gonna be something to look forward to, - but all the fears that you have, - you can put them toe with them to rest and just begin doing it. - And this is exercise is one way to accomplish that. - So before we get into some other important mindset stuff as well as the next steps that you - should take, - let's go over some cold called belts. - Number one Try not to call without a potential stakeholders name if you don't have to. - So this is basically calling somebody and asking for the marketing director on your hitless - building stage. - This is fine, - because again, - at that point you're just trying to get the name but for cold calling and actually - approaching the pitch. - You do wanna have somebody's name available because this signals that you're not just a - cold calling person, - hopefully or at least it signals it better than asking for the market marketing director - and your ability to extract yourself from that bucket. - It's gonna result in a higher likelihood that you actually end up connecting with the - person that you're trying to reach. - A lot of times, - when people call and ask to speak to the owner or asked to speak to the business - development person, - that's an immediate signal that this person does not have a pre existing relationship, - that company, - and you just get directed to voicemail or somebody else. - That's not the right person you need to talk to. - You always try to have that stakeholders name if you can. - Number two. - You want to try to avoid calling people at inopportune times? - So Monday at 9 a.m. people are likely dealing with an overloaded inbox. - They're not happy cause they're back at work. - We don't want to pick up their phone. - This this isn't a good time to call people. - Another example would be Friday at 5 p.m. These people are checked out. - They're not ready to listen to a pasture schedule meeting, - ready to go to happy hour, - and you know, - oftentimes they won't even be in the office. - So generally, - I mean, - I try to do my cold calls Tuesday through Thursday, - sometime between early morning and early afternoon. - And, - you know, - just use your common sense here. - Think about how would you feel if somebody called you at whatever time you're think about - cold calling? - Would you be receptive, - or would you be focused on another task? - Number three? - This is so important, - and we will expand upon this and talking about how to develop a script. - But you don't want to make a call without being prepared. - You could have the best product in the world be proposing the most amazing relationship for - another company. - But all that that person has to judge you from if there's no other context, - is the words that come out of your mouth. - So you want to make sure that you are communicating effectively with this person, - and the way to do that is to come prepared to the call. - We're gonna go over right now. - All right? - Very shortly. - How to prepare yourself appropriately. - But the last thing you want to do at a high level is just pick up the phone, - start dialing without a script without a clear understanding of what you're gonna say - without even a voicemail right now. - Because again, - first impressions are everything. - And you just can't assume that this person has a ton of context about you. - Okay, - so the first step after rewiring your mindset to overcome fear of cold calling and to just - understand these don't is to write out a script. - Why read our script well for one and increases the odds? - You'll make the call. - There's less ambiguity when you know exactly what you're gonna say, - and this inspires confidence. - And the more confidence you have, - the more in likely you're going to pick up the phone and do something scary. - Secondly, - it helps you communicate your message clearly and confidently find it right out exactly - what I'm gonna say. - It's easy for me, - then identify. - Oh, - you know what? - I actually want to mention this as well, - and I want to make sure I don't forget this. - If you just are just showing up and throwing up in totaling wing it, - you might a not include all the things that you want to communicate and be even be able to - deliver that in an effective way because you're just you're shooting from the hip. - So reading a script, - make sure that you're able to communicate that clearly. - And then, - lastly, - it provides a roadmap for the interaction. - So five a script I can perceive before the call, - how it might go down. - And when I understand the potential outcome of different scenarios, - it's easy for me to just be more confident and have a clear understanding of how to handle - things and ultimately guide this person in whatever way is gonna lead to my ideal outcome, - which is setting up a meeting at another time when they're primed to be receptive to my - pitch. - Now you might be saying, - I'm writing out the script. - I don't think that's good idea. - I had made hundreds of not thousands cold calls, - and I still right out of script just to get going every single time. - And the reason that I do this is just because of all the things I listed here, - I would increase the odds of me to make the call. - I want to communicate clearly and effectively, - and I want to have a belief roadmap for the interaction before I make it all of these - things result in more effective cold calling. - Okay, - once you, - you have a Scripture and they say you have an understanding that you need to write one out - . - Next thing you need to do is actually get the phone numbers of the companies that you're - trying to reach. - And I like to do this in a batch process. - So I know that I'm gonna call these 30 companies. - I like to get all the phone numbers first, - because when you start calling, - you want the focus to be on calling. - You want to get in a rhythm, - don't want it to be call find phone number, - Insult, - script call, - fun phone number, - consult script. - I mean, - this is this is important. - When you get in a rhythm on the phone, - you just sound better. - You shot more confident. - And if you exercise back crossing in the preparation process, - it's gonna be easier for you to accomplish that. - So let's go over some specific ways. - You confined corporate phone numbers number one and the most obvious way is on the company - website. - So you want to go to the contact us page, - the about US page and often will list the generic company phone number, - which you can use to be redirected to the person you need to talk to. - Number two, - you corporate offices dot com Corporate offices is basically just a database of a company - phone numbers great resource stuff and check it out along the same lines. - Jigsaw dot com and dot com is an open source database where people will not only contribute - corporate phone numbers but individual phone numbers often and just to kind of show you - what that looks like. - You can find the phone number when you search for a company right here where that arrow is - and when you open a specific contacts that you use points to to essentially access. - Sometimes we'll have the extension number on that particular person. - The caveat is that this data is crowd sourced, - so somebody else's putting it in there, - too. - It's not often correct, - but at the very least, - you can get the correct corporate phone number and use either the receptionist or a - potential a dial by name directory to be directed to the appropriate person. - Number four. - Uh, - none of these work you can determine where the company headquarters is and then use a phone - book service like yellow pages dot com. - So an example here and how to do this is sure to the company name. - Plus the entities there could be Del headquarters, - L worldwide del International. - Ah, - and you Google this to really understand where the location is. - And once you get the location, - you go to yellow pages dot com and then search that proper entity name where the location - that you found on Google is on the company website and then you can get the corporate phone - number. - This is a great little track. - It works pretty much every single time. - Number five e mails for corporation again, - another third party data base where this information is listed. - If you're gunning for Fortune 100 Fortune 1000 companies, - I recommend emails for corporations Just because the data is incredibly accurate. - Call a retail location. - So if all else fails and you can't get in touch with can't find headquarters numbers - anywhere, - call a local store in your hometown and see if they have the number. - Usually people confined this information. - They don't have it readily off hand, - but they can go and get it at the store, - and this is just a very simple, - easy strategy you can use. - And then lastly, - you confined a press release. - In addition to putting contact email addresses within press releases, - Dalton list the phone number. - And in order to identify these, - you can again just go to Google. - Search for the company name plus the word press release, - plus a search modifier file type equals PdF, - and you can even go and enhance that a bit further by doing a site name search of the - actual company website. - And when you do this, - this usually services press releases that the company has put out that include a contact - number for them. - Okay, - so you've gotten the gotten the script mindset down. - You've got on the phone numbers. - Next step is creating the script. - Now, - the way that I'm gonna talk about this is I'm gonna first talk about disarming for bottles - that you should be prepared for pre call, - and then we'll go through some other best practices in script writing. - And after we've fully flushed out how to write the script and what you should be prepared - for, - we'll talk about what to do when you're actually ready to start calling. - Okay, - so what's getting the problem lines up for a script creation? - Where you need to know is before you touched base with the prospect, - the role of the first call is not to pitch them and convince them they should partner with - you. - The goal is to set a meeting at a later date, - because when you cold call someone, - you're probably interrupting them in the middle of the day. - No, - that's just the nature of the situation. - But the thing that realizes is that in this state, - these people are not primes to be receptive, - to hear your pitch out, - they're not focused there, - probably distracted, - maybe even a little bit irritated. - So the goal of the initial call is to basically established connection and then try to - broach a set meeting where you pitch them at a later date. - Number two. - You want to try to engage the person that you're calling in a conversation as fast as - possible, - and you can do this by asking a question. - Were making a statement that warrants response in the 1st 2 sentences. - A lot of people make cold calls and they just start going off into their spiel. - Hi, - my name is copper and calling from this company, - and today I want to talk to you about all these awesome things. - What happens is when you are approaching this and a monologue format like that, - people just turn their brains off and think about what's the most polite way I can get off - this call as fast as possible. - Now compare this to when you need somebody in the dialogue by asking them a question early - on. - All of a sudden, - this person is now having a conversation. - They're not listening. - Somebody they might not even think it's a cold call, - so we're gonna get into specifics Script that you can use that uses a question within the - first few sentences. - But the high little thought is that you want to start a dialogue as fast as possible. - Instead of a monologue, - use a tone that's conversational and friendly. - It's important. - Understand that this person you're talking to and trying to set a meeting with is a value - ending, - whether they like to spend time talking you at a later date. - So if you come off is extremely rigid, - strict, - not fun. - That's not gonna help your cause to get to get a meeting with this person. - However, - if you come off of somebody, - it seems like a nice person. - It seems fun. - It seems like it be entertaining and have a conversation with that's gonna help your call - us. - I literally try to sound like a chubby eighth grader asking for help, - because generally I find it. - This is a very disarming, - endearing way to approach it, - and we're going to go over the script soon that I use which, - and I'm gonna talk, - jumping in greater style. - But you know, - the general idea here is just if on the normal, - be somebody that this person wants to help out, - wants to talk to. - Okay, - let's go through a script that puts us all together in the context here is that I'm talking - to him about introducing BD playbook to their company. - That's what I won't have a meeting about, - and I sent a few cold emails before doing the cold call. - Let's dig in Ex Scott print from Bt playbook here since a few emails recently to see if - you're interested in learning more about increasing your deal flow with 80 playbook Is this - something you guys have ever considered? - Now let's break this down. - Hey, - X Scott Britain from BT Playbook here Notice how I say Scott Britain from Bt playbook - instead of Hi. - My name is Scott Perrin from Beauty Playbook. - When someone says Hi, - my name is immediately signals that that person doesn't know you and that this is likely a - cold call. - When this happens, - a trigger goes off in that person's head that says, - OK, - cold call brain turn off. - How do I get office? - Politely as possible. - You still want Introduce yourself. - But you can accomplish that in such a way that does not fire off that trigger by saying - your name and then the company that you're calling from. - So Scott Britain from BT Playbook here next sentence. - You want a reference? - The fact that you email them before So a sense you few emails recently to see if you are - learning more about increasing your deal flow with beady playbook. - So reference the emails so that they know that this is this is the person that sent emails - . - Maybe they remember you. - Oh, - yeah, - I remember you and then get right to the benefits so increasing your deal flow benefit with - my solution. - After you've done that, - it's You want to ask them a very simple question. - Is this something you guys have ever considered again? - It's about turning the conversation into a dialogue, - not a monologue. - I could talk about all of the things that you playbook. - 1000. - Why? - It's so awesome here. - But I don't want to do that right now. - Right now. - I just want to start the dialogue. - So is this something you guys ever considered? - Now, - if they say yes, - maybe something like, - Yeah, - I was actually just looking into that. - What you want to do is basically acknowledged the fact that you're interrupting them and - then set Try to set a meeting at a later date. - So great. - I know you're probably in the middle of something right now, - so why don't we schedule a 10 minute call to go over this at a convenient time for you? - Do you have your calendar open? - It's a part one acknowledging that you're interrupting them and that this isn't the best - time to talk about it. - Part two. - The ask for a 10 minute call. - Remember stressing 10 minutes. - Everybody's got 10 minutes. - And then instead of saying, - does that sound good or what do you think? - Ask him if they have their calendar open. - And I love this strategy because a lot of times people have their calendar open. - Instead of thinking about evaluating whether they want to get on the call, - we'll just say, - Yeah, - my counter open. - And now all of a sudden, - they more or less committed to that meeting, - and I want to be consistent with that commitment. - So yeah, - my calendar open. - Oh, - uh, - yeah. - Okay. - What do you work for? - You so framing the ask for meeting by seeing if they have their counter open is always a - more effective strategy than asking explicitly. - So, - do you want to have a meeting? - Just a much better way to do it. - Don't do this. - If they say yes, - don't try to start pitching them right down in there again because they're probably in the - middle of something that distracted. - They're not in a state that's going to be most receptive to what you have to say. - Now If they say Yeah, - sure, - I'm actually interesting that tell me all about it. - Then you can start pitching, - but you want to make sure that this person is ready to hear you out. - And you know, - an explicit statement from them is the only thing that I think warrants a pitch right then - and there. - No, - they may not always say yes. - They might say that they're actually not the right person talked to. - So this would look like, - You know, - I'm actually not who you need to talk to you. - You need to speak with this person when they indicate this. - Your goal is basically to get that person's information groups. - Sorry about that. - Any chance you have their email handy, - I could just send them over some information. - And again, - I think the optimal approach is always email first because it's asynchronous and less - obtrusive. - So go for the email address. - Now that you know you have the right person and I like to ask instead of being connected, - saying something like, - Hey, - can I just send them over to information? - I want to give some contacts why you want the email address and some incentive and setting - them over information is pretty low risk, - pretty low friction, - which means this person is more likely to comply compared to being something saying - something. - Hey, - can I be connected them directly so I can enter up their day again? - Go for email first. - It's Lassiter's. - Where they gave you were a bottle right there on the phone. - You know, - we actually are already using this incumbent competitors here. - You want to revert to the verbal of re stream that was described over the email section so - you could say something like That's great that you guys see the value in whatever the - initiatives that you're proposing. - Many of our clients reference themselves, - actually use the competitors and combat there any use alongside our product because they're - so complimentary. - Since I'm getting the sense that you already see the value in this initiative and would be - open a learning how to get even better results, - I think it be a good idea to hop in a crawl early and actually assure you a few simple ways - we can increase whatever. - The thing you're trying to optimize is even more. - Do you have 10 3 minutes on Monday? - So again, - I exercise the reframing here, - taking my solution as something that does the same thing to something that does something - unique and different that might even be complementary to their incumbent solution. - And then I pose the opportunity to educate them. - So I want to teach you how to get even better results, - and it's actually a probably a good idea to show you a few simple ways to do that. - Do you have 10 free minutes on Monday? - If you need a refresher on the reframing and how to do that, - I recommend going back to the cold emailing section specifically around rebuttals. - What if they just flat out say that they're not interested? - Thanks, - but we're not interested. - One thing you could do is accuse them of not caring about an obvious benefit. - Now, - if you choose to employ this strategy, - the tone of voice is key, - because if you say the wrong tone, - you can come off as a jerk. - However, - if you say it, - as in a matter as a matter of fact, - in a friendly way, - you can turn people using the strategy. - Now here's a concrete example. - Show you what I mean when I say it. - She was somebody of not caring about obvious Bennett. - If it so you might say something like, - Hey, - I really appreciate candidness thing Is average partners air seeing an additional three - minutes on site with our additional content or whatever it ISS. - So you put in a quantifiable benefit and the solution there. - I know you're busy. - Or from what we've seen with partners X, - Y and Z, - I think this might be worth 10 minutes of your time. - So just to kind of break this down real quick, - it's just acknowledging. - Hey, - I understand you're not interested. - I appreciate you being honest with me. - But here's this insanely obvious benefit that these other people might have experienced or - that we help companies with. - And I think that it's a good idea, - or I think that this might be worth additional 10 minutes of your time. - Okay, - let's pause for a second and just kind of get a bearing about where we're at. - So at this point, - you have your perceived stakeholders name from her hitless. - Remember, - you always wanna call the name, - you have the corporate phone number, - and you have all of the corporate phone numbers for the people that you plan on calling - during this particular cold call session. - Your script is ready to go, - and it's written out so you can reference it during the call if you need it. - And lastly, - you have an understanding of how to handle the bottles. - It's always the best practice, - knowing that have the understanding but to have a written version of how you how you disarm - each one of these were bottles and even have that in front of you. - That's where the next steps the next step. - At this point after you have all the prep work done for cold calling is to schedule the - cold calling on your calendar by scheduling the call. - You're just more likely to do something, - and the reason is because you've created a pack to yourself. - RIAS humans naturally desire to be consistent. - So if I go ahead and put something on my calendar, - it's harder for me not to do that thing. - And it would be if I just told myself, - Yeah, - I think you know what I think I'm gonna do it. - The calendar creates the pack, - and it makes you more likely to do Cold Gone, - which unfortunately is just never going to be fun. - And I typically like the Schedule 1 to 2 hours after two hours of cold calling street, - I just not a sharp tend to burn out. - So you want just schedule in a two hour block. - If you need more than that, - you want to do a whole day scheduled two hours taking our break and then do another two - hours later in the day. - But usually 1 to 2 hours should suffice when you sit down to call, - you wanna have that script in front of you and you want to remove all distractions as - possible. - Ideally, - you can print it out on a piece of paper. - Or, - if you want to do Google docks or even Microsoft word that works, - too. - I like to have it away from my computer. - Just because I want limited distraction is possible. - And another thing that's that's really good for promoting lack of distraction and just - being present is using a headset. - When you're worried about having to hold the phone up to your ear, - you're not as focused on what the person saying and how you should be responding - appropriately. - So I had set you can get one for like, - $10 at a local electronics store were one on Amazon. - It's just really good for promoting presence on the call. - Okay, - after you've done that and have that ready to go, - you need to pick up the phone and go. - And if you're still little gun shy, - one thing you can do is just call a friend for five minutes or even your parents, - somebody else in your office, - even just to kind of get in a chatty mood. - And this will warm you up, - get you confident and enhance the ability for you to pick up the phone and do something - that honestly can be pretty hard and dio Initially, - at least now we just talked about a lot of different steps. - So I came up with this handy, - dandy cold call checklist where you're saying you remember exactly all this. - All the things you can do to ensure that you'll have the best chance of being successful - when you do this. - So number one at your mindset, - right? - This is important for the people that are afraid to get on the phones, - switch the perception they're going, - Teoh, - not like what I have to say it to. - These people can not wait to get on the phone with me because I have something so valuable - to offer them after you have reminds that right, - you want to get all the corporate four numbers and, - ideally, - batch this again. - It's good in a rhythm when you cold call, - and if you're constantly having to look up from numbers, - you're gonna break that rhythm every three right out your script and, - ideally, - rebuttals. - It's important to do this so that you can communicate effectively and that you sound - confident on the phone. - And if you miss a step or if you don't include something, - you have a scripture for two right there, - which helps just convey that presence that you want. - Schedule 1 to 2 hours of it, - and you think that there's a chance that you'll forgo cold calling because maybe you're - feeling anxious story. - You'll do something that's lower resistance. - Scheduling is just a great way to enhance the likelihood that you actually do it again, - because creating a pact with yourself it's a powerful strategy. - Can't you do things that are hard because you want to remain consistent? - Number five. - Warm up with friends if you need to, - and I put a starter because you don't always need to do this, - but the feeling a little gun shy, - you're feeling off. - Just give a friend a call or a family member just to get in a chatty mood. - Then, - after that, - it's time to hit the phones. - Let's talk about cadence. - What I mean by cadences. - How often should I be calling people? - Should I call them 10 times in one day? - Should I call them once a week? - What's appropriate in the context of business development? - Well, - assuming you actually get through to the person that you want to talk, - I typically try Call them once a day for two days straight, - and after that second call, - leave a voicemail. - I think this is a good balance of being persistent, - but also not being overly annoying about trying to get tough with them. - Because again, - you want to come off as somebody that this person wants to do business with somebody that - they want to develop a relationship with, - and you hit them on, - hit them up on the email channel already so you don't want it. - You don't wanna overdo it, - and, - uh, - you know we'll talk a little bit more later about some things you could do after you leave - a voicemail if you still don't hear from them. - But just this initial time, - I call them once a day for two days straight. - And then after the second call, - I leave a voicemail and your cold calling adventures. - One of the obstacles you might have to overcome is gatekeepers, - and if you're not familiar with the gatekeeper, - basically it's the person that stands between you and the person you're trying to get in - touch with. - This could be the receptionist and junior member on their team. - A secretary Bottom line is you're trying to connect with someone. - There is someone else between. - That's preventing you from doing that. - Now, - when you reach a gatekeeper, - a lot of times will put you directly through the person that you want to talk to you. - But other times you'll get a voicemail or even worse, - no voicemail at all. - The even attempts to get some of these people. - So how do we get around them when you face these instances? - Well, - there's a bunch of strategies. - One strategy is to call at off our times when they're not working. - So a lot of times a receptionist for secretary works from 9 to 5. - What you could very simply do is call before nine AM or after five pan, - and the calls were a lot of times round directly to the person you're trying to reach. - Another thing you can do is what I call exercise a familiarity declaration. - That's what it's describing familiarity. - Decoration is just to show you one. - And here's an example right here. - Hey, - Scott, - Britain here from Bt Playbook. - Can you put me through to Tom? - I need to chat with him about optimizing their sales efficiency. - Now what I've done here by saying, - Hey, - Scott, - Britain from heat this company, - can you put me through to just the person's first name trying to reach is given often air - that Tom remember, - the person they're trying to reach knows me. - This isn't the first time that your cold calling and that there is a pre existing - relationship here. - Your ability to do this effectively is all about your delivery. - If you don't seem confident and familiar, - the person is probably not gonna put you through. - But if you just make it seem like Thomas somebody that you've talked to 20 times or whoever - trying to talk Teoh. - There's a chance that that they will just assume that you know each other because of the - era in which you've spoken. - So get your the familiar declaration is to use the person's first name telling them - specifically what your child about and again don't say hi, - my name is say, - Hey, - first name here from whatever company you're calling from. - These are all things that engender a greater sense of familiarity. - Another thing that you can do is convey urgency or importance when you get them on the - phone. - Let's look at another concrete example to show you what I mean. - So, - hey, - Scott Britain from Bt Playbook here and I'd be connected to Tom. - They might say something like, - What is this sort are so I wanted to connect them about how through prove something I - noticed with your website. - You could insert whatever asset you're trying to optimize here. - Are they available? - Right now, - it's better to get this taken care of sooner than later. - This statement right here just conveys urgency to you connecting when you say that you - notice something that could be fixed, - and you need to know if they're available right now, - because it's better to get this taken care of. - All of a sudden, - you're not in the bucket of just some rain and non important cold caller. - You're somebody that's potentially helping them fix something that is time sensitive. - And if they don't fix this and things are gonna happen a few other tactics. - I've seen people preach and trying myself or things like befriending the gatekeeper over a - series of calls trying to sell the gatekeeper directly. - I've tried these. - I personally don't think they are as effective. - Just a lot of times they can take a lot of time and result in very little positive things, - so you can certainly try these. - But they personally have not worked as well for me in my best efforts. - If you get insurmountable resistance from the gatekeeper and getting connected directly to - the person you want to talk to, - the best thing you could do is just simply to be asked to be put through to the voicemail - in order to leave your prospect a message. - Now let's talk about voicemails because a lot of people do this wrong, - and it's very, - very important that you do it correctly because this can result in wins for your business. - First thing you need to do is write out your voicemail and have prepared a lot of people - get the first step right with cold calling and that they actually write out of script for - the call. - Great. - When it comes time for the voicemail, - they either don't know what to say and decided to hang up the phone because they just are - so proud of themselves for making the call. - And they were expecting someone need to pick up. - Or they decide to leave a voicemail and communicate incredibly ineffective because they - don't have what the room to say plan. - They don't have prepared and it just comes off his bat. - And again, - first impressions are important. - So you want to have exactly what you're going to say scripted out. - So you cover all the points that important, - and you do it in a way that sounds confident. - Over the phone voice mail 101 Tenet number to keep it short. - Nobody wants to listen to a 10 minute monologue, - and if you do this, - odds are that somebody's gonna hang up before you give important information like the best - number to call you back at or even there even your email address. - So you want to keep it short and sweet. - Number three, - Give them a reason to call you back. - You need you incentivize people to dial you back when with the words that you say if - somebody just calls and says, - Hey, - my name's Scott from this company and I wanted to give you a call because I thought we - should talk. - When you have a few minutes, - give me a call back. - There is no specific reason in that voicemail. - Why I should make time to call somebody back now, - However, - if they give me a very specific actionable point like, - Hey, - I want to talk to you because I think we can drive more revenue by just tweeting your - marking a little bit with this awesome new tool that's out. - That's all of a sudden, - a whole lot more interesting for me to pick up a phone, - Call this person back number four, - say your phone number and email slowly and ST twice at the end. - A lot of times you'll get to a voicemail and somebody will say Yeah, - if you grieve, - you going back at 55212131314 and and the handphone And what's what happens is that - person's then faced with the decision to either listen to the entire voicemail over again. - Do you get that number or you just move on and delete it? - This person doesn't know you and isn't 100% aware of the value you can drive. - A lot of times you're just gonna hang up the phone and say Whatever my life's good as is - I'm going to move on. - So it's important that you say the phone number and email very slowly and saying twice, - and I like to save both because, - quite frankly, - a lot of people are free to pick up the phone, - So I like to give them the ability to email me instead. - If they prefer number five years atonality, - that makes you sound like an enjoyable person to talk to. - Remember this person is screaming for whether they want to invest their time on the phone - call with you. - If you sound strict region on fun, - that doesn't really sound like that, - enticing to get on the phone with you unless your company is Google or somebody awesome. - Where I know for sure that you can help my company So you want. - Just try to come office, - somebody that sounds like a normal fun person to talk to you. - Let's go through an example voicemail that encompasses all the things I just described. - Hi, - John Scott, - Britain for Bt Playbook. - Here I noticed that your sales team currently isn't using a time tested email strips. - That's actually something we provide partners like Salesforce, - sales crunch and single platform with. - I love to have a quick chat about how we can replicate those results for you. - I would get a minute. - Give Michel back at 555 by 555555 Again, - that's 555555555 Or, - if e mails easier, - just shoot me a note at Scott at life long learner dot com Again, - that's s CEO teaching at life. - Gash long learner dot com Look forward to hearing from you. - Okay, - So if we want to 14. Outreach Cadence: - Okay, - so we talked about cold, - emailing and cold calling. - How do you mix them together? - And at what frequency? - In this section, - we're gonna talk about the ideal outreach cadence. - First thing that's important, - understand, - is that your cadence is not a one size fits all solution. - You need to calibrate your methodology with that spoon. - Email Social with your industries. - Typical preferred communication medium for start of his death, - People prefer email. - First e mail is at work, - then I go phone. - Sometimes you can even Sprinkle in social in there. - Now compare this with somebody like restaurants. - Email is tough on restaurants. - A lot of these old owners are old school people that don't even have an email address, - so you have to hit them by phone. - The point of the reason that I bring this up is just demonstrating that you're gonna have - the most success if you tailor this to what the person or people that you're trying to - reach out to, - how they typically communicate for business matters, - Here's what I perceive as the ideal cadence for start up business development. - Assuming that there's no introduction, - starting out with a cold email 3 to 7 days after that. - If I don't hear back from that person sending another cold email and using the tactic of - following up by replying directly to the original cold, - a nice n I don't hear back from and then then trying a cold call one day after I sent the - second cold email. - I don't want to leave a voicemail here because I want to try to get them live. - If I can. - One day after that cold call the next day, - I will try to cold call them again. - If I can't get through to them directly, - I will leave a voicemail. - And if nobody gets back to me two days after leaving that voicemail, - I'll then shoot them a brand new email referencing the fact that I called them. - Now, - if this is a little unclear, - you can go back into the cold email and cold call sections that specify this. - This is basically the process to try to convince somebody that you're not familiar with - that. - You don't know to get a meeting with you by going and cold. - What do you do if this doesn't work? - What happens if they never respond well in this situation. - I typically think it's best to wait one week and then try to find an alternative route and - what I mean by is trying to find somebody else to that company and you might be able to - convince to have a meeting with you. - I'm dealing the alternative. - Is there a different but equally relevant department for Biz Dev, - especially product integrations? - It's often a tandem of his daven product. - So if you went in through the biz never out and that didn't work, - try reaching out to somebody in the fraud department. - And this is product managers director of Products, - VP of product's whoever might be. - But a lot of times these people have just as much weight and getting deals done and haven't - even realized the fact that you tried to reach out the business department. - So this is a brand new freshly. - Do you potentially tighten up the message and try to get in a different route Now, - one thing you could also do, - if that's not an option, - is going above or below the contact that you try to reach out to within the same department - . - I was recommend trying to go above first just because you want to get immediately to - somebody with more decision making power versus having to work your way up. - It's just faster and more efficient. - But if that doesn't work, - you can go below and achieve success there. - I want to highlight why I brought up the fact that you should, - ideally try to get in a different but equally relevant department first. - Generally, - people just within the same department talk. - And if somebody gets a cold email and so say, - Have you heard of these guys? - Yeah, - they emailed me. - I didn't think it was that interesting. - It's just not as likely to stick as a as a situation where somebody in that department - doesn't know that you already tried reaching out to them. - There's kind of a weird psychology, - social proof thing going on there, - but generally it's better to just try to get to somebody that doesn't know you've already - trying to contact the company unsuccessfully. - Let's dig into this concept of trying to go above somebody in the same department a little - bit more so. - Ideally, - the best way to do this is just to take the same approach on this new person. - Using email just like you did on the first person in this juncture because people might - have taught. - It's not a bad idea that maybe try to attack a different pain point, - because again the first person stakeholders reach out to maybe the reason they didn't get - back to you because they were having a bad day. - But there's a good chance of the reason that they didn't get back to you is the fact that - you brought up something that wasn't a priority. - So here's where you might want to attack a different pain point. - So if you originally alluded to, - you're our our relationship could drive traffic to their site. - Maybe this time bring up how it might be able to grow their email lists. - And I put just a little star here, - assuming that your product actually does these things, - or that a relationship would do these things, - never, - ever, - ever want to lie in life and especially business because your reputation goes everywhere. - When you do this. - Should you reference your first attempt? - So should you say, - Hey, - I reached I've reached out previously, - this person and they didn't get back to me. - This can work. - I actually usually find that it does more harm than good, - because in the instance that the relationship is actually one that has some legs. - Makes the person first person look look bad by because they didn't respond to you. - And you don't want to get off on the wrong foot with the company or have somebody - internally not happy with you. - And if the relationship is being evaluated, - the fact that somebody that that person knows and trust said no to you doesn't necessarily - help your cause for getting that initial meeting. - So I personally don't think it's a It's a good practice to reference that first attempt, - at least in a initial cold email. - So let's talk about social media because we've talked a lot about cold calling about hold - emails. - But where does Social Comment trying to connect with prospects on social media and work? - But it's just important that you calibrate this both with the company and the individual. - If you're dealing with a start up and they're all over social media and there and it seems - like everybody at the company's incredibly savvy and they're into it and they're reaching - out to strangers, - that's great. - Try to hit him up on Social if you need to. - You if if email doesn't work. - But if somebody is old school like a Yellow Pages company or a restaurant or somebody that - just isn't necessarily that tech savvy, - they're not gonna be all that receptive on social media. - I think that if you do decide to go social media, - Twitter is the ideal place to connect just because people will have their of connecting - with strangers. - Facebook. - It's just a little personal. - A lot of people on Lee use Facebook with their friends and family, - so that could be a little weird if a business contact is reaching out to you on Facebook. - And then last year, - Bram, - linked in if you already Emailed and called a linked in message is just redundant. - But that's not to say that it can't work. - Um, - I think that and ideal linked in with somebody that you don't know you have no report with - is a little odd. - But it's not, - say that I know people that do this and have it work for them. - Let's talk about how to use Twitter because again, - I think that's the ideal channel and personally, - I think it's best peppered in after email. - If you identify that somebody's incredibly social Satti, - there's some good treats that you might send after you sense in emails. - They haven't gone back to you. - Hey, - a shot, - an email you today. - I just want to make sure you received it. - Hey, - did you get my email about whatever the initiatives is that you brought up these air? - Good, - because they're just little subtle nudges on a different channel. - And again, - one of the reasons that people don't respond is simply just because they forgot. - It's not always because they weren't interested. - So these things accomplished little nuts that if somebody didn't get back to you because - they forgot and they lost it or something came up, - this is a good way to bring that back to the forefront of the periphery. - Everything you could do is just retweet or comment on something that they treated about - without even mentioning your outreach when somebody seizure. - If you do this and a lot of people are seeing it, - who's retreating them? - Who's mentioned them? - Whatever it ISS on, - somebody sees your name, - it might click within that Oh my gosh, - I forgot this person he mailed me because they're gonna look in your profile. - They're going to see what company you're from. - And that might again bring that the fact that you emailed them already back to the - forefront of their periphery. - Both these are good strategies. - Let's talk about some man treats. - Hey, - I sent you an email. - Haven't heard back from you. - I emailed the other day about this. - Is that something? - You're seven. - You have to remember that Twitter is a public for him. - So calling somebody out And even though you're not putting even though the only people that - see this when you treat directly at somebody are the people that follow the both of you - when you you're calling somebody out like this that you haven't heard back from them, - it just It's not a good way to start off a relationship. - It doesn't necessarily make somebody excited to talk to you. - It can bring your the fact that you email them back to the forefront of their mind. - But it just doesn't in a way that I don't think it's effective at some ways that are a bit - more elegant and then flat out asking them whether they're interested in doing a deal with - you in a public forum again. - Not very good. - I generally just think that it's better to be cryptic in these instances where you're - talking about two companies working together. - Another cool strategy that you can use to leverage social media to get people to respond to - you if they haven't is taking advantage of push notifications and the promise that they can - in grain. - Every time you you have somebody on a service, - whether it's Twitter lengthened, - so you follow them. - You you asked to connect with them, - you friend them you like them whatever it is that for a lot of people, - they're going to receive emails, - and there in that email, - they're going to see your name. - What this does is it can prompt response out of them so it can prompt them to remember that - Oh, - I have to get back to this person. - You can even just familiarize their name in a positive way, - because when you take action on somebody by connecting with somebody or by doing something - , - something that pushed out that kind of massages their ego a little bit and put you in a - nice light. - So this is These are just a little strategy that you can use to prompt responses from - previous actions like emails or calls on social media. - There's a few places you can nudge to get more specific. - Twitter lengthen Cora again. - Facebook is a bit personal, - and if you're not familiar with Cora, - basically you can follow people on that site. - It's a question and answer site and for people that are in tax startups, - Ah, - lot. - A lot of people are on chorus, - so there's a good chance your prospect might just be on there if all of this doesn't work. - If the cold emails, - the cold calls and the social media doesn't work, - sometimes you just have to try to get in front of these people at events. - No, - the go to places that you could do this are industry conferences and trade shows or even - local meet ups. - If we're talking about a company that is in your city, - but sometimes you know all this digital and phone communication doesn't work. - You just have to try to figure out where these people are going to be and how you can get - in front of them. - and conferences, - Trade shows and local events are great places to do this. - Now it's important. - If you do this, - you need to take the parade the right mindset. - Your goal should not be too close. - Somebody at an event it's to develop, - report, - become a friendly face and maybe even set up a meeting at a later date. - You know what a pitch, - Because again, - this person's just going to an event. - They're probably sitting, - hang out with friends or have their own agenda. - Not prime to be receptive. - Teoh a full on pitch at that moment. - So hold off on the pitch. - Take the same type of mindset to a cold call where you'd like to delay that to an instance - where they're going to be more receptive. - Now if they invite a pitch and said, - Yeah, - tell me about your company. - How could we work together? - Then it makes sense to kind of go down the route of pitching. - But otherwise, - you know you want to develop a poor and ideally, - use that report to set up a meeting at a later date with follow up email or letting them - know that you're going to email them about setting of a meeting. - Get the lay until their primes to hear from you. - If you go to industry trade shows or conferences that are multiple day occasions, - there are certain places where it's better to build report than others. - And if you really forge deep, - bonds were almost guarantee that somebody's gonna get back to your email them after the - event and where this occurs as it's not the exhibit, - for it's typically at the evening festivities. - So think parties. - When you get to an event, - the best practice to get a feel for what might be going on at night, - who might be going to which events and then put on your phone face over drinks over - conversation at these events is where you can really forge some excellent bonds with people - that you want to reach out to and that you want to do business relationships with. - What you can do is is recall these memories on I call this callback humor. - When you go on email, - these people are you going? - Call them so you have an amazing night and then seven cents. - When you send in emails, - this person reference the fun memories from that night on the things you laughed about, - the jokes, - whatever it may be. - And this just engenders the good positive feelings that those people had when they met you - , - which makes them more likely to respond. 15. Pitching Primer: - Okay, - let's talk a little bit about pitching, - and whether you should think about pitching is really there's two kinds of pitches in - business development. - There's a speculative pitch, - and basically, - this is when you're exploring a new type of relationship. - So you're out there and you're not necessarily sure of exactly how our relationship is - going to look with a potential partner. - But you have a general hypothesis, - and you're trying to figure out whether this is realistically possible. - And then you have the product ice pitch, - and this is a little bit later in the stage of a is dev relationship cycle. - Basically, - what you're offering is defined. - You've done this type of deal before, - and you're just trying to replicate it over and over with everyone that it makes sense for - So which type of pitches appropriate Rio? - Well, - it depends upon where you are in the life cycle of your business and business development - efforts. - Questions you should ask yourself are. - Is your offering or the second relationship product eyes? - This is a new type of deal. - Do you have any leverage or your street cred? - It's the relationships, - product eyes. - That's a practice bitch. - If It's a new type of deal. - You're probably looking at a speculative pitch, - and if you have a ton of leverage, - then maybe that speculative pitch is a little bit easier to turn into a product. - I spits eventually. - Now we're gonna go over how to construct both and the important things to know. - But I just wanted to bring these facts up so that you come out of a framework to understand - how you might want to be crafting your page in thinking about pigeons. - One important thing to bring up is a major goal of business. - Development is essentially to product ties of pitch. - So you want to create a relationship that drives growth and then replicate that - relationship over over for every single potential partner that it makes sense for and again - . - This is called product ties with relationship, - and typically it's taking that speculative pitch. - So the uncertain relationship that you have a hypothesis around actualizing it and then - turning that into something that can be replicated over and over again. - And this is often where a junior person comes in and scales it is when the relationship is - defined. - It's been product ties, - and we'll call that beauty product market fit, - and it's time to scale it. - And you want to bring on somebody junior to basically just replicate that over and over - again. - So let's talk a little bit more about the speculative pitch. - This is often appropriate for first deals for your startup company, - a new type of relationship for a start up company or even extending a relationship into a - new vertical or market. - And what happens in these instances is, - in many cases you're approaching somebody with a bit more leverage, - and we'll we'll talk about how to circumvent this. - A little bit later, - she get the terms that you want, - but that's just a dynamic that you should be aware of now. - It's important to understand the dynamic at play when you're going in for a speculative - pitch, - you're coming to the table with an ideal relationship in mind when approaching a partner. - But you might have a limited data improve points that this is worthwhile, - and you might even be unclear about what's important to the other party, - which makes positioning your ideal relationship perfectly, - a little bit difficult. - So before you can build a case study to demonstrate those bottom line results that are - gonna make partners are more likely to work with you. - You need to get buying, - which means convincing somebody that you possess the best solution to the problems in the - context of a mutually beneficial relationship. - So let's just just let's just go ahead and talk about a little bit of a balance. - Is that play here? - You don't necessarily know what this person wants. - You don't have data and proof points to make this person feel really good that this is - going to really move the needle for them. - So there is a little bit of balance in terms of the amount of leverage that you have, - especially when these deals are with bigger companies. - What's gonna typically happen here is you're gonna push for your ideal relationship. - But because I don't have all of these things like the data and proof points, - like the leverage of that additional existing partners provide, - you might have to bend slightly to get this person to take that initial shot on you. - So let's talk about the actual formula to make this happen the first meeting again because - you don't necessarily know what this person, - what's important in this person and how the best position this it's about information - gathering and building report. - So you want to ask this person questions and figure out what's important that once you have - those answers about what's important that, - then you're going to go back and re architect your positioning in order to make this - relationship in perfect alignment with what's important to them. - And we can call this the perfect pitch. - You want to go in there with more or less A. - He pitched that is almost speaks exactly to whatever is important to them within the - context of your ideal deal. - Now, - I mentioned there were poor building because generally people and their desire to do things - for you is directly related to how much they like you. - And this is one of the things we discuss in beating mindset. - So if you can build a report, - this person become friends of them, - make them like you, - they're gonna be more likely to stick their neck out for you and ultimately take a chance. - On June, - you deal with your startup, - so things you can do in the report building process is again. - Make sure to ask questions about their personal lives get to know them outside the context - of the deal. - When you ask these questions, - record the details. - Write the note you should be taking. - Shouldn't just be on the context of the deal. - They should also be on the individual you're dealing with, - and this person likes running. - Or if they are a big Eagles fan or a fly fisherman or wherever it is, - make sure to surface these instances up and your conversation and try to add values. - Try to add value and give attention to them when appropriate. - Outside of just the context of the deal and these type of report, - building exercises will ultimately bear fruits. - When it's time to have this person do something for you, - that might be a little uncomfortable, - and this relationship might nudge their ability or propensity to do that. - When that's on calls 16. Navigating First Meetings: - Okay, - welcome to the section on how to navigate that first meeting. - And this is this is really for people that are more in the speculative early stages of - business development relationships. - So they might not necessarily know exactly how a relationship is going to look with - partners, - but they know they want to work with them to drive growth for the company. - So let's start by going over first meeting logistics and how to do this appropriately. - First meeting should be a phone call with a screen share. - Now you might be saying, - Why not? - Wouldn't happen in person meeting? - Well, - there's a few reasons. - One, - it could potentially be inefficient if this person has no likelihood of working with you. - You traveling to their office back from their office, - that just takes up a lot of time. - And remember, - time is a start of some most valuable asset. - Number two. - If you ask for an in person meeting, - that's that. - That's a higher commitment than a phone call, - and somebody might not. - Somebody may not be is likely to take a meeting with you if you ask for an in person. - Verceles. - A simple phone call that you can talk about your startup and even show them via screen - chair. - Remember, - this is early on. - In the process of that in person, - ask might be a little much. - So once you've gotten over email all the desire from the other party to connect for a - meeting, - what you want to do is figure out the time that they want to connect and send them A. - Countered by. - Now, - when you send your the calendar, - invite one. - Always make sure that it's from your company email address. - Ask them the best number to reach them it and include that. - Don't make them call you. - You're the one that's asking for their time, - so you should make this as convenient and low friction is possible by finding out the best - number to reach them in it. - And then, - lastly, - for initial meetings, - 30 minutes is appropriate. - I've had people ask for an hour. - People ask for 15 minutes. - 30 minutes is a good standard. - Anything longer than that is a little a little much to expect for initial meeting. - Before you know that this person is gonna be a someone that you're potentially going to - work with, - just kind of show you what this looks like. - Here's how I do counter invites. - So the company name with the little arrow sign and then there company name in the wear - section. - The best number to reach them at and in adding guests just putting their email address. - And I use Google Calendar for this, - which is which works great. - But if you don't have Google calendar, - believe Microsoft Outlook has a calendar. - Tom. - There's plenty of other services out there. - The screens air tool that I use. - It's called Julian dot me. - You could literally find it enjoyed, - not me dot com. - They do have a free version is very lightweight and effective. - And essentially what it does is allows you just you send the link or direct somebody to - link prior to the call or article, - and they can view your screen without having to download anything. - So why shouldn't do a screen share versus sending a deck and asking them to go through it? - Well, - the answer is pretty straightforward. - You want control where someone is looking during the pitch, - so there's two things here that I like to bring up in one of strategic lingering and - greater attention there's a particular slide. - Maybe it's the slide about how much revenue I drove for a past partner. - I want, - I want to. - Basically, - there's linger on that sly for as long as possible. - If it makes sense throwing the pitch right, - I want to make sure that when I'm talking about something, - they're not looking at another slide way down, - like the contact or next steps, - and that they're looking at whatever slide is pertinent to what I'm talking about at that - moment. - So when you provide a screen share and you just have much more control over these elements - versus sending them a deck and asking them to go throughout their own time because - truthfully, - most people are pretty impatient and they're just going to scan through it. - And you do not even listen to you when you talk because they think they can view the deck - on their own terms and get the red faster. - So that's why you always want to send a screen sharing. - Also, - you don't want to let the jacket do the selling before you have a chance to talk. - So if you send the Jack over maybe like five hours and advance the meeting. - I've seen people go through the deck and declining meeting because they thought that they - understood exactly your product did after seeing that initial back. - So again you want to control the pitch you want to control where someone is looking. - When someone is looking on that just so that you can convey their message conveyed. - Your message is best as possible. - Have the most attention on the elements of the pitch that you want to convey at that time. - What happens if there's multiple people on the other end and they request a dialling eso? - There might not be one phone number to call them off. - Well, - a great tool is a free conference call dot com, - and basically the service is free, - and it provides you a number and unique pin that you can use to set up a conference sign. - It's very easy, - works great, - and it's perfect for the situations when there might be people on the other end of line, - in different locations or in different offices where there is a violent required so before - the call. - Uh, - what I like to do is send them an email with that join dot meet like 15 minutes before, - you know looks like this. - So their email with subject linked to share my screen and basically denoting Hey, - here is a link to share my screen during the call. - And once you open up joined not me on your computer, - you will have a unique Ural to pry their screen and this way by sending it to them before - the call. - Either a. - They have it in their in box, - ready to go, - and you can basically you could basically start joined. - That means you can start the screen share when you want, - so they click on this and I hadn't started the screen share. - They wouldn't be able to see my screen, - but sending it to them in their in box just kind of alleviates the awkwardness of asking - them to go to, - like a very specific, - hard to type in your reality that might my costs and some just like awkwardness in the - conversation find the link is much better, - and often times people will be there waiting for you at the time of the call with this open - , - and you can tell that using joined at me. - So just setting the suddenly male 15 minutes before the call is generally best practice. - Okay, - let's talk a little bit about the conversational structure off the first meeting with a - speculative pitch. - So first and in the supplies in many senses Teoh a product pitch as well. - First, - you're gonna do a brief introduction for your name. - What your name is maybe a little bit about yourself. - Ask them how they heard about your company. - Look, - summer for Billy. - After this, - you want to get a little bit back a little bit of background on their company as well as - give them? - No, - just a few cents is on your company, - depending upon how familiar they are, - and we're gonna go over this in more detail in the pitch construction section. - But I just wanted to go over a little bit at a high level what the structure of the - conversation will look like. - After this, - it's information gathering. - So finding out some questions, - some answers to questions that you have for their company that's going to determine whether - you pitch then or go back, - re architect the pitch and present them with a more perfect positioning of your solution. - In the end, - if It turns out that these that all of the your information gathering stage, - that all of the hypothesis is that you had about why they might want to work with you are - true. - You might want to just go into temporal soft pitch there and talk about how you can work - together. - So let's just dive in a little bit deeper into some of the elements of the conversation - structure that we just mentioned. - Let's start with information gathering. - This is a huge theme off the first meeting in this speculative hit stage. - I think a great example of what this is important can be seen by looking at doctors. - So let's say you just prove your arm and you went to the doctor's office to get that fixed - , - go into the office, - and the doctor doesn't ask you many questions. - He just starts bandaging up your ankle in your head. - You're like, - Why is this person trying to fix my ankle when my arm was broken? - This example demonstrates why it's important to ask questions about the problems of the - person you're talking to before going into your pitch right. - If somebody cares about driving traffic to their website, - and I'm trying to tell them about how I can increase engagement on the mobile app. - It's not gonna be entirely relevant, - just like somebody putting a bandage of my ankle when my arm is the thing that's broken. - So this is why it's so important before you go in and start pitching your solution to find - out exactly what is important and the needs and pains of the person that you're talking to - . - Let's talk about some specific questions you can ask early on that accomplish this Number - one. - What do you focused on at your company, - both individually and as a company? - So somebody say somebody might say, - I run visits development here and the things that I'm focused on or developing partnerships - through our A p I that allow us to reach more consumers to drive sign ups on our website. - Okay, - that's great. - Now is that something that that your sole focus is that the biggest initiative for the - company right now kind of really like diving in a little bit deeper to that? - It is a great thing to do, - and you want to know again what the incentives and responsibility of the individual are as - well as what the company goals are within that is debt function of the product function, - whoever this When you figure out the goals individually and as a company, - you want to ask how they're accomplishing this. - So if somebody says, - Yeah, - we're trying to drive new sign ups and trying to build out an A P. - I Okay, - cool. - So like, - can you be a bit more specific? - How are you guys currently doing that? - Are you reaching out partners? - Are you focusing on delivering more value to consumer? - Something that they tell their friends? - Give me a little bit of insight and how that you're accomplishing that. - And then after they do that, - try to understand the metrics that they're measuring their success. - So is there Is there a way that you know, - whether you're doing that successfully and again get into the micro and macro scale? - So how do you know that this is going well for you as a company and then as an individual? - How are you measure? - So you measured on the number and sign up, - said you drive the mountain deals that you do when you have yet inciting, - do the in sentence on the person on the other side. - You can frame the relationship that you're proposing in such a way that moves the needle - for their particular and sentence both on the company scale and on the individual scale. - And lastly, - but depending upon whether they bring up the type of relationship that you're potentially - going to bring to the table, - you want to ask if they ever thought about trying to do something related to your - relationship. - So let's say that you're proposing adding additional content through any P I relationship - to the website to drive engagement. - You might want to say you would say, - Have you ever thought about trying to drive new user sign ups Spine, - potentially adding more valuable content to the Web site that incentivizes people to - entering your email address were often because all of a sudden there is this thing that - they really want their You're kind of you're kind of almost prime ing and setting up - introduction of her solution at this point, - and this is a good last question asked in this initial information gathering stage. - Okay, - now it turns out that all of those questions you ask are in direct alignment with how you - potentially propose working together and that it might make sense for you to go into a soft - bitch. - Let's let's go and look at a concrete example just to show a little bit more color on this - . - So you're meeting with a friend of a friend at a large newspaper with the idea that you'd - like to syndicate your clients data on their website. - That is the hypothesis pitch so we can forever reason. - Let's just say that men uses the thing you want put on the website and their benefit. - Why they want to work with you, - would be that this new content with Dr additional pans use an engagement for existing and - your viewers. - Okay, - So if the in the information gathering stage, - if they say no, - our number one goal right now is driving on site agent, - that's what we're really focused on. - And that's my particular job is then go into the soft Betselem. - Well, - you know, - here's the thing. - We have this data that's available through a free A P I. - That is gonna be a great fit for accomplishing exactly that, - and you don't have to go into too many specifics. - But you just bring up how you could potentially see the two companies working together now - if they say something like our number one goal right now is just retaining incumbent - advertisers. - We want the people that are paying us for advertising to buy more ad buys with us, - and you know, - that's what folks on then It's probably not the best time for me to page right there, - especially if you're coming in with the deck and all of these things that are catered - towards driving engagement, - because that was your initial hypothesis. - So just to bring it all back together. - And in short, - if your apostles pitches in alignment with the feedback that you get during the information - , - gathering questions broaches soft pitch. - If not you want you want to step back and re architected picture. - Move on. - Let's go through what I mean by soft pitch real quick, - just because I think it might be a little bit Vega. - At this point, - you can have a debt prepared, - but you don't have to if you're gonna do a soft pitch. - It's more about just having the conversation and painting the picture of what's possible - and where things could potentially go. - So in the instance that I just mentioned, - it was clear that their focus on driving engagement it would be a simple as well. - You know, - that's really awesome here because we have this particular thing that could accomplish that - . - Now I think that the way that it could be accomplished is if we're potentially doing a PR - relationship that allows you to put that data on your site so that when people go there, - they now have this extra piece of information that they're looking for. - That was, - that's going to keep in there longer and keep them coming back more frequently. - There's something like that sound interesting You That's is simple as a soft pitch could be - on and on. - So that's all you need in many instances to take the conversation to the next step. - Now what happens is the signs say, - Don't pitch well, - If there's absolutely no indication that they ever want to work with you, - then you probably want to move on. - But if you think that there's a chance, - what you want to do is to create the space for you to go ahead and re architect your pitch - so that you can come back with a tighter, - more focused pitch that's in alignment with what they care about You can do is re - architected on the fly. - But you know, - just it should be determined by whether you have a deck where the situations appropriate. - Whether you feel comfortable reframing all the relationship that you're going to propose in - that moment, - let's go ahead and look at something that you could say or method to create that space for - re architect in the pitch. - If you realize that right now might not be the best time to present the relationship you - were thinking of, - she might say something like, - Hey, - this has been incredibly useful. - Now I understand why you're trying to accomplish. - I have no doubt that we can help you out. - Is that dying specifics? - Right now I want to circle back for my team just to get a progress update on something - we're working on. - That is in direct alignment with everything we talked about, - how we have a quick follow up conversation next week when I can speak with much more - clarity about how I think we can help you out. - Do you have a calendar open. - So the idea here is just to delay the pitch until you have a chance to go back and tailor - it to something that is a greater alignment with all the information that you just found - out that this person gave you. - Now you might be saying, - Well, - this person just had a meeting with me, - like, - why would they come into another meeting with me? - Um, - honestly, - you know, - that depends upon how well you were able to build rapport and convey the potential that you - might be able to drive it on the value here. - And somebody might say at this point, - Well, - why don't you just tell me right now? - How do you think we can work together? - And in that instance, - you know, - it's best for you to comply with that request and we architect on the fly. - But I always prefer, - if you can, - creating space to go back to your team and figure out a way to tell this towards something - that's more in alignment with what this person is proposed, - and I think that you're gonna get a higher compliance on this. - If you go ahead and talk about how you need to circle back with your team, - get an update on something that is going to be in more along with that than hey, - I just need to go back and think about this some more. - Make it make it more of a higher company priority. - In a sense of, - you know, - there's something that's being worked on that could be a better fit for this relationship. - Cool. - So at this point, - you've you had the information gathering. - You kind of understand where this person ISS and what what's important. - Then you might have even done a soft pitch. - Now there's some things that you still need to take into consideration before moving - forward and potentially trying to actualize this relationship with this partner. - First question to ask yourself is this relationship with people You don't want to do a - bunch of work for the initial relationship If you don't think this can be replicated over - and over again with other meaningful partners again, - the goal of business development is scalable growth, - and that is achieved by creating a certain type of relationship that can be repeated for - all the partners that it makes sense for number two. - Well, - our companies work well together. - So is there a culture fit both on an individual level on a company level? - If this company is a just somebody that doesn't care about the same things that we care - about, - that could be a stressful relationship. - And again, - for this first partner, - you're setting the tone for all beating relationships, - that moving forward. - So it's important. - Understand whether the companies will work well together. - Number three. - Is this potentially a time waster? - So are these people that are gonna take this relationship seriously? - Are they gonna want to get it done quickly? - Um or is this somebody that I'm gonna have a lot of speculative conversations with? - And nothing is really gonna go anywhere. - It's important. - Understand this, - and there's certain things you can do to identify and avoid time wasters. - First thing can look at is what is the company history? - Do they have a company history of taking a long time to get things done and where you can - find out whether this is actually true is asking friends who might have relation of this - company whether that's the case in their experience, - or even going to people that they're currently partnered with or working with. - And just having, - you know, - a candid conversation. - Whether you know, - what's your experience been with, - like these guys? - Do you? - Are they fast? - Do they care about many quickly? - Nothing you can do is ask about the process. - Eso as a person talked to what is typically the process for things getting done, - like this relationship that I just proposed. - If it seems like there's 30 different people that they need to get compliance from, - well might take a long time worth. - Somebody says, - Hey, - you know, - I'm actually Decision Maker. - I just need to get approved from my legal team after we determined that something want to - dio and not that that's a good sign. - So these air things you can do to identify and avoid time wasters in the context of - identifying time wasters. - It's also important to screen the individual that you're talking to so that initial - stakeholders seemed like a do er, - the type of person that wants to get things done and does that frequently at their company - . - If they're not trying to find someone else within the organization that you can get - involved and I call them hurting the dealmakers you want to be working with and aligning - your relationship with people that actually can get things done and have a propensity to - get things done. - And you'll figure out who these people are, - the further that you engage in a conversation with the company. - So if you see flags that somebody is a time waster, - here are a few things that you can dio would run again. - You do not want to waste your time with people that are never going to get things done to - assign it to someone junior. - So this is a company that you still want to work with eventually. - But you just don't think anything is going to get done in in the near term. - If you have a junior person, - you could get that person involved and have them just gradually warmed the relationship - until something might eventually get done. - Three. - Keep it on the burner on you know it's not. - There's nothing wrong with just continue the dialogue, - but you want to do it in such a way that you're not wasting a ton of time on it. - And again, - the reason that I think that you should take this limited investment mindset by either not - spending time on it. - Assigning someone junior or making just a priority to not invest time in it is that a time - ? - Is a startups the most valuable asset? - So you want to be extremely protective of it by Onley spending time on things that are - going to move the needle for your company. 17. Positioning: - Okay, - it is time to talk positioning. - But before we dive too much into positioning, - let's talk about where we're at. - At this point, - you determine that there's a potential for a mutually beneficial relationship to exist - between you and a perspective partner, - and you recognize that this relationship matches your criteria for pursuing an opportunity - , - getting into account repeatability, - culture fit and prioritization in terms of your TBT metrics. - Okay, - positioning one of one. - How do you position a potential relationship with a partner? - It's always a best practice to tie your relationship and pitch to the ability to drive - revenue for that company were saved them money, - even if it's slightly indirect. - So, - for example, - for BD playbook, - I could basically pitch this as a way to make their sales seem more efficient. - Although it's a informational product with this, - knowledge will be able to sell more, - which will eventually drive more money and will be able to do it faster. - What you want to try to avoid is positioning the main or only benefit of the relationship - being something soft that doesn't directly tied to revenue or the ability to save the money - . - So example this be increasing engagement. - Bottom line is, - it's just harder to warrant spending. - Resource is, - especially when they're limited on something that's not tied directly to the bottom line, - which is dollar science. - Another best practice is to tail your pitch at a company level, - using the information gathering questions. - You should be able to understand what is important to a particular company and then craft - your pitch around those things. - Remember the slide? - This is why companies engaged in business development deals. - They want to make money, - give them something or receive something that enhances their position in the market, - maybe even appear cutting edge. - Whatever it is, - you want to make sure that the way that you position your start up and the relationship - with that company appeals to one of these things or something else, - they indicated during the information gathering stage. - Also, - it's important to understand who you're talking to, - and the example I want to bring up here is Biz Dev first product. - Different people within organisations have different incentives, - so for business development, - the goals are often tied to driving revenue. - You want to cater your pitch to that. - However, - when dealing with product, - they typically care about things like user experience, - so it might be easier to sell them on things like engagement. - Whatever it is, - you want to make sure that your tailoring to the incentives both as a company as well as - the individual that you're talking Teoh well, - let's talk about competitors differentiation and how you should think about that within the - context of positioning your startup. - The degree at which you focus on differentiating yourself from competitors initially at - least depends upon where you sit in the market. - If you're the market leader, - generally initially, - at least it's best to never bring up. - Competitors were focused too much on the fact that you have them in the positioning process - . - Why? - Well, - because you're the top dog. - Working with you is the obvious choice because you're the industry standard. - If you focus too much on specific competitors during the initial pitch, - it signals. - Otherwise, - it signals that maybe you're not the obvious choice. - Now what if you're not the market leader, - you're not the market leader. - It's better to take a more offensive stance in terms of how you construct your fame because - you have more proof. - Ice generally still wait for them to ask about competitors in this instance. - But it's just it's important to know that you do need to be a little bit more offensive. - Let's talk about bad offense making the claim that you're just a little bit better than - somebody else. - That's something. - So let's say that you can drive engagement on our website well, - making the claim that they drive three minutes of engagement and you drive three minutes - and 30 seconds of engagement. - Or maybe you can increase revenue by 50%. - And the other partners Jonah, - the increased revenue by 40%. - When you position yourself as just a little bit better than somebody else, - you're putting yourself in the same bucket, - which basically makes them evaluate you side by side. - People are choosing to potential offering side by side. - They often go with safer option with more social proof, - even when there's a little bit better results with somebody else. - So you don't want to do this. - You never want to make the claim that the reason that you're better than somebody else's - because you're just a little bit better at one particular thing, - better offense is positioning yourself as different. - So not only am I a little bit better at this thing that you're looking to improve? - We're also different because when you position yourself as different, - it's easier to justify going with less proven player because there's a greater perception - of upside different. - Well, - what happens if I'm not all that different? - Being different really just comes down the highlighting, - all the specific ways that you're better and instead of saying better framing it in a way - that caters more towards being different, - so an example of that would be single platforms, - data quality. - We had 500,000 menus and somebody else in the market, - I think had 450,000. - Now, - why should they work with us over the competitors when the number of menus that we have our - relatively easy well, - instead of it arguing that they should work with us because we have just a little bit more - data, - we toes to take a stance that were a different type of company and the way that we get the - data is different, - which is old in different quality. - So all these other players, - Yeah, - they have a lot of data, - but here's the thing they go about getting that data using technical means, - like scraping in even gain entry. - Single platform were company that is focused on the local business. - And being local is human. - We know that even though that a lot of these restaurants have data on their website, - that data is often out of deep because these people just aren't technical. - That is exactly why we focus on having a direct relationship with local business and - getting the data directly from the business order themselves. - We do this by providing them a portal that allows him to enter in this information - incredibly easy and even calling the business to verify that the data is correct. - So, - yeah, - sure, - you might be getting similar amount of data, - but the way that which we go about that data is entirely different, - which results in a different data quality. - And this quality of Gaeta is only going to get better. - The more and more customers that we signed on, - not just an example of how we position ourselves in a scenario where we were marginally - better in terms of what they wanted, - which was the amount of data. - By focusing on data quality, - how we obtained it and the fact that we work directly with the local business, - which is entirely different than this data set that's generated by technical means likes - creeping. - Let's talk about some positioning that makes it tough to land deals so again, - offering something that's just a little bit better. - Typically, - that's not really that interesting unless you're already the market leader. - Non revenue generating relationships Where there's argument and comment Processor is again - . - Companies care about dollar signs, - and it is hard for them to warrant an investment of their time. - And resource is on replacing a service that they already have or feature that they already - have. - If you're not gonna bring them dollar shots, - no proven track record, - either as a product or personally more confidence that you can give somebody that you're - able to execute a relationship and one that moves in hell for the company, - the more likely that somebody is going to want to do a deal with you. - Lastly, - presenting a relationship that requires a tone of upfront energy or effort to determine - whether it's gonna move the needle for the company we're over right now, - some different ways that you can overcome these positioning challenges so that you can land - deals that you want. - If you're offering something that's just a little bit better, - the widow overcome this challenge is to position yourself as different. - In addition, - being better the relationship you're proposing is non revenue generating. - And there's arguing incumbent player ways you could overcome this challenge are figuring - out a way to generate revenue, - proving that you drive revenue directly or even creating a different rated often now, - all these are not easy things to do. - However, - if you want to get these type of deals, - you're probably gonna have to do one of these things because it is incredibly hard to get - somebody to commit. - Resource is to change something that does not generate revenue when there's arguing - incumbent product or service where if you have no proven track record, - either as a product or personally well, - the best thing you can do in this instance is use initial partners or even friends if you - have to do create a case study and if you absolutely need you, - if there's a ton of friction around there, - give the house away for free. - Just to create that case, - study the value that you'll get on the back end for future partners by being able to prove - the return on investment in UK said it will pay itself over 10 full. - Whatever relationship requires a ton of upfront energy or effort to determine their return - on investment. - Well, - at this point, - what you want to do is remove all friction from testing something even do a small pilot to - prove the return on investment. - And this could mean things like having your team Do you work that otherwise they would - usually do doing something against a small sample set. - We'll go over different ways. - You can use pilots later, - but generally what you want to do is make it as easy as possible for these partners to - understand and realize the return on their investment. - One positioning tactic I want to talk about is called The Buyers mentality. - Essentially with bars Mentality is is positioning the opportunity so that you are the - selector and prospects need to qualify themselves to you. - Exercising the buyers mentality essentially turns the pitch from here. - The reasons that you should work with me, - too. - I want to see if you're a good fit for us to work with. - There's definitely some psychological things at play here, - mainly that people want to prove that they're worthy, - but in the instances where they're given an opportunity to do so and give you incredibly - powerful for making somebody want to work with you, - So let's give an example of this instead of me trying to get somebody to work with us, - you could say something like were picking 1 to 2 marquee partners to launch our new FBI - with, - and we just want to see if you guys were potentially a good fit for that. - Now, - in order to do that, - I'm just going to need to ask you a few questions that will determine whether you match the - criteria were looking for. - By taking this approach, - the person that you're talking to will begin giving reasons why they're a good fit to work - with you, - and eventually, - when you reward them and let them know that they are, - in fact worthy of working for you, - you validated that sort, - that proof that they were looking for, - which often makes them more likely to want to do something with you. - Now let's talk about when you should use the buyers mentality honestly depends on how much - leverage you have in the market. - If you have a ton of leverage and people are very lucky to work with new, - then taking this approach could be incredibly effective. - It also depends upon the education of the market. - So if people are incredibly aware of all the different dynamics at play, - it's a little bit more challenging to take the buyers mentality. - However, - if you have some information that they're not necessarily privy to, - um in terms of all the other players were out there, - you can exercise this with a bit more authority. - And lastly, - this is great with situations that have limited inventory. - So if you're gonna only work with a number of partners, - then exercise the buyers mentality because it's the truth. - You only have a certain amount of spots and you want to work with the best and the one - caveat. - I'll say during all of this you should only use this positioning with 100% honesty. - If you don't have limited inventory, - don't pretend that you dio. - If you don't have certain leverage points that you say that you do like exclusive - relationships, - then don't bring this up. - It's always best to be 100% honest when taking this approach and in all of purchase in - business. 18. Constructing Your Pitch: - Okay, - Welcome to the section of Bt playbook on constructing your pitch. - Now there's a lot of things that go into making a great pitch, - and we're gonna go into each one of these in detail, - but real quick. - Just go through them. - There's building the deck, - writing out your pitch, - outlining potential concerns and then understanding how you can disarm them and writing - those into your script. - Adding stories, - adding questions, - adding intentional pausing and Ratzinger. - All right, - let's Simon some rules of thumb on your deck. - Number one. - You want to keep it short and sweet. - I am for around 12 slides or less. - The more straight forward into the point, - the better. - Abelard. - Somebody with too much information. - Will there forget the key points off the deck? - Number two aesthetic is important. - Potential partners are going to judge the quality of your company and relationship with how - you present yourself, - and that includes the deck as well as the words that come out of your mouth. - If you need to pay a designer, - it's absolutely worth the investment, - considering the slightest difference in perception could mean the difference between - getting a second meeting and not getting a second meeting, - which ultimately might result in a deal that changes your business number three limit text - and the reason that you don't want to have too much taxes. - You want them listening to you instead of reading. - Now you might be looking at this presentation saying, - Scott, - this is so text heavy. - Well, - I intentionally made this text heavy so that everyone who doesn't necessarily listen to the - audio and just uses the power points or slide shares would be able to understand the most - important points. - But when you're when you're pitching a perspective partner and it's a 12 slide power point - or deck, - you want them to just focus on the big picture and visualizing what is possible, - which is why limiting text is a best practice. - Okay, - right now, - let's go through my favorite framework for constructing a deck at a high level. - Basically, - it includes these elements company background, - state of the universe in your industry, - or relative to this relationship, - an outline of your solutions, - specific examples as well as a summary and next steps. - Now we're gonna go through each one of these very specifically with examples of exactly - what I mean, - but at a high level. - This is the shell of how I like to pitch my product. - Okay, - So first slide is the company in background. - Where you see in front of you is the background slide of the single platform pitch deck. - Now, - granted, - this isn't when we were a little bit farther along than just started, - but the same principles apply. - So things you might want to include in the background of your company slide your vision. - So why does this company exist for us? - It was we wanted to create a one stop shop for local businesses to expand the storefront - everywhere. - Consumers When making decisions online, - you could include a little bit about story. - So when you were founded and if you have a prominent founder like single platform did and - widely Cirelli include that information because it is additive to your ability to be taking - seriously. - Same with the team. - Having 120 team members makes us look good in her reach of over 500,000 merchants was an - excellent proofpoint. - Now we actually got acquired when we were using this pitch deck, - so I made sure to include that because again, - when you're part of a public company that is an excellent proofpoint to demonstrate - credibility when you're entering a vertical, - If somebody's never heard of you and even including things like press mentions with logos - that somebody will recognize is an excellent thing to do because it just kind of validates - your significance as a company. - Okay, - so this is one slide after that. - I think a great section to include is a story of where the state of the world is forgiven - Prospect, - which kind of sets up your solution and why you created So for us. - There was a study done by 18 T Interactive, - which is yellow pages dot com, - that the number one thing that people search for when choosing a dining destination was the - menus. - 63% of people indicated that was the most important thing they were looking for when they - were searching for this information online. - The interesting thing waas that display this importance across all of these publishers. - Just a year ago, - Yellow Pages, - Google Trip Advisor, - All of these places that people were trying to make a dinos Ishan. - That information didn't exist on those websites, - and that's why we created single platform to give publishers the most valuable information - while letting a local business expand their storefront on places that people were searching - for them online. - See how this is kind of a state of the world where it's almost irony if you can, - if you can portray that. - So there was this thing and for some reason this didn't exist. - And that's why we created what we did, - basically, - setting the table for you to present your solution. - So third Element is a brief description of your solution, - which again was just set up by the story of the state of the world and highlighted by its - benefits for that particular prospect. - So years the next line that we present after going through the state of the world. - So this is why we created single platform, - a one stop shop for local business center in all of their information, - so their menus, - hours, - locations, - prices and more, - and we would syndicate that out to everywhere consumers were making since online. - So places like young Google, - urban spoon, - these air, - all people that were keeping this information from us and the most amazing thing waas is - that when adding this information on their site across our publisher network. - The average partner saw an additional 3 to 4 minutes of time on site. - And again, - the reason that this occurred is because this is the most important information that - consumers were looking for when trying to make that Dina decision. - So these past your slides are an example of how you transition from the state of the world - to your solution, - highlighted by its specific benefits. - You don't have those relevant proof points, - and this is really condition information like a case study or maybe the results of a pilot - program that you've done, - or maybe even proposition what the benefits would be. - If you were to do a pilot after you provided a brief description of resolution and - highlighted the benefits, - then you transition into specific examples if you have them highlighted by the benefits - that those partners saw. - So an example of this is the before and after with and without single platform. - So without single platform, - this Yellow Pages site was pretty much it just a name, - address and phone number. - If I want to figure out where I was going out to dinner with my girlfriend, - I have no idea what this place actually served us. - I'd probably have to navigate off their site and going to a specific restaurants website. - However, - after implementing a single platform AP I all of that rich information about what they - served and how much it costs was exactly right there and within the framework of their - sites. - So I never had a lead yellow pages dot com. - And it wasn't only within the website, - but on the mobile app as well, - which is a pretty amazing. - And the most amazing thing is that since adding menus, - Yellow Pages actually doubled the amount of restaurant phone calls within APP, - which is just an amazing sign of increased engagement. - So this is an example of after presenting a solution, - providing specific examples and then the benefits of that example partner that you brought - up experience know what happens if you don't have examples? - Well, - here's the instance where you basically show what something would be like and describe the - examples hypothetically. - So if you recall this from the cold emailing section before we were working with fitness - centers, - we had the idea, - basically enabling them to display all of their classes and amenities throughout or - publisher network. - And so when I was pitching Equinox, - I would say something like a single platform screen. - You're able to see some photos, - name, - address and phone number. - What people really want to know is, - what are the classes and amenities here? - And are they in alignment with what I actually want to do at the gym? - Because a lot of people just go to the gym. - Four classes Well, - with single platform, - you have the ability to display in your class schedule on amenities on all of the sites - that consumers are making decisions about where they want to go to the gym. - When somebody clicks this bun, - they can see that entire suite of amazing classes that are offered at every single location - . - So this is just an example of presenting the hypothetical. - If we work together, - this is the awesome thing that would come out of that relationship. - And again, - I created this simply using custom html via firebug and inspect element within Google - Chrome. - Okay, - after you present some specific examples or hypothetical examples, - you want to go into the closing summary and next steps. - Here's an example from a single platform back so we have a summer of the tack, - which is simple integration v a P I or job script widget. - Contents of the actual summary of what they'll be getting with the A P I and then next - steps in order to get access, - we need our boilerplate agreement signed in return, - and that's pretty much it. - I mean, - this is the a simple, - straight forward to the point deck that honestly has really enhanced by the actual words - and patching throughout it. - But the basic idea is you just want to paint the picture here of where the world waas, - why you create the solution, - its benefits as well as all the things that they're going to receive by working with you. - So your some here some frequently asked questions. - When you show a deck like this, - what if I don't have the reference of the logos that you have? - We have three options. - You can ask friends, - and you can use their logo. - You can replace a logo with a giant customer quote from a lesser known prospect or partner - , - whoever it is, - or you could just not include that slide, - but mentioned the people that you're likely to work with, - and there's a was a way to do this. - That's very important because the last thing you want to do is lie about who you're working - with again. - You must practice 100% honesty at all times. - So here's what not to do you say that you're already working with somebody. - If you haven't finalized a deal, - it just got this honest and signals the wrong thing. - And remember, - you want these to be long term, - fruitful relationships with partners? - A better approach to doing this is basically using an indirect statement that implies a - relationship exists. - So something like, - Yeah, - one of the things that Google loves about us, - that every customer gets a dedicated account manager or whoever that potential partner is. - So saying something like one of the things that somebody loves about us is an indirect - statement that implies that you either have a relationship with that partner or have been - talking to them. - And that type of statement signals the fact that there is social proof out there, - whether in the form of existing relationships or conversations again, - you don't have to have the logo slide to say something like this. - Another Jack frequently asked Question. - What if I don't have example? - Integrations? - Well, - we went over this before, - but very simply. - Just want to paint the picture with photo shop with custom. - HTML. - And here's an example again of how it did that when pitching equal ox we wouldn't have - stats. - There's two options. - One. - Go out and create a case study and get them. - And again, - sometimes this requires giving away the house through a partner or asking a friend just to - get those initial verifiable results that you can create a case study. - The second option is searching for an industry report that has staff that imply the value - of your solution. - So something like this Yellow Pages study that I brought up before were 63% of users are - searching for the menu, - which is more than any other piece of information out there when making a dying decision is - an amazing example of basically leveraging and existing study that's out there that proves - the value of your solution or potential di aver solution. - If you haven't done any partnerships yet, - let's talk about what you do after you build the deck. - The next step is to write a script for pitch using the deck as a guy. - Why? - I wrote out a script. - Well, - for a couple reasons. - First, - it helps you uncover any holes in the communication. - So even though you have all of these slides that allude to all these great things gonna - make sure you cover all your bases and Joe case all the most valuable parts of why somebody - might want to work with you and visibly writing out of script helps you uncover these. - Additionally, - you will eventually want to go from the script the first couple of times, - or at least have it handy so that you're communicating effectively and clearly when I say - read a script, - I mean literally write out exactly what you think you should say for every single slide - word by word. - Now, - this doesn't have to be perfect, - but it should be a good guideline that your pitch is going to be tailored from. - I use Google docks to wring out my scripts. - Man, - you can use any word processor out there like Microsoft Word, - whatever. - It may be okay after you've written out your script, - the next step is to outline potential concerns that your partner might have. - And afternoon do these. - You want to add different statements that disarm these concerns into the script. - So first step in this process is just thinking about writing out all the reasons why - somebody would say that they don't want to do this relationship where they might not want - to work with you. - Some examples might be we're competitors, - and how do you match up? - Maybe you don't match up. - Is wells your competitors? - How much time is required to implement your solution? - It's a common concern that you'll see you offered dedicated customer service because that's - really important loss. - Why is it so expensive? - Once you understand these potential points of contention or concerns, - you want to put in statements that disarmed them so they don't even come up into - conversation during or after you pitch. - You also wanna have rebuttal, - prepared and even practice and right the mountains, - and you can address them with confidence when they come up in a bitch again. - Once you've defined the concerns, - the next step is intentionally placing statements that disarm them throughout the pitch. - So let's look at a statement that this arms the existence of competitors we could become - the industry standard for online menu syndication, - social media, - marketing, - whatever it is. - At this point, - if we haven't done a deal with you, - we're probably talking to you. - So when you say something like this, - it signals somebody else that if their competitors air out there, - they probably are important. - Which means that there's a less likelihood this person will ask about competitors after or - during the pitch. - Another example disarming statement, - this time, - disarming the tents were concerned that it takes a long to implement. - One of the things that all of our clients love about us is how fast and easy implementation - is. - I can't tell you how many times I've heard the word seamless over the past month. - So again, - a statement like this completely obliterates the concern that something takes along to - implement. - Now they might still bring this up, - but at least you've given yourself a chance to circumvent this question entirely. - And again, - the less concerning questions at the end of the pitch, - the better. - Even when you can address all rebuttals effectively after you've added some disarming - statements around potential concerns to your script, - the next thing you want to add is stories. - Stories? - Why stories? - Well, - there's a couple of reasons Number one stories Humanize yourself. - They make people like him more. - I intentionally go as far as making fun of myself in stories. - Just two in general. - Poor and disarm any anxiety around our relationship when you tell stories and do things - like make fun of yourself, - make yourself vulnerable, - which is just generally an endearing thing to do because it shows. - To some, - it signals that somebody else that you feel comfortable enough with them to act this way. - And remember, - the more somebody likes you, - the greater likelihood that they're going to do something for you. - Miller isn't tell stories is it can be a more effective way to communicate something that's - easier to understand. - You're talking about high level concepts, - even things that are technical. - Sometimes just sharing a story more effectively communicates the value proposition and why - somebody might want to work with you. - Along the same lines. - Stories provide enhance recall. - So when this person goes to pitch internally, - it's easier for them to maybe remember a story that explicitly outlines the benefits of - your solution than technical details or things that aren't necessarily as emotional on easy - to recall as a story is. - So when do you insert a story into a pitch? - I think the best time to insert stories are when describing relatable pain that person - might have again because you want to try it, - inject something that resonates on emotional level. - So this story could be tied directly to your proxy sports elit solution, - working, - speak, - tames and generally related to really emphasize somebody's pain. - An example story that I used to tell when I was pitching the single platform AP I was the - difficulty I'd have finding a date spot that accommodated my girlfriend's eating habits. - So again, - menus are the number one thing that diners look for online. - Yet for some reason they're not on any of the most popular sites where at least they - weren't until we came along. - So I used to say something like, - You know, - it's it's honestly, - it's a It's a pain that I feel my own life because the girl invading it is what seems like - a vegetarian every other week. - And whenever I choose the restaurant, - it's always such a pain to go to the restaurants website that's blasting crazy flash music - at me. - So I usually just end up for going looking at the menu, - thinking that they have vegetarian options. - And when we get there, - it turns out the only things you get is actually Caesar salad, - which is super frustrating for me because she's unhappy with now. - This is a very simple example that demonstrates how I've no humanized the fact that this - website doesn't have menus and it's causing pain in a user's life. - It's causing pain in my life. - And now all of a sudden, - when this person goes back in to tell their boss about why they should, - Maybe at menus you might say, - you know, - this is honestly isn't very important. - There's people that are using our service out there that ultimately or having a bad - experience in the real world, - because we don't have this particular thing that they're looking for. - Another example of a story just that is non single platform specific would be a tool that - may be allowed restaurants to manage the content on their websites. - To me, - that a website builder, - you let's say that you were trying to pitch your website builder and why somebody might - need a tool to help update their website without any technical means. - You might want to say something like, - That's why I recited the bullet to will help restaurants, - usually manager websites. - My friend's parents, - who owned a restaurant had their next door neighbors little brother, - build a website like many people dio, - of course he moved away, - and now they can't update anything on their site, - including removing the weird music that blasts every time you go on it. - I didn't realize how bad it was until I went on that work in my office means asked me wise - , - listen to folk music. - It's an Italian restaurant. - So stories like this there are things that everybody can relate to you that make you more - likable so everybody can relate to the terrible restaurant website with a weird music that - is out of date that, - for some reason or whatever never changes. - And again, - maybe the reason never changed because your friends next door neighbor build it and moved - away just like we had in this story. - The bottom line is that rejecting these type of stories into your pitch disarms prospects - because you show vulnerability. - Maybe you get them to laugh, - and it also does things like effectively communicates the value proposition of your service - while enhancing recall when they go to describe it internally. - Okay, - after you've added stories, - time to add some questions within the pitch script. - You want a gassing questions, - mainly because you constantly want to be arming yourself with as much information and - understanding of your prospect as possible. - Theme or information you have, - the better you will be able to frame and position your solution to answer their problems. - Another good thing about questions is, - is they break up the pitch. - If you're just constantly pitching, - pitching, - pitching without any back and forth dialogue, - it seems kind of like a model luck. - And that isn't how a pitcher field. - It should feel more conversational than this, - And questions are a great way to essentially move it more towards the conversation. - Where do you put questions? - First place you want to put questions are in the beginning, - the call and these questions should be based around building report. - So things like So where you calling from? - Oh, - yeah. - How is the weather out there? - Yeah, - I was actually there last last year. - If you were there last year, - and we like I couldn't believe how hot awas or whatever, - you know, - type of small dog you want to make where you might be able to say something. - Have you got an introduction we got connected to receive? - How do you know Steve? - Bottom line is the initial questions you want asked should be about building report like - banner. - Just kind of disarming any anxiety around the conversation by having some small talk. - After you have a couple report building questions, - you want to dive into just 1 to 2 more relevant business questions and we just on these - briefly before but just real quick again, - these might be things like So, - how long have you been with the company? - What makes things were responsible for their How much do you know about our company? - Er, - how did you hear about us? - If they know exactly who you are and what you dio and you might want to ask him something - like, - Oh, - that's great. - Just out of curiosity, - how you guys currently approaching, - accomplishing whatever your company helps with if they don't know anything about your - company and then you might want to just proceed right in the pit and say, - OK, - great. - Well, - you know, - I'm happy that I have the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about what we do and - how we help companies like yours after you've done that and you're going to go into the - pitch and then what you want to do is throughout the script and Jackie one just Sprinkle - additional questions where appropriate and again, - this breaks up the monologue and as well as allows you an opportunity just to get some more - valuable information. - So I call these Sprinkles and questions. - Sprinkles are just very simple questions throughout the deck. - So things like is mobile Focus for you right now. - You might ask that after showing a mobile integration. - Or maybe you just described the functionality and ease of your A P I. - And maybe you could say something like just out of curiosity is an A P I something that you - guys were we thought about building out. - Now the one caveat with questions is you don't want to ask too many, - and the reason for this is you don't want to seem like an interrogation report is best - built over a dialogue. - And this is why you want to space questions out a few in the beginning, - if you about report a few about maybe their business and then a few sprinkled throughout - the deck and then even maybe a few at the end. - But you don't want to have too many questions, - and you don't want a bunch them up so the person doesn't feel like they're under attack or - in an interrogation. - Once you feel like a fun friendly dialogue where you're educating somebody about how your - company can help, - there's grow. - Okay, - after the questions, - you're going to add intentional pauses, - intentional closets. - What do you mean by a planned pause or unintentional pause? - Well, - again, - you wanted to seam conversational versus you, - regurgitating a script and by pausing throughout the presentation, - you were able to accomplish that. - But intentional pauses actually do a few other powerful things, - for one allows you to make them illicit information about their company after a plant pause - , - and I'm gonna show you exactly how to do this in a moment. - But there are just certain ways, - and you can lever the power of silence to get information out of a partner Additionally, - planned pauses sometimes can coax partners to verbally confirm believes that you want them - to possess. - So let's let's let's dive into these a little bit more. - We're to understand how pauses can view this. - We have to understand silence for a second. - Generally, - a lot of people are just afraid or uncomfortable with silence, - especially with complete strangers. - When they encounter it. - They often either say what they're thinking or infirm, - whatever it is you want them to just to avoid and break the silence. - Thus, - silence can be used to again dried information or copes confirmation. - I call this information mining with silence. - So how long do this is? - Basically, - number one defined the information that you want to know. - So an example would be Do they have budget for your product? - And then what you're gonna do is basically make a grand leading statement that has to do - with that information followed by an abrupt silence. - So if I wanted to know about whether somebody had budget for my products, - I might make say something like, - our partners have been so happy with our offering, - they can't believe that they get all of this for only $5000 silence. - And then basically, - you wait for a response, - and typically that person is going to say exactly, - they're thinking so they might say, - $5000. - Huh? - Huh? - So not not in our budget were they could say $5000. - That's it. - That's great. - Bottom line is, - is by using sounds and waiting for the response. - You get the information that you want without the awkwardness for confrontation of a direct - ask. - And again, - this is because people are generally afraid or uncomfortable silence. - So they break it by saying what they're thinking. - Now let's talk about coaxing confirmation with silence. - What I mean by this is you can essentially inspire verbal confirmation from your prospect - for a belief that you're advocating for so an example would be how amazing your product ISS - and again. - The way to do this is make a grand leading statement that is related to that belief, - followed by an abrupt silence. - So it's looking example. - You might say something like our product is increased unit user sign ups three times for - company wise, - the simple limitation and we just think that's absolutely awesome. - Giles. - No, - At this point, - the prospect is many times going to confirm this belief. - Maybe saying something. - Well, - that's great. - That's impressive. - Whatever it is, - all of a sudden, - this person is just verbally indicated that whatever it would ever believe that you wanted - them to have, - whether it's how amazing your product is, - how awesome another. - The result was for another company. - They have just confirmed that which has a very powerful effect in their own evaluation of - perspective. - Partnership. - Okay, - so after you've added some intentional pauses in order to hoax confirmation as well as - derive information or information mind your next step is to practice this. - You don't want to go in cold, - so what you need to do is find somebody from your company to practice with a few times and - even get some feedback from on how it could be improved. - Now, - when you do this, - you can just do it very casually. - But what I recommend is during it as exactly as if you were doing it with the prospects. - That means get in front of your computer doing a screen share and you're picking up the - phone and calling somebody in a different room. - You want to simulate this as close to its possible as what an actual pitch will be like - with a partner. - And that way, - when you go and actually do the pitch, - you'll be comfortable because you've been in that situation before. - After you've nailed the pitch 3 to 4 times with your practice partner, - I'd say that you're ready to go ahead and do the real thing. 19. Executing Your Pitch: - Welcome to the section of BT playbook, - where we talk about how to effectively execute your pitch now. - At this point, - you should have a well designed deck and script that conveys your value. - Proposition disarms concerns, - contains stories, - Sprinkles in questions, - has strategic pauses and provides clear next steps. - Now it's time to actually pitch your prospect. - But before you actually pitched them, - there's a few things you should do before you get on the phone with them. - Number one Answer this question. - At this point. - What is the best possible outcome of this call? - Literally Write it out. - And the reason that this is important answer is because at different stages there is going - to be different next steps. - And you need to be totally aware that at this stage is the best outcome. - A. - Another meeting with potentially the decision maker is it to close the deal? - Understanding exactly where you need to get to will help you navigate the conversation. - And if you don't really have this intent, - focus on the realistic, - best possible outcome, - you're just not gonna be is intentional about your actions, - so literally write this out before the call. - What the best possible outcome of it could be. - This will bring a whole lot of focused here dialogue, - especially towards the end when you're trying to push somebody towards a certain action. - In addition to defining your ideal outcome of the call, - you also want to do some reconnaissance on both the company and prospect. - You're about to talk to first place to go is Google News. - You want to search the name of the company you're about to talk to in Google News? - And if you're not familiar with Google News, - it's basically a facet of Google search that allows you to surface the most recent content - produced on the Internet about a particular keyword. - So in this instance, - I search Salesforce and you'll see in the results the most recent news articles on - Salesforce. - Why this is important is because if an important event just happened that's related to that - company, - you might want to be aware of this and also bring it up in conversation. - If something awesome just happened to them, - it's always good to demonstrate that you're aware of that in the initial report building - stage of the pitch, - because it shows that you're aware of what's going on in the industry and also that you - care about the success of that company. - Another pusher gonna want to check out his Twitter and your warning. - You're going to want to try to look at both the company handle as well as the stakeholders - handle. - Often times companies will publish things on their blogger, - even just on their social media channels, - about great things that are going on in the company. - So this is an excellent place. - In addition to Google News. - To find those things, - it's also cool to see what's going on in your stakeholders life. - So if you confined this particular person, - look at their handle and see what they're talking about. - And so you kind of give you some or interests on what they're interested in, - what's going on in their life, - maybe even additional company news. - Now, - if you're not familiar, - Twitter ah, - places you can find this information is just going to twitter dot com backs last search, - and you can even do an advanced search to isolate your prospect. - So in the all these words sections, - you could type in the prospects name, - and then you could isolate that person by typing, - going to the places section and searching for the particular area where the company's - headquarters. - And this is just a very simple way to find your prospects handle and again see what that - person's talking about, - what they're interested in, - and then loop these conversational threads into the report building stage off the pitch. - Okay, - you want to go to the company's website or block Now again, - it's very much along the same lines, - but you just want to see what's going on with the company. - See if there's anything new published on the block. - Maybe there's an interesting product release. - Maybe there's just pictures of the team during something cool. - Whatever it is, - you're looking for ammunition to effectively educate you and better understand the product - . - Before you get on the phone with the person you're about to talk to, - the more knowledgeable you can seem about their company and current in terms of what is - going on and what they're up to, - the better conversation you're going tohave, - and if you look informed, - it's only gonna help your cause in landing a deal. - The last place I like to go prior to a pitch is a prospects lengthen and again here I'm - looking for just some history on the prospect, - which could be used as touchpoints for report building. - So things like the previous companies they worked at, - maybe what they were particularly responsible for both at their current company as well as - their previous companies. - The school they went Teoh. - Another thing that will do that's a little bit Audie. - It less obvious, - is checking out the intersection of the prospect. - So a lot of centimes they have their professional interests, - but also their personal interests. - And this is an excellent place to mind for opportunities to connect around interests. - So, - for example, - this person is interested in running, - and one thing that you can do to build some report is basically inject dialogue around - their interests without explicitly stating that you're aware of them. - So if you have a true true mutual interest in something that you noticed in their profile, - for example running and they ask you, - how's everything in New York, - you might say something like, - Yeah, - things were good. - But, - you know, - I just started running again, - and my, - my my heels are killing me or my Achilles is bothering me a little bit, - and now all of a sudden you're conceding a conversation around something that they care - about, - which is excellent for poor building. - Now, - you when you make statements like this, - you only want to do them with complete honesty. - You don't want to just say things simply to start building report if they're not true. - But again, - this is an excellent place where you can find these conversational threads and weave them - into the report building stage to get somebody talking about things that they actually care - about. - So let's talk about a typical first call agenda, - and we talked about this a little bit before, - but we'll just reviewed again, - starting off summer poor building questions Light banner, - then going into 1 to 2 more relevant business questions. - And these questions will be depend basically, - on how long form somebody is about your company. - After that, - you're gonna walk through the deck using your script as a guideline, - and then you're gonna go into the closing discussion portion of the pitch, - followed by next steps. - So let's talk about during the pitch what you should be doing, - because you shouldn't just be going off on a monoline it's critical that you're gathering - information about the prospect. - And again, - the reason is the MAWR information you have, - the better understanding you're gonna have the prospects, - pains and needs which will allow you to frame and position your relationship effectively. - I use a Google doc called My Working Agenda to take notes on this information. - And very simply, - it's just a running Google doc of the person's name company. - The date that I talked them where I just take all my notes Any time I need to recall notes - from this document or from a meeting, - I simply just used the control after find function to basically search the prospects name. - I pulled the last meeting, - and I have all my notes on that particular prospect. - This is super simple. - It works for me. - A lot of people take notes in a sales tracking or prospect tracking software. - I prefer this just because it's easier on git gives me more room to take notes on a - prospect. - But whatever works for you, - so long as you have a system that allows you to capture the important information from the - conversation, - let's talk about what notes you should be taking first and foremost, - you want to be writing down anything that's potentially relevant to your relationship with - that prospect. - So things like high level information on the company that could be relevant, - the objectives of both the company Israel's individual, - remember you want to be You would have a keen understanding of how your prospect is - measured, - what they're trying to accomplish, - because if you understand this, - you can appeal to their incentives. - You also want to understand what their current situation is relevant to the relationship. - So is there an incumbent software? - Have they been thinking about this but haven't yet acted on it? - Do they have? - The resource is for this right now, - both financially end or from a development standpoint, - you want to try to basically understand all these things and then take diligent notes about - them so that when you ask yourself, - Okay, - how do I best position this where my at? - How can I achieve some leverage? - You have all this information in front of you to properly architect the pitch moving - forward. - Another area you should be taking notes on is the prospects personal life. - So do they have a family? - What are their interests. - They have a favorite sports team. - What do they do last weekend? - Do they like to travel one of their favorite places? - This information is excellent for report building, - but it's also ammo that could be used in conversational continuity. - So a lot of times, - people just they won't get back to you if you're constantly pinging them about a deal. - But if you bring up things in your email dialogues completely unrelated to the deal like - news on something they care about, - maybe it's their sports team. - Just had a game they want or something's going on in their city. - People often are more likely to respond, - and again a lot of times it's just about keeping that dialogue warm outside of things - specifically related to the business deal that allows them to be open, - honest and forthcoming about where things stand, - especially when things are not ideal frio. - So if the deal installed things you're taking along, - their expected people aren't really excited to talk about that. - However, - If you have a dialogue going around something else that they care about, - there's a certain level of comfort that's developed there, - which will allow people to be more comfortable and open with sharing, - sharing with you things that might not make you happy. - We're gonna go over conversational constituting and strategies for that in a little bit. - But that's just one thing to keep in mind as we talk about this, - it's one thing we haven't really mentioned is bringing up the price. - If your relationship is a monetary one, - there's a There's a couple of effective ways to do this, - and I, - you know, - just certain things that you can do to avoid things like price haggling. - So first and foremost, - you want to introduce the price if there is one at the end and after you've outlined all - the positive reasons why somebody would want to work with you. - I want to do this because you don't want somebody thinking about the cost benefit analysis - until they've understood all the benefits. - It's ideal to build a state of excitement and anticipation before you introduce how much - it's going to cost somebody. - Another favorite thing of mind to do when bring up the price is free. - Me it as on Lee. - So I might say something like, - you'll receive everything I just showed you for only $495 a seat or whatever the price unit - is that you're talking about. - The reason that this is powerful is that basically you're injecting the fact that - collectively people think that this is cheap. - When you say something like on Lee, - that's indicating that everybody else thinks that this is a steal and people naturally feel - inclined to agree with the collective masses. - So when you say something like, - Oh, - yeah, - for only 14 95 seed, - all of a sudden that appears cheaper and like a better deal than just $495 at least - initially, - without the in depth analysis of cost benefit, - let's talk about some ways to avoid price haggling. - First thing you can do is explicitly state wire product costs, - the amount it does when you given explicit reason why it justifies the price and also makes - it seem less malleable. - So a statement that demonstrate this is today cost $495 parental pricey. - We only charged just a little bit more than a dollar day, - Percy, - just because we need to cover our own costs again, - I've said I've set the frame with the word on Lee here because nobody wants to look like a - poor cheapskate. - If everybody else thinks that, - that is a deal, - and I have talked about why it costs, - how much it does because we need to cover costs. - This justifies the price and makes it seem like it's less malleable, - which will prevent somebody from trying to haggle with you. - Nothing that you can do to a board. - Price haggling is explicitly indicating that you don't move on price or just simply saying - that it's only going to go up. - So an example statement that accomplishes this is today. - You could have all this for only $495. - Just be transparent. - I can't make any guarantees. - It's going to stay there for much longer. - But I can assure you that it's not going any lower. - This just sets the expectation that you're not going to move down on price and being firm - in this just a lot of times cuts through any cuts through people's Proclivities to even ask - because you've set the expectation that hey, - if anything, - this price is going to go up now. - What if the relationship you proposes free? - Is there anything that you can do to make this person feel like they're getting a deal. - The answer is absolutely. - My favorite way to accomplish this is basically to indicate that other people see so much - value in what you're proposing, - that they typically want to pay for it. - So a statement like this accomplishes that after this presentation is usually when people - ask me how much this cause. - The best part about this is that you get all of this for free, - and then I'll pause right and only exercise silence there to coax confirmation that this is - an amazing deal. - And people will typically say yes, - it is because again, - I've indicated that that's what other people think. - And there is a natural proclivity of people that you pitch to follow the herd mentality. - Okay, - so this is how you can make something that's free look even more valuable. - Let's talk about closing the first pitch. - Well, - how you end the pitch should always be calibrated with how the conversations went. - The reason that you don't want to ask this is because very few people present possessed the - authenticity and honesty to admit that they don't hold power. - So what that means is that a people will say that they are the decision maker when they're - truly not. - And also it just if they're not the decision maker, - it just puts an awkward frame on the conversation. - Oh, - no, - I actually don't hold the power to make any decisions at my company. - That person is X Y Z. - It's generally this direct of a statement is just not the most effective way to derive this - information. - Let's talk about a better approach or a few better approaches. - Rather, - you might say something like So when decisions like this are typically made who all gets - involved, - what is the typical process for deciding on an offering like this? - So who else on your team would be interested in learning about this? - All of these are more direct ways to find out who is involved in the decision making - process and what that is, - and then make sure to get a meeting with that person again because you want to be dealing - with people that actually could move the needle on a relationship. - So if it turns out that that person actually is the decision maker, - the next thing you want to do is reaffirm or outlined the proposed next steps if you - haven't already. - So this is the way that I like to do. - This is say something like Great. - The next steps were very easy. - I'm gonna send you a very straightforward boilerplate agreement. - Assuming that this is the next steps that states the terms of the proposed relationship by - X date, - we're gonna provide you with this and in return, - you guys going to do this for us? - Obviously, - it will be some standard legalese and conditional clauses that are lawyers. - You're throwing just to protect ourselves. - But but at a high level, - this is what we're looking at. - Is all this sound good? - So this is just an example statement that you could use if let's say you do you want to go - into next steps? - But you don't have a product ties relationship that already has an established agreement in - terms of service, - and typically where you go from here is they say, - Yeah, - that sounds great, - is go to your lawyer, - outlines specific terms of the agreement that you proposed and then ask them to draft up a - formal agreement. - You can also do things like asked for a signed letter of intent to work with you. - If you haven't done this, - just get some type of commitment. - The list goes on and we'll talk a little bit more about this in the terms of negotiation - section of BT Playbook. - Now, - one thing you do want to make sure you include in this agreement that your lawyer drafts up - is if then conditions. - So, - for example, - it's a delivery herbal, - whatever that is that they're going to provide you is not met on this date. - This that action will happen. - And what you want to do with these is basically just protect yourself as well as get them - to put skin in the game. - If they don't have any reason to act with urgency, - thes things can drag on forever, - which prevents you from ultimately actualizing the relationship, - which is what you're actually going for, - not just the signed contract. - You want the implementation, - the resell, - the email partnership, - the re marketing, - whatever it is that is actually going to drive growth, - not just a piece of paper that says two companies are working together. - Now. - What happens if they're not the decision maker? - What do you dio. - Well, - you don't want to waste too much time on somebody who doesn't possess the ability to push a - relationship forward. - So that's why I need to get in front of the decision maker as soon as possible. - And if you recall this questions that we brought up earlier, - when you ask something like so when decisions like this are typically made who all gets - involved and they get back to you and say that somebody else is your number one priority is - to get in front of that person. - What typically happens is often this person is a gatekeeper, - this initial stakeholder who is not the decision maker, - and they will propose that they need to go and pitch internally. - So maybe they'll say something like, - We'll need to have him take a final look this before we go any further. - You cannot let them pitch internally. - You need to basically get in front of that. - And the reason is is that no one is going to be able to pitch your product as effectively - as you can or your relationship as effectively as you can. - That's just heard about it for 20 minutes. - They're not gonna be ableto answer rebuttals. - They're not gonna be able to present it and all the benefits as clearly and concisely, - which is why you want to make sure that you are the one that's pitching the product. - So you want you want to say something like this? - Great. - So how about both of us? - Hop on a call next week? - I have my calendar open is true. - Zero Wednesday. - Good for you guys. - So you once that person indicates the name of the person who is the decision maker, - propose a call immediately with that person with both of you, - not you get a common bite back. - Actually, - I'll need to reconvene with them first and get back to you again A lot of times. - Or the gatekeeper, - they want to protect that person. - Here's one way how to intercept and handle that. - I totally understand, - but I just imagine that they're probably gonna have some questions. - I'd be happy to make your life a little bit easier and have all three of us hop on a quick - call next week. - That way, - if they have any questions, - I can answer them right there, - so we avoid a lengthy back and forth. - Does that make sense? - When you do here is basically incentivized them to allow you to be the one to deliver the - pitch. - And you do that by just alluding to the fact that their life is going to be easier if you - are the one to present it. - Just because that way you can answer all the questions they have, - you can avoid the lengthy back and forth, - and instead of saying, - Does that sound good? - Or how about that? - I say, - Does that make sense? - And the reason that I say that is because, - truthfully, - one position like this, - this does make a whole lot more sense. - So you want to ask a question that somebody will comply to, - given the pre context and the does that make sense is more likely to get a yes, - then does not sound good. - Okay, - if they still refrain at this point, - you need to get a commitment that they will keep an open dialogue. - And this is where many conversations die because the initial stakeholder goes in a pitch. - The offering, - the decision maker doesn't like it, - and then you never hear from them again. - So you need to basically protect yourself from this happening. - If they won't let you intercept and get on a call, - all three of you in the next week, - I just getting some commitment from them to keep it open. - DIALECT. - So here's how you accomplish this by Lovering Consistency. - Whether you know it or not, - humans naturally desire to be consistent with their but what they say and how they act. - So if I say that I'm going to do something to somebody else, - I'm going to be more likely to do that action because I want to be consistent between what - I said I was going to do and what I actually dio. - It's just a sign of integrity that we all strive for. - You can take advantage of this in your conversations. - Here's an example of how to do this. - Sure, - that's fine. - I totally understand that. - You need to talk to your boss first. - You do me a favor. - Would you mind sending me an email with their feedback after you guys have had a discussion - ? - Just so we're on the all on the same page about whether there's a good fit here. - I'd really appreciate it at this point that person will say Sure, - no, - What you've done here is basically gotten a commitment from this person to keep the - dialogue open. - Regardless of how it goes again, - you ask for feedback and they said, - Yeah, - sure, - I'll give you feedback Now What you want to do is seal this in a concrete way with this - email and this is something. - The reason that this is important is because you need to be able to recall this instance - where they made this commitment with this person in case they don't get back to you. - This is very, - very important because a lot of times people will make this commitment and then they won't - remember it that they won't remember the fact that they said it one week, - two weeks, - three weeks later, - whatever it ISS. - So you can accomplish this by saying after saying an email after you've had the phone call - and the person is committed to this verbally. - Hey great! - Connecting with you today about X y Z, - I enjoyed learning about your product and small world that you also love Rudy Genero. - I really appreciate you offering email me some feedback once you have a chance to talk to - your team this week. - It means a lot. - I look forward to hearing from you that So what you've done here is sight of the fact that - they made that commitment. - What happens is if they don't respond you as promised in a week or whenever they said they - were going to check with your boss. - You reply to this email that we just displayed in the last slide, - asking for an update, - and what we'll see is that indication and reminder that they made a commitment to get back - to you with feedback. - And again, - there isn't a lot of incentive here and natural psychological principles that play because - this person desires to be consistent with with their word on what they said they were going - to dio. - So an example reply email that you could send is hey, - any change have gotten some feedback from routine yet any insight here. - Even if it's not the best fit right now, - it would be much appreciated Now. - The first sentence is basically referencing the feedback they promised to give you, - and the second instance is giving them permission to deliver negative news. - This is important because people are afraid of confrontation and saying that I don't want - to work with you or that my team's not interested is an example of a potential - confrontational situation. - So a statement like any insight here, - even if it's not the best fit right now, - it would be much appreciated, - basically gives them permission to give bad news. - And you want this permission because the last place you want to be is ambiguity. - It's much better to get to a resolution and understand whether there's a chance of a deal - moving forward or not moving forward. - You can spend time on relationships that actually have a chance of being actualized. 20. Presales: - Okay, - welcome to the section of Bt playbook on pre selling. - So here's how most people do is dead deals or create products that they eventually want - people to pay them for a either use an idea that they created or a request they received - from an existing or potential partner as justification to start building something. - So this could be a new a P I. - A new product feature, - even an entirely new company or product. - And then they find out that no one actually wants your product when it comes time to - integrate, - to pay for it, - whatever the Value Exchange is for the other person that they built this thing for. - As a result, - it weighs time, - their race resources and even money. - And they even make developers angry because nobody likes building things that nobody wants - . - So here's how early stage is DeMann sales is supposed to work. - Number one. - You find and identify a partner or potential clients pain. - That's gonna be one thing. - This could be multiple things. - Ideally, - you won't understand as many pains as possible. - After this, - you won't identify the most high leverage pain that they mentioned. - That is an alignment with your growth strategy and business schools. - So if you're looking to get exposure for your data and the number one pain for this - particular partner is keeping people on the website, - maybe that means that a perfect relationship is you developing a a p I or Pretty selling an - A P I. - That provides data that keeps people on their website longer. - So after you've identified the most high leverage one to fix, - you propose a solution that alleviates that high leverage pain, - and we're gonna get into exactly how to do this shortly. - So don't worry if you're unsure how to do this after you propose a solution, - you make sure that they put some skin in the game in orderto actualize the solution. - So dollars resource is which could be developers, - designers a collateral guarantee. - So if this isn't received by X Date, - we're going to receive this, - which again could be dollars could be something else, - but it's important that you have them put some skin in the game. - Then, - after you've gotten that commitment to basically put skin in the game, - is when you go about building that new feature, - that new product, - whatever it ISS. - So why do it this way? - Why not just create something and see whether people would be interested in it? - Presales is an amazing exercise because you eliminate the risk of building something that - no one wants. - The last thing you want to do is expend a ton of resource is time and even dollars on - something that people say that they wanted. - But in reality, - when it came time to actually commit something, - nobody wanted to do it. - So getting skin in the game, - getting them to have a vested interest in order to make sure the deal successful more than - just a piece of paper by committing something really like dollar signs developer resource - is whatever is. - It's just an excellent way to make sure that you only spend time on things that people - truly want and are willing to make sure are successful. - This just seemed like something that might not be possible. - Like, - how could I get somebody to pay for something or give me resource for something before it's - even been built? - Well, - that's actually how I sold this course. - I basically said that I was going to create this thing enforcement any time creating the - content. - I need 10 more people to providing memberships, - and I supposedly stated that I was only going to build this if I had enough signal of - demand that people wanted it. - And fortunately, - I was able to get people to create by the course, - which warranted my actions of going out and spending time building this. - Now this isn't something that can only be done on info products, - and this can be done on literally everything from software to a P I relationships. - For the Arbilla initial relationship with The New York Times, - you basically said that we had the ability to go out and get every single menu prior to - actually having them. - If they would integrate with us, - we got a commitment for them to integrate. - And then, - after we got that commitment, - we went out and got all of the menu data for the restaurants in their dining guide. - And again, - you can see that here on their website by clicking menu. - There is now a single platform menus across every single restaurant in The New York Times, - and this relationship allowed us to go and sell to all the restaurants in New York who want - to be featured on the site. - Another example. - Waas The photos AP I that we built so frequent feedback from our publishers after giving - them venues was, - Oh, - this is amazing, - but we want more constant from you guys. - We weren't photos after they indicated interest. - We basically said The publishers, - that's great. - If you want this content, - we can go out and get it. - But we need a commitment from you that if we do this, - we're going to build an A P I and we're going to be have this distribution on your sites. - We got a community commitment from a few key publishers that if we were able to achieve - this, - then that relationship would proceed as follows. - And then we went to top grants and basically said, - Hey, - pre sold the ability to do that. - You said, - Hey, - if you give us the rights to publish these photos, - we'll get you across all of these sites for free until this date, - after which will determine whether there is a monetary relationship to display this. - So that got us the content at scale that allowed us to basically go back and get the - publisher. - AP ideals, - and as a result, - we had expanded content. - Distributions are more than just menus and lists of products and services now photos and - name, - address and phone number as a result of this deal, - as a result of this initiative that allowed us to open our business up to other verticals - outside of restaurants, - as well as make our product more attractive to enterprise clients like change. - Here's an example off the photo AP I own. - Yeah, - so before single platform he's hot. - Either had no photos or maybe just a few photos. - Crowdsourcing Internet. - Now they had these high quality, - rich photos that they were able to control as a brand, - and Yahoo wins because they have a more peeling listing that drives more engagement from - the user. - So how do you actually pull off pre selling? - What's What's the formula per se? - Well, - once you've identified pain and determine it fits within your ideal partnership matrix, - you wanna make an offer, - and that basically looks like you will receive this particular thing on this team and which - gives you this benefit if you commit to this. - So an example of the photos FBI you'll receive access to 500,000 photos buying March 1st, - which will help you drive engagement if you commit to actualizing a photo ap I with us. - When we give that asset, - that's basically that's basically the high level formula. - So in order to make that a reality, - you want to basically provide some benefit to the person that you're asking, - too? - Yes, - we have faith in you and commit to something that isn't built yet because that can be a - scary thing to dio. - Have somebody commit Resource is to something that isn't actually in the market yet - requires trust and requires fee, - and it requires some incentive to do this, - especially when you're early stage. - Start up. - So what are some ways you can incentivize people in a pre sell to have the faith and give - you something before you actually built it? - Number one, - a lifetime discount or price anchor. - So if you're gonna be charging for something, - one thing you can do is basically lock them in at a discounted price forever. - So let's say you're charging $495. - You haven't built the product yet, - but you've gotten validation that people want it. - You can say you know what? - If you pay us this price of $300 now, - you're gonna be locked in for $300 a month for the rest your relationship with our company - instead of $495 like everybody else. - And guess what? - That 14 $95 is probably going to go up after we add more features to the product are - thinking offer is early or limited access. - So a lot of people, - especially in competitive markets, - are interested in being the first to market with a particular feature or product. - So offering them you're gonna be the 1st 1 had access on this for the next six months. - And just think about how far ahead of your competitors you're gonna get with this tool or - feature, - or whatever it is that you know that your users or your customers want. - So that's another good one. - You can even offer bonus features or content so you can give somebody a specific thing that - nobody else has to make them feel special and to incentivize them to move. - So an example with this particular product that I sold right here is I give everyone access - to go behind the scenes. - Look at the creation of a product because a lot of people are interested in business - development are also interested in making money online and how I create info products that - allow me to do that. - Okay, - let's talk about some other leverage points. - You can exercise to incentivize people to move on a pre sale. - One point of leverage is the ability to drive the product. - So as an early partner, - you're literally gonna help us shape this offering for every single partner that comes - after you. - And as a result, - you're gonna have the perfect solution for your business. - Sometimes you can bring up the fact that it would require too many resources for them. - Do it themselves. - Listen, - you know that you need this and that you currently don't have the ability to make this for - yourselves. - So by working for this, - you're gonna get this thing that you know you need faster than if you didn't work with us, - or you could also say the same for expertise. - Listen, - I know you could create this, - but you're not gonna be able to create it with the ability that we will, - because you don't have the expertise. - So by working with us and working with us early, - we're going to create the absolute best solution. - Given our expertise in this particular domain speed, - they can get something faster where they can even achieve a growth metric faster by working - with you and taking advantage of this one time limited opportunity to get in early and - again. - You know, - if you're appealing to another start up whose most valuable asset is time, - then this can be a very, - very effective lever to basically bring to the table in Brazil. - Lastly, - you could re of fact that you might have some departure content technology that they can't - get anywhere else. - And if they don't work with you at this point, - somebody else might get it or have access true before them, - which isn't gonna be good for their place in the marketplace. - Okay, - so let's let's get back to the pre selling formula now that we understand some leverage, - points and incentives that we can use to get people to commit to something that because a - little bit anxiety in the beginning, - because again they're committing resource is we're paying something that hasn't yet been - created. - Okay, - let's take another look at the pre selling formula. - It's talk about the potential stakes that partner could commit. - So you were received this particular thing on this date and which causes this benefit if - you commit to this now. - So what are some potential stakes for them to commit? - Because again, - if they don't have any skin in the game, - it could just be a perpetual thing that never actually goes anywhere and ultimately has no - urgency around it's number one money. - They can either directly give you money for delivery ble right then and there were You can - position it in such a way. - Like we need this money to cover development costs, - which often, - often actually has a higher rate of compliance. - Just because it seems like the money is being directly position towards something very - specific as people of these number two re sources. - So okay, - we're gonna give you this thing, - but we're gonna need to developers or one of your designers to work with us on the process - in the next three months and re need them start on November 1st or whatever it iss three a - money guarantee. - If the delivery ble is not met by an implementation deadline. - So Okay, - we're gonna give you this a p I, - and you're gonna integrate it by November 1st. - But if it isn't integrated by November 1st we're gonna charge $5000 because that was - dedicated time that we used for developers, - which we could have been using them for something else. - Okay, - this should give you a good place to start for potential stakes for partners to commit in a - pre sale. - All right, - let's talk about how to improve your chances of actually getting pre sale deals done. - First thing you can do is make implementation and execution as easy as possible. - So you want to remove all friction, - Whether that's developer time, - whether that's getting the product payment, - whatever it is to making this relationship actually happened, - Number two, - you want to establish an incredibly clear plan of action with part of results. - So not just Oh, - yeah, - we're going to do this and it's gonna drive user engagement, - saying something like, - by October 1st, - we're gonna drive you 5000 sign ups and we're going to do that by implementing and 15 days - with my team and your team work together. - We have a call set up on Monday. - More specific you can be about the next steps and tartar results. - The more likely somebody is going to be excited about the relationship and willing to - before building trust through nurturing your relationship with the personal contact. - Again, - people do things for people they like. - People take chances for people they like eso, - the better relationship you can have with the potential person you're presenting to the - MAWR trust that's going to be there, - which is going to result in an easier ability to pre sell and an absolutely critical thing - you can dio do nurture. - That relationship is getting some face time. - Last thing you do is you risk the relationship on their side. - So this could be things like, - Hey, - you know what? - If we don't get you this by this date, - we have a money back guarantee or we'll pay you $10,000. - Whatever it ISS, - the less risky you can make a pre sell engagement more likely headed that somebody is going - to agree to do it. - So figure out a way that you might be able to make it a little bit less risky given the - scenario that you're proposing. - Okay, - so we talked about Pre sells another great alternative to the pre sale in order to make - sure that you're spending time on things that move the needle and that things that people - actually want is pilots. - If you're not familiar with the pilot, - it's basically a short term engagement that allows you to test whether relationship drives - the results that each party wants. - This is the way that companies often engage in a short term or smaller sample set - relationship in order to turn whether it makes sense to do a full scale partnership. - So just a example of this is the relationship between mind body and single platform Mind - Body. - If you're not familiar, - is one of the largest software providers to spot salons fitness wellness centers, - and they did not have the ability to publish listing information for all of their clients. - There was a absolutely natural fit there, - but before we basically did a reselling partnership on a single platform to mind body, - we just wanted to test it amongst probably 1/10 of their customer base to see if they were - interested in it and if it turned out that this was a product that they love. - We were going to launch into a full scale reselling partnership. - But it turned out that, - you know that there wasn't really a whole lot of interest here and this wasn't gonna move - the needle for either party's. - It just wasn't gonna make sense for us to commit the time, - energy and resources into making this relationship a full scale one that went out to every - single one of their 20,000 plus customers. - And basically, - how this actually looked is that recited that they were going to re sell our product. - And amongst 2000 of the 24,000 customers, - we had their sales team call for about a month and do some email marketing to, - and we just were testing how many people actually converted into single platform customers - from the mind body customer base. - And it turned out actually that they took to it really well. - And now a single platform is Justin offering is resold to online body customers a couple - months after they've joined mind body. - So the pilot was successful, - which warranted a full scale relationship. - Okay, - so how do you actually do a pilot? - Well, - first step is proposing the ideal relationship or the thing that you want to test. - After you've done this, - you want to determine it risks. - So maybe somebody doesn't buy. - Maybe there's no conversion. - Maybe, - Technically, - this is just something that we can't do. - Whatever the restart outline its risks after you've figured out its risk, - whether that's the fact that the customer base is it gonna take to it. - Whether users don't actually like this feature or nobody converts into a full paying - customer, - you've got a way to test that on test the return on investment amongst a small sample set - for a finite period of time. - So again, - to bring up the mind body relationship, - we wanted to determine how many customers converted from mind body customers to single - platform customers within a two month span of them re selling our product to a small sample - set of their customer base before diving into the race and ship. - You also want established success metrics on, - and basically the purpose of these is to determine what a success looks like for the pilot - , - and if you achieve that success, - that should be the barometer for whether you move forward or not. - So, - ideally, - you want to use this as a contingency plan that guarantees a formal relationship. - So if we have 10% of customers convert on this reseller partnership, - that means that we're gonna launch into a full scale partnership that resells our product - to all of your customers. - And you want to get this in writing because a lot of times you'll have a success. - And then, - for whatever reason, - maybe somebody will decide that. - You know, - we actually don't want to do this even though it's successful. - So once you establish the success metrics, - if you can build in a contingency plan for something to go, - full scale of its advantageous for you if you hit those metrics, - it was one more thing with pilots Again, - the goal is to understand quickly whether there's an r a y for a particular relationship, - whether people actually want something that you're thinking of. - So if you can, - you want to try to avoid legal because any time you get legal involved and do very serious - contracts, - that can take a long time to actually understand, - get that understanding, - which is the whole reason you're doing the pilot. - So one way you can achieve this is by positioning your relationship as a handshake - agreement so long as within that you're not undergoing serious risk. - So you might say something like, - You know it. - Honestly, - I want to get this done. - I just want to understand this as fast as possible. - So let's let's avoid getting held up by legal and just do. - This is a handshake agreement amongst a small subset of your customers just so we can - figure out whether it actually makes sense for us to move forward with this partnership. - That's an example of how you might introduce the handshake agreement. - And here's an exact script you can use if if you didn't catch that. - So I don't want to get bogged down this legal forever for even know why this work. - Why don't we just do a handshake agreement 21. Handling Objections: - welcome to the section on handling objections. - So right now you're in the funnel. - This means that you've had your first meeting. - There seems to be some interest in the proposed deal or relationship that you've alluded, - Teoh. - And now you basically want to get from interest to getting that contract. - Ain't some of the things you're gonna have to do before you get there earlier in the deal, - funnel or things like do with calmer bottles, - identify bottlenecks in the process of getting this deal done. - Getting buying from decision makers, - warming your relationship so that you can get buying from decision makers and preventing - prospects from going whole. - Now we're gonna talk about all of these things, - but in this particular section, - we're going to focus on rebuttals by looking at a few common ones and then how to handle - them. - So a very common rebuttal is. - Well, - do you have any competitors? - Who are they? - Why wouldn't we build this ourselves? - You know what? - That just costs too much or we just don't have the ability to pay for something like this - Right now, - we don't have the enough resource is internally. - We don't have enough developers or designers to actually make this implementation a reality - . - So let's talk about the 1st 1 on how to deal with competitor inquiry. - Well, - again, - How you handle the competitors. - Question determines on whether you're the market leader or a new entrant tryingto up seat - incumbent players. - If you are the market leader, - you never want to bring up competitors unless somebody else does again. - And the reason is is because the attitude that you're taking is that you're the industry - standard. - You don't even worry about mentioning competitors because you're the obvious choice for - someone to work with. - Now it turns out that they are brought up. - You basically want to lean on your reference herbal deals gracefully. - Let's go through some specific examples of how to do this. - So when somebody asks if you have any competitors, - the thing that you don't want to say is bring up specific examples by saying, - Oh, - you know what our biggest competitors are Company one and company, - too, - and the reason that you don't want to do this is because you position yourself directly - against these people, - and what you want to do is piss yourself as different. - Additionally, - this statement does not signal market dominance. - If people think that you do the same exact thing as these other people, - that maybe you're just a little bit better, - that's very different than just completely dominating a market. - Here's a better way to handle competitor inquiry. - We don't feel like we have any competitors, - because truthfully, - no one really does what we do like we dio. - But I guess some people have compared us to a few other companies out there at the onset. - This is a great way to respond to this question because A you don't bring up any direct - competitors. - So if they don't know any of your competitors, - you don't want to service them, - if possible. - And it also puts you in the bucket of being different or being unique, - which is much better than putting yourself directly against somebody else so that they can - compare you. - When you say something like this, - somebody might can just continue to move on or they might ask, - Well, - what companies that people compared to you? - Joe, - at this point, - you want to put the ball in their court by saying something like, - I feel like we hear something new every day, - I'd be curious to hear how you think our competitors are. - So why why put the ball in their court in this situation? - Well, - again, - the lack of competitor focus on your end signals market dominance. - Again. - You're not worried about other competitors because you're the industry standard and the - obvious choice for anybody to work with. - Number two. - You don't want to expose them to competitors they're not aware of. - So you name dropping versus asking them who they might think your competitors are is a way - to avoid surfacing any potential competitors that they're not aware of. - Number three. - You might be ableto have them start revealing information about the research feelings and - even conversations with who they're talking Teoh. - And this is just an excellent thing to understand because it allows you to position better - than if you did not have this information. - So what do you do when they bring up specific companies so they might say something like, - Well, - what about Company X? - Here's where you elegantly lean on those reference will deals. - You might say something like, - Yeah, - we've heard of them and they seem like they're a great little company. - But there's a reason that big partner, - one and big partner to work with us. - It's because we're the best. - We're 100% focus on providing the best customer service possible or engagement growth - possible or whatever it is that you're trying to optimize for this partner. - We want to just break this down real quick. - It's important that you acknowledge their existence, - and I always like to almost kind of be little them with a submissive statement like, - Yeah, - it seems like they're a great little company on, - then follow that. - But there's a reason that important company won an important company to work with us. - And then you outline explicitly what that reason is. - And from here, - you can always always do things as well, - like highlights specific advantages If they pry eso if they say like, - Well, - I mean what? - Why again, - do they work with you or whatever it is you convey? - I've deeper into that. - It's because we're the best, - and we do X y Z by highlighting specific advantages. - Just generally always maintain the attitude that you're the obvious choice as the market - leader, - assuming that you are well, - what about if you're not the market leader. - What do you do that it's better to take a more offensive stance because you have more to - prove if you are not the market leader. - So how do you do this were to do this is to focus on how you're different, - so not only are better, - but you were very different. - And again, - when you position yourself as different, - it's easier to justify going with somebody who's not the market leader because there's a - greater perception of upside. - If you're having difficulty figuring out how to position yourself on how you're different - and easy thing you can do is just determined all the ways that you're a little bit better - than somebody else. - And instead of saying better, - just frame it in a way that you're different. - So we achieved the same outcome, - which is actually better in this different unique way, - whatever it is. - But generally it's all about how you position it in many cases on, - and you can accomplish that same different field so that you're not in the same bucket by - just framing the things that you're better at as different instead of better. - So an example of that would be single platforms, - data quality. - We had 500,000 menus and somebody else in the market, - I think had 450,000. - Now, - why should they work with us over the competitors when the number of menus that we have, - or relatively to see well instead of it arguing that they should work with us? - Because we have just a little bit more data, - we toes to take a stance that were a different type of company, - and the way that we get the data is different, - which resulted in different quality. - So all these other players, - Yeah, - they have a lot of data, - but here's the thing. - They go about getting that data using technical means, - like scraping and even data entry. - Single platform were company that is focused on the local business, - and being local is human. - We know that even though that a lot of these restaurants have data on their website, - that data is often out of date because these people just aren't technical. - That is exactly why we focus on having a direct relationship with local business and - getting the data directly from the business Warner themselves. - We do this by providing them a portal that allows them to enter in this information - incredibly easy and even calling the business to verify that the data is correct. - So, - yeah, - sure, - you might be getting similar amount of data, - but the way that which we go about that data is entirely different, - which results in a different date. - Equality. - And this quality of data is only going to get better. - The more and more customers that we signed on, - not just an example of how we position ourselves in a scenario where we were marginally - better in terms of what they wanted, - which was the amount of data by focusing on data quality, - how we obtained it and the fact that we work directly with the local business, - which is entirely different than this data set that's generated by technical means. - Like screaming. - Okay, - that should give you a primer on how to handle competitor inquiry. - What about the rebuttal? - Why wouldn't we build this ourselves? - Well, - there's many different things you can say to this. - Number one. - It's too expensive for you to do ourselves. - Why would you spend money in this when we can do it for you? - Number two. - It requires resource is and expertise that you don't have. - So you're telling me that you'd rather have someone from your development team work on this - and build this when we're willing to do that? - Outsource that for you, - Number three. - It would take much longer for you to do this on your own burst partner with us. - Listen, - we're going to get you the growth metric faster because we're gonna be able to get this - feature that you've been dying for much quicker than you building it yourself under four. - We have proprietary content technology that you can't get anywhere else. - So if you possess something unique, - let's say, - a data set or maybe a piece of technology that their team isn't necessarily familiar with. - Make sure that your Lovering, - that as a reason that these people should not be building this themselves and that they - should be outsourcing the creation of this feature to a partnership with you. - So what about price sensitivity? - So this particular thing costs too much. - Well, - there's definitely some good ways to handle this. - If somebody says it's too expensive or they don't have the resources Truthfully, - that sometimes is a good thing because there are deals out there that can be rattles and - that people don't have the resources to work with you, - and you can spend a lot of time wasted on something that isn't ever going to go anywhere - because somebody can't afford it or they don't have the development resource is or whatever - it is. - So when somebody says this, - it acts and truthfully means it. - It actually can be a good thing because you want to focus your time on relationships that - are actually going to be actualized, - that allow your company to grow. - What? - There are instances where you can turn people who originally say that something's too - expensive. - Let's talk about a few ways to do this. - Number one. - Position your offer in terms of relativity, - that's what I mean by this can be demonstrated by these two simple ways to describe the - price of an offering. - You could say our product costs $495 a year per enterprise seat, - or you could exercise a relative price frame by saying for a little more than the price of - a Coke, - a day, - your employees and get a full year of whatever the software's called or advantage of this, - which one sounds cheaper? - Well, - when you make me realize that my employees were going to get this benefit for literally a - dollar and something a day or a little bit more than a cost of a Coke at the sort of - machine, - all of a sudden that seems a whole lot more affordable. - And the cost benefit analysis is much more favorable. - When I'm just thinking about should I give my employees a Coke, - or should I give them this thing that's going to make them much more productive at work? - Another way you could disarm. - The rebuttal that something's too expensive is focusing on the opportunity cost of not - taking revenge this opportunity. - So you might say something like this. - I totally understand that you have limited resources and need to weigh each investment. - You're making your company carefully, - but it seems pretty clear that you see the value here, - which makes me think you'll likely eventually make this investment in your company. - And by not investing your resource is now, - you're going to miss out on a full year's worth of whatever the insanely obvious benefit is - , - and just important components. - Components of the statement is a acknowledging that this is expensive and that it's - important for them to make proper choices when deciding where to allocate their money. - And I like using the first word investment instead of spend because that's truly what this - is. - When you're charging for somebody, - they're exchanging their money in order to receive an improvement, - and that is an investment. - So after that, - you know, - highlighting the fact that listen, - you've indicated to me that you see the value here and because you see the value here that - tells me you're eventually gonna spend money on this so planning to see that this cost is - gonna come now or later. - But it's going to come and then indicating net. - If you're still going to spend the money, - someday you're gonna have the same loss. - But you're just not going to get the obvious benefit of a full year of whatever the awesome - thing that you provided us. - So that's kind of this broken down. - And this can be incredibly effective by positioning via opportunity costs that somebody - should spend now. - And just remember, - you can avoid price haggling altogether. - Using these two strategies, - which is explicitly stating why you're product costs how much it does. - So when there's a rhyme to your reason, - there's just a justification there that often prevents people from about delving in further - around why something costs it, - how much it does or asking for a discount. - And you can also indicate that you don't move on price or that it's only going to go up. - So by saying something like, - Yeah, - today it costs $495 I can't guarantee that that's gonna be the same in two months from now - or a year from now. - But we don't plan on going any lower, - that's for sure. - And again, - I can't make any guarantees that it's gonna cost the same in six months. - Let's real quick touch on resource scarcity, - which is very similar to price sensitivity. - So somebody might say, - You know, - this sounds really great, - but right now we just don't have the development resource is to make this happen. - Well, - there's a couple things you can dio one you can offer some of your own resource is so may - be part of your team executes the initial phases of the development. - You can even send tech Resource is on site to their premises for time period. - In order to aid or actually do the development themselves, - you can also create a sense of urgency or scarcity so that the relationship gets - prioritised. - Now, - we're gonna talk more on this soon. - But basically, - if somebody indicates that you know we don't have the resource is right now you can go - ahead and throw something in there like, - Oh, - that's a shame because we're doing a giant launch release and there's gonna be a ton of - press around with all of our partners and would be excellent to get you guys in there. - All of a sudden they might find a spare developer in a dark room and back to work on this - When you give them some extra incentive, - that creates some reason to prioritize this. - So hopefully that helped you with some actionable scripts and guides you can use to - overcome common rebuttals. - Generally, - a best practice as you grow up is dead for your company is to just identify the common - bottlenecks. - So if you keep getting her bottles over and over again, - what you want to do is you want to write those down and then you want to basically tests - and craft the idea ways to answer them. - And not only just answering your bottles but preempting them within your pitch by - statements, - uh, - common questions, - different ways to basically prevent those rebuttals from even coming up in the first place - . 22. Dialogue Continuity: - Hey and welcome to the section of Bt playbook on dialogue, - continuity or keeping conversations alive with prospects and existing partners. - Now let's first talk about why most conversations die. - You may think it's because somebody doesn't want your product or service, - and that's the reason that somebody's not picking up their phone or answering your email. - But actually, - it's because of something that you can control. - In many instances, - generally, - people avoid confrontation, - and this is so important, - understand, - and alludes to directly why you actually have more control over conversational continuity - and responsiveness than you think. - Instead of dealing with confrontation or having a C notice something or telling somebody - they're not interested, - people just avoid you because they're often a freedom it. - So the number one thing that you can do in order to preempt the situations where somebody's - not getting back to you is creating a container very early on in the conversation. - Four Continuity just by giving them permission to say no or to say I'm not interested or to - say right now is in the best fit, - and there's a couple ways to do this, - but my feet would do. - This is basically just in the beginning. - Give them permission and let them know that that is okay. - So you might want to say something like this. - My goal is at the end of this call for us to make a mutual decision whether my company can - add years. - I really believe that it can. - But hey, - if it turns out that this isn't a focus for you right now, - I want you to know I totally understand. - The most important thing is that we keep the communication lines open and that you let me - know where things stands that I can be most helpful moving forward. - That sound good? - No, - this script basically creates a container in a couple of ways for this person to be open - announced to you. - So if you go through this really quickly, - part one, - you're saying the goal of year or the goal of the call is basically for you guys to come to - a mutual agreement. - Whether your company can add value in part two. - You say that it's okay if it isn't a focus right now or that this isn't the best fit. - And part three basically just specifies that your number one priority for you is keeping - the communications line open. - So when you say things like this, - you're indicating somebody that if it turns out that you guys shouldn't work for together, - maybe right now at least, - but that's entirely okay. - And this just creates the container for you to have an open and honest dialogue. - So there isn't instances where somebody's not getting back to you cause they're avoiding - confrontation, - and ultimately, - and you're just left an ambiguity, - not no more. - A deal is not moving forward, - not moving on, - because you haven't created a container for an open, - honest conversation strategy. - Number two. - Exercise that power of Congress at the end of a call. - Now, - we talked about this a bit earlier, - but people generally like to be consistent with what they say they're going to do and what - they actually do. - Because it is a sign of high integrity. - You can use this to your advantage by gang people to commit to things that ensure that a - conversation remains open, - regardless of whether things are positive or negative. - Let's look at how we do this when you close a pitch or ask a partner for something, - and they basically say Hey, - I get back to my team first and then I'll let you know. - What you can do is say something like Okay, - great. - I totally understand any and you when you're gonna have a chance to talk with them. - It might say Monday or Tuesday or next week. - Whatever it ISS after they get back to you. - Want to ask them if they'd be willing to send you an update on what their team says or what - their bosses or whoever the decision maker is. - So you know, - I really appreciate any feedback. - Even if it's not the best news. - No. - Every single time I've asked this question, - people, - you just say sure happening, - send you feedback. - Okay, - great. - I really appreciate your willingness to send me that feedback. - It means a lot to me. - You're in the call after the call. - You want to basically seal that commitment in stone by setting the following email? - Hey, - great. - Connecting today about whatever initiative I'm joined learning about your company and small - world that you also love. - Really? - Genero, - I really appreciate you offering to email me some feedback Once you have a chance to talk - to your team, - It means a lot. - I look forward to hearing from me that now what you've done here is basically established - with this person that they committed to provide you feedback, - even if it's not the best feedback. - What this means is, - is you essentially have this person on the hook and they want to be consistent by actually - doing what they said they were going to dio, - which means there's a higher likelihood that they're going to give you a response, - even if it's not a positive one. - Okay, - even when you create containers are open and honest conversations and do things like lever - the power of consistency, - conversations still stall or go cold or people just don't get back to you. - Good news is, - is when this occurs, - there still a few things that you can do to reinvigorate conversations. - Her strategy is something I call the pity party. - So the pity party is really about humanizing yourself by painting a picture of a - potentially familiar situation that might call to the tables and empathy on the other party - . - And essentially what you're doing here is is just painting the picture of a scenario where - somebody needs something from you your bosses is riding you for this thing and everyone's - had the situation and it would be really meaningful if they could just give you this thing - that you need, - which is information because your boss is writing. - So you're basically leveraging empathy here by recalling a familiar situation that this - person might have been in two improve the chances of this person responding. - I'm going to read the script, - and hopefully this paints picture of what I'm talking about. - Pax, - I've been meeting with my CEO on Wednesday, - and he asked for me to give him an update on where things stand with all the company's I've - spoken this month. - Any chance you could provide me an update on where things stand before them? - Even its if its news? - I don't want to hear and be incredibly helpful. - Thank you so much again. - What you're doing here when somebody hasn't gotten back to you is basically indicating that - Hey, - you're their key members of your team, - maybe your CEO and by the way, - you should only do this if you have people that truly want an update, - because you should always practice honesty in all in every situation in business. - And basically, - when you have somebody that needs to report to, - you know, - bring this to the table and let them know my pauses riding me, - they want this thing. - I'm trying to figure out just where things stand. - It's OK. - If it's not the best news in the world, - any help would be super, - super helpful and appreciated by May. - Okay, - so the pity party can work great when you need an update and somebody is being unresponsive - . - Another strategy for when a prospect or partner goes cold is blaming yourself for the lack - of communication. - I'm gonna go ahead and read a script and then just go through this to demonstrate how - blaming yourself when conversation has stalled can be incredibly effective. - My partner I first wanted apologize that we haven't been able to connect recently. - I felt like somewhere along the way, - I must have made it difficult to communicate or drop the ball because while there it seemed - like you guys were really excited about our offering. - Apologies. - This was a case. - I just want to open back up the communication lines and let you know that I know you have a - lot on your plate. - And if this is something that is no longer priority, - and that's totally cool, - in fact is a startup, - I completely understand. - If nothing else, - I enjoy the opportunity to hear what's new on your end and maybe even get some feedback on - how we can prove are offering. - Let me know if you have a few minutes next week, - top on a call. - So again, - the context here is somebody just for whatever reason went cold and stopped responding to - you. - And this person knows that they were the one that basically halted the communication - switcher. - What you do here is when you blame yourself, - it basically signals that person. - Wait a 2nd 0 my gosh, - I don't know. - I know it was my fault. - I feel bad that this person is now blaming themselves for something that is actually my - fault, - and this can prompt a response again. - You're actually you're humanizing yourself. - You're exercising empathy here, - and people don't want to. - I feel like they cause pain on somebody else when in fact they were the reason that a - conversation stalled or that something has been moving forward and often times when you do - this, - people get back to you and say something like, - Oh, - my gosh, - no, - I'm sorry. - It's just been crazy busy here. - It's super hectic. - I didn't mean to be instant. - Maybe we could help me to call in two weeks or whatever it ISS. - That's gonna be an incredibly powerful strategy. - Another powerful tool for reinvigorating conversations is the presumptive negative. - Essentially, - what this is is explicitly stating that you assume that they're not interested because you - haven't heard from them. - And this this forces of prospect to choose and it polarize them. - Either they're going to get back to you and say, - Oh, - no, - no, - we actually are interested or they'll say, - Yeah, - that's right, - We're not interested or you won't hear from him again. - So you can accomplish this by something, - saying something like, - Hey, - says, - I haven't heard from you since I last email you about moving forward the relationship. - I'm going to assume that at this point in time, - you're not interested in moving forward. - This is not the case. - Please let me know otherwise. - All the best and again when you say something like this, - you force a prospect to choose if there's any glimmer of hope for the relationship that - actually happen. - The person will see this and say some respond immediately and say something like, - Oh, - no, - no, - no. - I don't want you to think that we are interested. - I've just been really busy or whatever the reason is they've been distant. - And if it turns out that they don't get back to you and guess what, - they're not interested. - And you can move on and stop wasting your time on deals that won't go anywhere. - Okay? - Other effective tools for conversation, - continuity and making sure that you have a lively dialogue with potential partners. - You can send them pings without mentioning the deal status again. - This is why it's so important for you to understand what is important to your prospects, - personal life and just what their interests are. - I can't tell you how many times I have just sent an email about somebody's favorite sports - came or a YouTube video that I thought they'd like, - or just a piece of news that was completely unrelated to our deal. - And they have gotten acting me like Oh, - thanks so much for sharing this. - By the way, - I just talked to our lawyers and This is where the contract ISS. - He was just an example of an unrelated paying that you could send when a prospect has gone - cold. - And and the context here is that this person is an Eagles fan like me, - so the subject line could be, - can't believe over time. - And then just a simple, - brief message. - I didn't think the Eagles defence could be any less. - Collections will yesterday's game. - Peyton is unbelievable and what I'm doing, - you're starting a dialogue around something that they care about. - That is not any pressure filled conversation because it has nothing to do with the deal - status. - And you'd be surprised how effective this can be. - Justin. - Reinvigorating conversations that have, - for whatever reason, - ceased. - Okay, - Another strategy that you can use is news on your company or competitors. - So any time something good happens with your company or competitors between you and your - company and your betters, - they see consent. - Send the people that have gone cold and email, - and there's I call this, - uh, - I have a list of people that I call the Tickle List, - that basically, - every time something awesome happens with our company or with one of their competitors and - our company. - I send these people on email just giving him a subtle heads up. - So you might say something like this if you have some good company news and you wanna kind - of prompt them to start a dialogue again, - Hey, - I just want to get a heads up that we recently released a new version of our e p I. - We couldn't be more excited, - as it will now all of our partners to do whatever. - Here's picture the product team just before the finish line. - So something's gotten going cold. - They might see an email like this, - and oh, - you know what? - That's actually really interesting to us or actually get back to this person or whatever. - You shouldn't always expect responses here. - But if you have some good news, - tell all the people in your pipeline that, - for whatever reason, - haven't haven't gotten back to you recently, - and sometimes we'll see some good news, - and it will be perfect. - Perfect timing. - Cure Green Viguerie. - A conversation on their end. - Let's say that something awesome happened with one of their competitors and your company - again. - You can give them the heads up, - and here's a great way to do that. - Hey, - I just wanted to give you the heads up that our implementation with competitors were. - One should be going alive in a week. - I wanted to. - He wanted you to hear for me first, - as any chance will be some good pressure on it happened out on a call if need be. - What this does is it basically puts you as a good guy in a way that applies pressure to the - relationship. - So when some when somebody there competing went that something good is happening, - you don't want to rub it in this person's face. - That's that's not necessarily, - ah, - great report building strategy. - However, - if you do want to let them know, - because this does apply pressure and could inspire some urgency in their end to progress - your relationship or at least get back to you so you can accomplish this in a friendly way - by saying something like, - I wanted you to hear it for me first, - as there's a chance that will be some good pressure is to make great strategy to - reinvigorate dialogues that have gone 23. Relationship Building: - welcome to the section of B playbook on a relationship building. - Now we just talked a whole lot on conversational continuity. - Well, - guess what the best strategy for conversation constantly is when you're in the deal. - Funnel building strong personal relationships. - Surprise, - Surprise. - People are more likely to respond and keep open dialogues with people that they're friends - with. - Let's talk about some ways to build relationships with prospects at the court. - It's about padding value to their life or make me a better. - This is why you want to do it early and often. - We also want to add value to prospect. - Your partners life throughout multiple facets of the relationship. - So in the business context as well as their personal life, - if you can. - No, - I want to talk a little bit about something called the Law of Risk. - Reciprocity. - This kind of demonstrates and explains why adding value is so important. - Lockers process states When you do something beneficial for somebody else, - they feel an inclination to reciprocate, - and this comes from the book influenced by Robert Kildine. - So you can imagine that as you do beneficial things for people by adding value and just - feel a stronger urge and desire to do nice things for you, - or even just act in a way that is beneficial to the relationships or doing things like - responding when you email them, - calling you back again all positive things for conversational continuity, - shorter's and ways to add value. - One. - Make relevant introductions. - So when you see two people who would benefit from knowing each other, - connect them generally should always try to be connecting people who would benefit from - known each other. - It's just a good thing to do, - and a lot of times a lot of the good karma that comes from those connections is given back - to you. - Other way to provide value is support them. - So when good things happen to them or their company, - be incredibly encouraging and supportive. - Do things like send congratulatory emails? - This not only demonstrate your support but your attentiveness to the relationship as well, - and this is the sign of a good perspective or current partner. - Some of my favorite ways to stay on top of support opportunities are things like industry - newsletters, - publications and company blog's, - and they use an RSS reader like Feed Lee to stay on top of this content, - Elsie is a great tool called news Lee. - If you're not familiar written, - usually basically, - it's scans all of the news publications out there and can actually your lengthen Facebook - and Twitter to tell you when your connections on those social networks are mentioned in the - news. - So any time anything really awesome happens to them and their mentioned the news, - you just get on email with a link to that article, - which is just incredibly helpful for identifying these opportunities. - Another one of my favorites is job change alerts. - Job change alerts is a service that sits on top of lengthen, - and any time somebody changes their job title or position, - you get emails and are notified of this instance on a lot of times, - what happens is that people's not only when they change companies when they get promoted - within your company, - this information is surface in a job change alert. - So when somebody gets promoted, - it's just a great thing to send an email say, - Hey, - congratulations, - just solve the news about promotion. - You lengthen. - That's really awesome. - I hope you have a great day. - Lastly, - another one of my favorite ways is Google Alerts and rulers are more ideal for company news - . - So if you just want to make sure that you stay on top of the news about one partner, - very simple thing to do is just add a ruler with a search query for the company name. - And once a day, - I just received 3 to 4 like instances of news created about that company. - If it exists, - give me a lot to manage with partners that are in the news frequently. - But for smaller, - lesser known partners, - this is just an excellent way to make sure that you're always current on what is going on - with that company. - And you can identify the support opportunities, - a little way to add value to a prospect or partners life to strengthen that relationship is - send them relevant content or news. - So what are some ways to identify this? - Well, - basically, - I do this in much the same way that I stand top of support opportunities just by using - things like an RSS reader grew alerts and even Twitter, - and any time I come across an article that I find a partner might enjoy, - I just send me an email with something that says something like, - Hey, - I just came across this article and I thought you might find interesting. - I had no idea that a specific article insight was so important. - Now I want to bring up a few things that I did here in this email number one. - I didn't sell or ask for anything, - even though I might be in the middle of the deal formal again. - The goal of these type of e mails is to build report. - It's not to sell anything directly. - A great relationship is often the best closing tactic again, - because people do things for people they like. - In addition, - if you notice that second sentence about how I brought up a specific point, - a lot of people out there just carpet bomb articles to prospects, - and this just comes off as shallow. - It doesn't come off his genuine, - and it's not grateful for building. - So I always try to actually read the article and highly, - a specific point that I think that they would find interesting so that it just feels a - little bit more personal, - which again is just congruent with the whole idea of building relationship and adding value - to them. - Another would add value is addressed. - Direct needs. - So the Internet is just full of places where people are explicitly stating things that they - need help with. - So it might be hiring. - And if you could find them somebody to fill a crucial role at their company, - that is a huge way to add value. - And this is a simple is literally just navigating over to the career. - Spades. - A lot of times, - people voice their needs on Twitter. - This is just a example of that where my friend Britney was asking if anybody had any leads - at Alinea. - Um, - just want to get a table. - And here's, - you know, - here's just a bunch of different people asking for things. - Charlie. - Donal asking for softball subs Somebody wants to get one of these birdhouses. - These are all instances where your prospect could be asking for something that you can - directly go and find and or help with, - just by monitoring them on Twitter and a great thing to do to isolate these opportunities - and you create a list of all your prospects and then on three deck, - you can actually search that list using a Russian mark filter, - so that just identifies all the instances of people are asking questions, - which are often, - uh, - the opportunities where you can get in there and help other way to add value that a lot of - people forget is providing help around non work related things is what people have lives - outside of deals. - So when you get another interest lifestyle in situation, - you're going to be able to see opportunities to be helpful or add value. - So an example would be if they're indicating they're going on a weekend trip to a city - you're familiar with sending best restaurants or sights to see and don't even bring up the - deal. - These type of activities could be incredibly valuable for building that relationship with a - potential or current partner. - So just one more time. - Ways to add value to build relationships, - well of introductions, - support, - relevant content and news, - addressing direct means and non work related health. - All great ways to add value to your prospect and bill relation pretends that you're more - likely to have open dialogues, - get deals done and just have a more fruitful relationship with the people in your work life - . - Eventually, - when you start to add value, - your goal is to then developed that into a friendship and that we did develop a friendship - is basically just to connect on something beyond just the deal, - and this can even be unjust. - You know, - a similar sense of humor doesn't have to be on a particular interest, - but what you want to do is just take an active interest in learning about what your - interests are and see if there's anything mutual that you really bonded. - When you see that, - try to get face time, - get in front of that person around that particular interest. - So if they're both, - if there a huge hockey fan and you are as well go to a hockey game, - let's say they just love drinking beer. - Go get some beer with that person. - Just a ton of things that you can do when you intentionally see out what these people are - interested in and different ways that you could bond over them. - And, - you know, - I bring up the face time because at the end of day you can have as many calls you want. - But until you're sitting across from somebody, - there's nothing quite like that experience in the relationship building process. - You get interact with them on a deeper level, - cause you can see their body language. - You get to know what the faces like behind the voice. - Any of these activities listed here, - whether it's an office meeting in her drinks or again inviting inter shared interest - activity like a sporting event concert Or, - you know, - some type of outdoor activity like golf, - checking out cars, - whatever it is, - are just great opportunities to get that face to face, - which is crucial for the relationship. - No huge ingredient to relationship building formula is consistency, - and this is both relevant in the adding value portion of it, - as well as the doing things like friendly activities to really kindle a strong friendship - that is to continue to create positive experiences by adding value, - which just develops things like comfort and report you something nice to somebody. - One time it's doing something. - There's somebody one time, - but the friendship is really built around just consistently adding value, - that person, - having your name come up over and over again and being associated with a positive - experience that's really developed comfort that's redeveloped report, - and that's where how you make somebody your friend so one way to make sure to inject that - consistency is just by sending emails so you can send relevant pains on personal interests - and do it frequently. - So one thing I like to do is send people here to bilious. - So if somebody was a fan of an iPhone six, - I might say, - Hey, - I just saw this awesome YouTube video of the new iPhone six. - It looks amazing, - I figured, - a fellow Apple fan, - what might enjoy taking a gander, - sending somebody an email just around something they're interested in once every two weeks - ? - This can really add up and again take you from prospects you were dealing with at a company - to friends. - Nothing can do is just get on the phone frequently, - so calls don't need to be eliminated where there's a direct business purpose. - A call simply to warn the relationship up is an excellent use of time, - because again people do things for people they like. - Now the way to broach is is pretty simple. - Just to do a regular personal ketchup call, - sending emails that says, - Hey, - I want to see if you had some time to catch up for 15 minutes next week. - Lots of exciting stuff going on here, - including some type of reference to either personal interests. - It's that simple. - And again, - you should make it a practice to have calls not just related to business things with - prospects that you want to build relationships with. - Lastly, - if you can have consistent in person meetings, - that is only going to help your cause for the reasons that we described in previous slides - . 24. Getting Buy-In From Decision Makers: - Okay, - welcome to the section on getting buying from decision makers. - Now that's actually going to be Shortened Street. - If you talked a lot about this stuff in previous sections, - and it's pretty straightforward. - First would get buying from decision makers is identify and feed your internal champion. - Remember, - an internal champion is the person who you're offering resonates with the most and often - somebody you have the best relationship with. - One of your jobs, - once you've identified the champion, - is basically to arm them with as much beneficial information as possible that build a case - for the relationship. - Do you constantly want to be sending them things like case studies feature releases? - Competitors, - launches all information, - and they can take back to the different parties that are involved in a deal internally on - their end and basically build a stronger case for why should work together? - Another thing that you should be doing with your internal champion is identifying where the - bottlenecks are in the relationship, - so they have an inside view on what's going on and what might be holding something up from - getting it done. - You want to use this person, - understand what's holding the deal up and and take the necessary steps and give them the - necessary things to basically disarm these bottlenecks. - Everything you could do to get buying from decision makers and probably the best thing you - can do is provide verifiable results to de risk the relationship. - Now let's talk about some very important things. - You can dio to basically dearest the relationship in a low barrier way, - because again, - you want to make it as easy as possible for this person to realize the value so that they - know that working with you is a good idea. - Number one. - Give them a case study of a partners previous success, - and you want to make sure that you're developing these case studies early on and even - giving away and bending over for partners to create them just so that you can use these to - prove to future partners that you can replicate the results and get them results. - They want number two, - your pilot s O. - Do a small cast of a particular relationship to prove to them that there actually is going - to be in our alive. - You work together and again, - one possible use a handshake agreement. - You don't want to go into an arduous legal process that prevents you from quickly - determining whether there's a high Arli on relationship. - Lastly, - give them a guarantee you them something that makes them feel better if something goes - wrong. - So you could say something like, - if we all accomplished this particular result on this day, - we're going to give you this extra benefit, - which often is, - you know, - a lump sum of money. - Eso these air all ways to get buying from decision makers, - verifiable results and person you can replicate them for them are the absolute best thing - that you can give. - But you can fall back on things like a guarantee that gives them just increased confidence - about your ability to ultimately give them the type of results that they want. 25. Deal Terms and Negotiation: - Okay, - so let's talk deal terms and negotiation. - Now, - if you're not familiar with the deal terms process to do, - it goes as follows. - You outline your ideal relationship with a partner. - Do this by determining what your most important terms are, - as well as things that are non negotiable. - Or will that will cause you to walk away from relationship, - proposed this relationship to partner and calibrate with them. - There might be some things that you have to give up, - and there might be some things that they're going to have to give up in their ideal terms. - Once your partner come to agreement around what the terms are gonna be, - and either you or your partner is going to take it to the legal team to etch out an initial - draft off the agreement, - let's talk about some best practices in terms of deal terms that you should be aiming for. - Number one trying to build into the agreement that you'll have accents and relevant data - you need as well as the right to create a case study. - This is super important because again, - if your ability to show verifiable results is the easiest way to get partners to buy into - giving a deal with you and you get some trouble about doing this, - uh, - offered you an autumn eyes data. - There's pushback. - Getting this data for initial deals is absolutely crucial. - So so do what you need you, - including anonymous data as well. - A spending on some non critical terms. - Just to get that case, - study another Jill term. - Best practice. - Avoid third party imposed exclusives. - And if you can aim for imposing exclusives that make sense so generally avoiding third - party exclusives is a good idea because it can limit your growth opportunities and - flexibility. - If someone says that they are the only people you can work with, - that's gonna hold you back from potentially pursuing some interesting opportunities in the - future, - and you may never know what can come along. - So generally, - just avoid the word exclusive unless we're talking Google or the absolute best partner ever - . - Now, - when it comes to imposing six exclusive yourself. - This is generally something that is give me great build moats against competitors and can - result in amazing strategic value. - If you hold exclusive relationships with marquee players in your niche. - Now the worst that can happen when you impose try to infer an exclusive. - Is them saying, - No, - we're not going to do that. - Eso If there's a specific thing you want to build a moat around, - go for the exclusive and again, - the worst thing that they can do is saying no, - that that is not something They're going to comply, - Teoh. - And you know, - I'll just bring up the fact that exclusive relationships are an amazing reason a lot of - people get acquired. - Single platform. - One of the reasons why we had such a successful exit was because when an enormous publisher - network, - many of which are relationships, - were exclusive, - misters held a ton of strategic, - long term strategic value and potential that really, - really resulted in a huge win for us. - So again, - the worst you can do is ask and be denied when it comes to asking for exclusive - relationships For three, - provide a timeline with a clear implementation deadline, - any agreement, - if you can. - A lot of people are just excited to get deals. - The thing is, - deals without actual implementation are worthless, - so you need to build Ngeny agreement. - They will execute the proposed relationship by a certain date or something bad will happen - . - Maybe they in current monetary policy. - Maybe the relationship ceases. - Whatever it ISS, - you want to try and incentivize them to act with urgency once the contract is signed so - that you can actually achieve the implementation that drives growth before your company. - Let's talk about ways to get the terms you want. - When it comes to negotiation and getting deal terms, - it's really all about who has leverage and where that leverage exists. - When I sit down to FL deal terms, - I basically think about okay, - who is an easier time walking away from this and who has more to gain. - And that's really the way that you can determine who has the upper hand When it comes to - negotiation. - Getting the terms that you want now leverages something that's not created overnight. - You can't just look at the terms of relationship inside. - You know what? - They have more leverage now, - But I'm just gonna do this thing and maybe we'll have more leverage tomorrow. - This is these are things that are created over the course of the history of your company on - where you stand in the marketplace. - But there are certain tactics you can use to maximize the amount of leverage that you have - in the negotiation process, - and we're gonna go through those right now. - First negotiation tactic I want to bring up is good cop bad cop. - Now, - if you're not familiar yet, - the first understand fundamentals. - People do things for people they like. - And the more that someone likes you, - the more likely you are to get a deal done or have somebody bend on terms all things - remaining equal. - Thus, - it's in your best interest to remain in somebody's good. - Grace is at all times. - So what is good? - Cut back on? - Basically, - when somebody asked for something that you can't do, - you want to put the blame on somebody else. - This could be another internal stakeholder like somebody on your product team Key executive - . - Maybe your CEO investors parent company. - Bottom line is, - is you don't want the reason that you can't do something. - They want to be you. - You wanted to be somebody else because you want to remain in their good graces. - So long as you are in their good graces, - they're more likely to do things for you. - So here's an example of good cop bad cop situation. - Somebody wanted to make a doing a p I integration with you or stand one that you couldn't - dio. - But you wanted to maintain a strong relationship with that partner. - You might say something like Hey above two makes integration happened. - My product teams really strict about our e p. - I unfortunately said, - we can't accommodate that. - I'll be sure to let you know if anything changes in this instance the bad cops, - your product ing there, - the reason that you can't do this particular thing and hopefully this just mean sunshine - and rainbows for your relationship. - And that person has still incredibly positive feelings for you, - even though you couldn't accommodate this request. - Another negotiation tactic is the offer concession. - And basically what this comes down to is that everyone wants to feel like they've gotten a - good deal when you've settled on terms. - So what this means is, - is that you can propose a more aggressive offer. - Then you'd settle for building in the fact that there's gonna be a concession to arrive at - a comfortable place, - and you do this by making your starting point much above where you'd actually be happy with - again building the fact, - there's gonna be a concession. - So an example would be, - if you were happy with just priority third party data proposing exclusive, - knowing the fact that they're probably going to say no to exclusive, - and that both sides were gonna be happy with getting to a priority third party relationship - . - Another tactic to get better terms or the terms you want is to create leverage. - So not that this is easy. - But if you want better terms for a deal, - one way to make this happen is just a improve your positioning elsewhere so you might do - things like expand existing relationships with key partners and go back to somebody you're - negotiating with, - or maybe shopping around terms that you're that are ideal for you to see if you can get - anybody else to commit that this person isn't committing dio just a few examples. - But the bottom line is you can improve your positioning elsewhere and then go back to that - party with greater leverage and you had before in the negotiation process. - Number four Providing ultimatum If you're comfortable potentially losing a deal or other - consequences, - this can be an incredibly powerful strategy. - First up is just determining what elements you can love her so we can't give any more time - . - We can't give any more. - Resource is we can't spend money unless this X y Z happens. - And this is a way to basically inspire urgency to get a deal done or get the terms that you - want with a partner. - So just a example of this that's a little bit more specific is if we can't get this - relationship firmed up. - By the end of Q one, - Our Borders told me I can't spend any more time on this. - So in this instance, - the lever is you spending time on it. - And again, - that's energy Resource is just give me another example I've seen used commonly is if we - can't get this feature implemented, - I'm not going to be able to provide an engineer for the integration. - And this is an internal resource, - is lover, - so ultimatums can be very powerful. - Teoh extradite deals and you get the terms that you want. - The last negotiation technique I want to bring up was alternatives, - So typically, - for most points of contention, - there's usually another option and a yes or no that might not be on the board. - So think about ways that you can get creative on. - Still, - get that win win without sacrificing your most important deal tenants. - A few examples could be They want to be your Onley partner with access to your data so so - exclusive, - and your ideal situation is that you want everyone have access to that data instead of - simply not working together or saying yes or no. - Maybe something you could do is give them access to part of that data or a piece of data - that no one else has access to, - but maintain the ability to provide it to everyone in the future should you desire to - pursue this. - So this is an example off potential alternative to a situation that might satisfy both - parties and get a deal done. 26. Closing Tactics: - Okay. - Welcome to the section of Bt. - Playbook on closing. - So at this point, - you should have your deal proposed. - The decision makers warm and responsive and terms on the table. - Now it's time to push to the finish line and close the deal. - Let's first talk about some deal closing principles. - Number one. - The more stakeholders you could get buying from, - the more likely a deal will go through. - And this is why it is so important. - Figure out who decision makers are and what their process is. - You can make this happen. - The reason that this increases the likelihood of getting a deal done is just generally, - when there's more agreement between key decision makers, - it's easier to get sign off and to get something done. - So what you want to do is identify all the important people involved in a particular - decision and get them on your side when possible number to find a champion early and double - down on this person. - So again, - a champion is somebody who your deal really resonates. - Who wants to see him be successful and who I dealing You have a personal relationship with - . - So let's go ahead and talk about how you find a champion. - Also, - it's a pretty organic process to be. - The way that I see it go down is you'll notice that after you propose your relationship to - a few key stakeholders, - it will really resonate with one or two people. - It resonates with two people equally. - Try to connect with Botham but really try to nurture that relationship with the most - important stakeholder who rest resonates with and development friendship. - That again extends beyond the bounds of just the deal with business relationship. - Now, - once you have a relationship with this person again, - they'll help you navigate internal challenges identified. - Bottlenecks pitch internally. - She will constantly be arming them with information that creates a case for you guys to get - the deal done. - This person is going to be somebody you're really gonna lean on throughout the process. - Number three create in a line your pitch team in the deal process. - So as a deal gets closer to getting through the finish line, - I need to have a point person for every single component in the deal, - not only getting the contract done, - but technical implementation, - maybe even monetary stuff it depending upon how big a company is and you know you want to - have the BD team in complete alignment talking to each other. - They're a tech team in your tech team, - that point persons of both. - Then, - if marketing and design is involved, - make sure that their airport point people sign and that each when a person is coordinated - with their counterparts on the other team, - why's that help to establishing a line you're pitching? - Well, - there's a lot of moving pieces out there that have to get etched out. - And if you're trying to do it all on your own, - it's gonna be hard, - laborious, - and you're not going to be able to move this fast. - Also, - people like dealing with their own kind. - Quite frankly, - I don't know a whole lot about technical implementations. - For me to try to convince and get somebody like me that is a super Pac heavy person. - It's gonna be harder to do than my head of product. - Realistically, - people just generally like dealing with people that understand their business, - understand the relationship, - all the facets that make it successful. - So you want toe, - have somebody that is a good counterpart that can speak the language so it's easiest - possible to communicate and facilitate things moving quickly and smoothly. - Lastly, - it's easier to push from different angles. - Having different people tied to different Stickles allows you to diversify the pressure. - So, - for example, - if I'm the only point person and I'm trying to get product to sign off of it and business - development sign off and maybe their marketing design person who's coming up with this last - page and I'm trying to push all these people at once, - I just looked like the annoying guy who's trying to get everybody to do things. - However, - when there's three or four people each with their own counterpart, - you can strategically ask people to push at on different areas in order to get their - counterparts of try to move it up internally. - One thing that's great to Dio when you have this pitch team with all the different counter - ports is has a lot of times played good cop, - bad cop to get things done. - So it's much easier for me when I have a product person who's on my pitch team the same in - the biz, - Dev. - Guy will listen my product, - I only has so much trying. - He's told this to your product guy, - and we need to get this done. - Or else he's gonna have to move on and refocus on a new initiative that's coming out so - again you're able to diversify pressure. - You're able to find out a little bit more when you have different people prodding a little - bit deeper than just yourself. - And ultimately you're able to do things like you got back up when you just have that pitch - team evidence and a line. - So if you want to be most effective, - an important best practice. - When you create a line page team, - it is just routinely check in with them no, - where everyone stands so that you know where you can apply pressure and who can apply - pressure. - If my product team says that, - well, - you know what their product. - I really want to get this done and is hot on it. - I could ask him to go and talk to his product person and internally see if he can apply - pressure. - Just this knowledge. - If you don't routinely check in with everybody a lot of times it goes by the wayside. - You want schedule at least a weekly meeting on important deals with your pitching just to - see where everybody's at other best practices. - Arming them with effective tactics. - A lot of times, - your pets. - James. - If they're not Biz Dev, - they don't know things like the importance of face time relationship warming, - good cop, - bad cop, - all of these techniques. - You just want to make them aware of it. - And you want to see if you can get different members of your pitch team meeting with their - team face to face, - so that everybody has a strong relationships which were really aid the process of pushing - the deal through. - Okay, - that should give you some strong foundation in some deal closing principles to be most - effective. - Now let's talk about a major theme of closing deals, - creating or inspiring urgency. - A lot of times, - the challenge isn't convincing somebody that they should work with you. - It's getting them to act in a timely manner so that you can drive that growth sooner than - later. - Let's go over some ways to get people to move when a deal might be stalled and you're just - trying to get close Number one press bait or taking advantage of other time sensitive - opportunities when your company is launching with new partners, - new implementations, - whatever it is, - you should be putting out press releases and trying to get coverage around that. - And this coverage is something that everybody wants to be part of, - because again, - maybe they're getting in front of people that previously didn't know about that company. - So you can use this as an opportunity to close or speed up in implementation and let me - show you out. - You might send an email like, - Hey, - I just want to give you a heads out that we're likely going to do a big precedent - announcement with New Marquis Partners in April R P R. - Teams already working hard to make sure it gets a lot of coverage seeing you guys typically - position yourself as a thought leader in the space and be great to formalize our - relationship before then so that you could be included. - No pressure. - I just want to make sure this is on your radar. - So what this is is basically taking advantage of this potential press as a way to speed up - the deal again. - These people want to be included in this, - and this is just a little incentive. - It might inspire this to be moved up in the queue. - So press releases and the illusion to potential press around an opportunity is a great way - to just create a little urgency around a deal that again is probably already going to get - done, - but just needs to be sped up a little bit number to highlight competition. - So nobody wants to get beaten to the punch by their competitors. - Now, - there's important have you out. - When you do this, - you want to bring up competition in such a way that doesn't make you look like a tool. - So let's talk about a good way to bring up competition that might inspire partners to move - a little bit faster and a way that isn't necessarily as effective and can actually put a - sour case in partners. - Okay, - so here's an effective way. - Hey, - John, - I just want to have your friendly hands up that in Pender Why is gonna be live at the end - of the month? - There should be a lot of press around the launch, - but one that makes you heard it for me and not from somebody else. - No, - Doing it this way basically makes you look like the friend you're telling this thing that - they want to know about, - they should be prepared for. - And you're not doing in a spiteful way that says, - Hey, - look at this other person. - The line I wanted to make sure you heard it for me and not somebody else are really what - accomplishes this friendly vibe. - So this is just kind of an excellent way to you mentioned competitors around an event that - they probably want to know about without looking too much like you're trying to get them to - do. - So no. - Compare this to this way, - John. - I want to give a heads up that we just signed. - This person will begin integrating in late April. - This this just does not sound friendly, - doesn't it? - Doesn't sound like you really care about their best interests and that you're trying to - give them a heads up on something so that they're prepared in act accordingly. - I mean, - this is literally just the difference of really one sense here. - So again, - when possible, - you know, - you want to add a nice little personal touch at the end by saying something like, - I want to make sure you heard it from me and not somebody else. - This is why I'm telling you about this. - Competitors launch Not because I want to make you feel bad weather effective way to inspire - urgency and to emphasize scarcity around a particular part of the deal. - And I call this scarcity levers. - So things that can become scarce, - which can inspire somebody to move the 1st 1 is resource is so it might be your product. - Team only has so much time energy to commit to upcoming integrations. - And if we can't get this done, - they're gonna have to focus on something else because their time and energy is valuable and - scarce. - It's limited. - So we need to get this done. - If you wanna work together, - an example might be Our product team is going to be focusing on a new future starting next - month so they won't have the band with the help onboard new partners starting in March. - So if we want to get this deal done, - we want to have their energy for our implementation so we can get this out fast and grow - together. - We're gonna need to get this done sooner than later. - Another scarcity lover is access so scarcely around inventory that's not yet available. - It might be a new product future. - It might be a new group of test partners to get to try out something brand new. - This is an excellent thing that you can leverage and basically create inventory around this - particular thing as impending. - So an example that specific would be pretty excited about this new feature of the A P I for - the 1st 6 months were likely on Lee. - Going to be providing access to existing partners would be great to get our relationship - finalized so that you can take advantage of it again. - So here is access to this particular thing that only a subset of people is going to get. - And if you want to be part of that subset that gets this thing that might be able to help - grow your business, - we're going to need to finalize our relationship runty to enter relationship or whatever it - may be. - There is just a few rays that you can years scarcity to hopefully inspire some urgency so - that deal gets done and prioritized in the queue. - Not just a great time to really lean on these tactics is when prospects air just providing - BS excuses. - If the reason they're not moving isn't all that compelling and doesn't make sense, - I mean on one of these tactics, - see what happens. - And if they're not incentivized to move after laboring or using run these. - You might want to find a new contact because a lot of times it's not necessarily the - company that's holding the deal up. - It's just the laziness of the person on the other end. - And if you've given them ample reason to want to move forward and want to do it quickly, - you're better suited. - Finding a new contact than just continue to throw. - Tactic after tactic at one person. - Try to get another decision maker who's more of a mover and shaker in the room so that they - can compel this person who might be just being lazy que move things forward a little bit - faster. - Okay, - let's talk a little bit about what I call personal touch closing, - and we've alluded to this multiple times. - But the bottom line is that people are more likely to do things for people they like. - So sometimes you might just need to win over a few key decision makers and really develop a - stronger friendship or relationship with them to get something done. - And one great tactic to do this is what I call the neighborhood tactic. - And the foundation of this is that if you have good social skills, - the more face time you get, - the more comfort and warmth someone will fields for you. - So what this really is about is just architect ing that face time? - Okay, - so how do we do this? - How do we create face time without seeming to over about wanting to do it so we can get - something done? - Well, - first step of a neighbor tactic is to create the perception that you're already gonna be - somewhere in close proximity to a prospect. - And you then you ask them to get together because what, - you're gonna be neighborhood. - So you might say something like, - Hey, - let's say their their offices in Los Angeles. - Hey, - I'm actually be in Los Angeles and three weeks on business and have a few hours downtime on - Thursday and Friday. - Do you have 30 minutes to connect on? - Either day? - I hear your officers are pretty cool and great to finally meet in person. - Now, - at this point, - you have no intention to be in Los Angeles. - But you know that you need to get in front of this person to warn them up to close the deal - . - So you basically throw out there the fact that you're going to be in the area and then if - they have time, - But you'd love to get together. - And if this person commits says, - Yeah, - sure, - that's when you book the fight flight. - Get out there, - get in front of this person, - make them like you and hopefully get a deal done. - This is a tactic, - that reasoning and upon multiple times when I was at single platform to get deals done and - just to show you an example of literally, - uh, - one of these instances where we did the neighbor a tactic. - If you go to the bottom paragraph of this email, - you'll see that this partners in Europe will see that. - I'll say lastly, - I should be in London for business. - The week of October 22nd would be great to stop. - I'll stop by Wilder and Neighborhood on the 24th 25th or 26th year available. - Amsterdam has been on my bucket list for quite some time. - Please let me know if what works in urine as I'd love to connect in person. - So I don't necessarily plan on being in Amsterdam at this point. - But I broached that I'd be neighborhood and that it would be excellent to connect and meet - in person if they'd be open to it. - Didn't hear anything back eso I sent another follow up email that basically just said, - Hey, - I'm trying to finalize my travel plans for our trip to Europe. - Critique of October 2nd, - 22nd. - Are you going to be around the 24th 25th or 26? - We love to stop by and your headquarters. - If your schedule accommodates, - my contact gets back to me, - that's got I met on the 25th and 26. - Look forward to meeting you in person, - so let's indeed schedule some. - We go out there, - we only go to Amsterdam. - We meet this person, - and three weeks later we close the deal just because they had a lot of very evident. - They had a lot of concerns that we were able to put to rest when they medicine person and - realized that we were the type of people that they wanted to do a deal with. - So this is just an excellent example of how you can use the neighborhood tactic to - architect that face time. - It's often so critical for poor building and really trusting somebody that you do business - with. - Let's talk about another effective tactic. - It's called peering up. - A lot of times you need to bring the big guns to the table to motivate people. - So, - yeah, - it's cool that we're doing a deal, - whatever. - But all of a sudden, - when I get the CEO, - venture capitalists or maybe either other VP's to the table, - this person is a whole lot more interested because they like dealing with people that a - little bit more high level. - So you might want to say something like this of a deal stalled. - Hey, - I was giving her CEO rundown of our conversations during our weekly meeting, - and he's really excited about the opportunity. - In fact, - he loves your business and want to hop on a call to get a queen. - Would your schedule Combinator this any time soon? - Now, - all of a sudden, - when you bring your CEO to the table, - who may be somebody reputable may not just have a CEO. - Next. - Your name. - This person might be a little bit more motivated. - They might be excited. - Teoh, - Get on the phone with this person. - They might be excited. - Teoh. - Get the deal done to impress your CEO, - whatever it is. - But a lot of times bringing that peer with a little bit more stakeholder value Get somebody - to move a little bit faster than the otherwise would last tactic I want to bring up that - can help inspire urgency and get deals done. - Is back scratching We're not. - A lot of times business can come down to personal incentives. - So the incentive of the stakeholder who's basically maintaining ball control on the other - side. - So what this means is, - is there some opportunities when you understand what's important to them for a use crap? - Scratch my back. - I scratch your relationship backs relationship on. - It isn't even often necessarily confined to business. - So some examples this might be if you can work on your friend at this conference to prove - us as a vendor, - I think we might be able to get this deal moved up in illegal Q or have you can guarantee - getting us on the top of that integration partners page. - I think we might be able to push this through because that visibility is really important. - My boss. - So again, - at the core, - what this really is just understanding what's important to that one specific person on the - end scratching their back and seeing if, - in return, - you can get them to do something for you, - like prioritizing getting a deal done and identifying these opportunities, - it comes down to If you thanks one developing a strong relationship that breeds - transparency and honesty, - you don't have a good relationship with somebody. - They're not going to let you know about these things that they really want. - That might be Qianjin generally related to a deal, - so having that strong relationship is key understanding their needs, - so understanding what's important then understanding their incentives understand how their - performance is measured. - All of the greater understanding of all of these things is going to facilitate your ability - . - Teoh exercise the back scratching strategy. - Lastly, - you wanted demonstrate you're willing to make a special combinations or concessions if it - means getting a deal done. - Somebody is not going to pose you potentially doing a favor for them if you haven't - demonstrated that you're the type of partner that might be able to make this happen - depending upon how big? - He asked. - So you constantly just wanted to you letting them know that, - Hey, - I'm willing to try and make this work. - I'm willing to make special combinations. - If it makes sense, - just really give them the the permission to ask for these type of things or to bring them - to the table when possible. - So these air some closing techniques and ways to inspire urgency to close deals. - If you want some more because there's literally hundreds out there, - check out the Resource Links section in Bt Playbook on. - And there is a link there, - too, - a page with literally 50 different types of closing tactics he can use and maybe even find - a good one. - If none of these works for you, 27. Implementation: - Okay, - Welcome to the section of BT playbook on post contract implementation. - So what happens after you get a deal sign? - Well, - this part is actually really important, - because again, - the contract is just the first step in getting the implementation which drives growth live - . - This is why I say deals aren't worth anything unless there implement. - So I know that the contract and getting a deal inked seems really important. - But this part of the equation is just as important because again the actual relationship - and integration of two products, - whether that's in the form of an email swamp on a P I resettled partnership, - whatever it is, - is where growth is driven. - So let's talk about some best practices for the implementation stage of his dead - relationships. - Number one make. - It is easy as possible, - the easier you make something the quicker and more likely that it's going to get done so - you can do things like provide a standard operating procedure, - explicit next steps, - documentation. - If you have something like an A P I specific examples that model exactly how you want - something to be implemented. - More ammunition. - You can provide somebody in material that's easy to Digest and provides very specific steps - on what to do, - The faster something is going to get implemented. - Number to set expectations or constraints. - Ideally, - contractually, - you have something that says 90 days after implementation or 90 days after agreement is - reached, - Contractually partner must implement or ex penalty or feel occur. - But you know, - honestly, - sometimes this is difficult to get, - so even providing something like, - You know, - standard partners have this up in 30 days or two weeks or six months. - That really kind of sets the standard for what you're looking for is valuable and a best - practice. - People generally want to conform to what other people are doing in the market, - so just throw it out there. - What what? - The expectation is that this gets done. - We don't have something. - They're contractually number three. - Appoint an implementation team or manager so you won't have somebody, - whether it's yourself or another person or an entire team. - Just checking in regularly with the appropriate counterpart for the company that you did a - deal with seeing where things are and pushing them when need be to move faster. - If they're not, - I think best practices are scheduling a regular meeting post contract with somebody to just - check in and see how things were going on. - Get on a call schedule. - And having this regular call schedule is going to implicitly put pressure on somebody to - make progress because nobody wants to get to a regular weekly call and continuously saying - , - Yeah, - I still haven't gotten anywhere. - Yep, - Not making any progress. - It just doesn't feel good or look good. - So having that call, - even just on the calendar, - is a valuable way to get people to move forward, - inspire urgency and actually getting a partnership. - Let's talk about after the deal is actually implemented, - more integrated or whatever. - It ISS the best practices there, - and this is really just about continuity between partners. - Number one established a relationship point person on each side. - So just like you wanted in the post contract process somebody to be checking and regularly - . - You wanna have counterparts online and match up after the deal is integrated because we - wanna make sure that it could be a successful is possible and having people monitor that - and tweak it and change it. - It can be optimized and don't have anybody paying attention to the relationship It's really - hard to identify these instances of how you're able to do this, - so you wanna have a point person on each side. - Number two create a regular meeting schedule. - And the reason that this is important is you need a space for open and transparent - communication. - If people start to become unhappy with the relationship and the harbor those feelings - internally without telling anybody, - it can really sour the relationship even result in the cease of a relationship. - So you want to just create that space for open and transparent communication through out - the relationship and just give people an opportunity. - If if they're unhappy with something, - to let them know so it doesn't become this thing that builds up and eventually results in - something catastrophic, - like a partner sign they don't want to work with you and would prefer to work with - competitors. - The Madrid look for ways to strengthen the relationship, - so the stronger you have a personal relationship with a company with a potential individual - . - The harder is going to be for incumbents to come in and steal that partner. - And I think about this in terms of building moats, - so doing things like getting regular face time, - having regular calls, - doing things outside of work, - all the relationship stuff we talked about before. - The stronger your relationship is with that partner, - the better chance you're gonna have to defend the relationship to get deeper hooks into the - company. - All the things that are going to result in extracting the most value for your company after - you've integrated. - Let's talk a little bit more about deeper hooks because this is, - uh, - this is really important. - You want to expand the relationship after you've integrated, - and I call these hooks because I wanted to be harder for this person to remove you in the - equation, - assuming that they are a good partner and this is really just a moat to ward off - competitors. - So examples of deeper hooks you might have a deeper integration. - So, - for example, - with single platform we had, - Justin Man uses a lot of partners in the beginning, - and then we expanded that relationship to name, - address and phone number and photos of that. - They were relying upon us to give them this content for all of their listing pages. - This is much deeper than just menus and harder to placate because without those pieces of - information the name, - address and phone number versions, - just the menu. - It's a whole lot harder to cease the relationship, - because now more information is dependent upon or integration before provide reporting of - the value driving. - So, - ideally, - this is weekly or monthly reports that just demonstrates again why somebody's working for - you. - You want to make it as easy as possible for this person to see the Arli of the relationship - , - as well as past the R Y to anybody internally on their team that ever questions it. - So just a regular report that shows the results ideally and some type of quantitative form - is a super super important thing you can do. - You make sure that you're just constantly letting this person know that they're getting - something valuable out of the relationship for their company. - Lastly, - never stopped collecting feedback, - so existing and new partners are what helped drive new Bt initiatives. - They let you know what they want, - what's important, - and all of these feed into how you can expand relationships to grow your business. - Though the best ideas for growing your business that makes sense are going to come from the - people that you work with, - not necessarily what you think might be a good idea. - You understand what they want and how you can better serve them. - You can understand how to grow your business reporter ships. - Just an example of this is single platform. - So we started out with just menus for publisher partners, - and now we provide photos, - new address, - phone number, - even other pieces of data like ours across a publisher network. - Of the most important sites that businesses are listen on and how we've branched out and - expanded beyond just menus was our partners said flat out. - They were really happy with the menus, - but we would love photos. - This data set is critical to us. - So what do we do? - We got soft commitments for photo integrations across partners. - We use that to go ahead and work with the biggest brands in order to get these photos to - have a critical mass of data that warranted than building a P I relations A plus. - And then we expanded the deals to include all this ancillary information that drives - business for us because enterprise clients care a lot about photos McDonalds and really - knows, - they serve cheeseburgers so being able to showcase that Big Mac everywhere online is a - little bit more valuable than just riding description of it end. - It allows us to open up new verticals. - So the menu is really important for a restaurant, - but it might not be is important for a spy. - Our dry clean, - uh, - but name, - address and phone number and photos hours operation certainly are. - This is an example of how partner feedback allowed us to determine what our new biz Dev - initiatives were going to be and ultimately expand our business. 28. Managing and Generating Inbound Opportunities: - welcome the section of Bt playbook on managing and generating inbound opportunities or - inbound leads. - Remember the gold BT is the scale business Fellman. - And you do this by replicating one relationship with every single partner that it makes - sense for eventually you just want to become the standard for whatever be relationship you - product ties. - So if its menu data or local business A did, - you just want to become the place where people go to get this? - If it's a application that allows you to turn a website directly into a mobile app, - you wanna be the go to solution where, - when somebody wants to do this, - they think of you and when you become this is when you start generating in Balan - opportunities, - let's talk about s practices for managing these inbound opportunities. - When you get to this level, - best practice number one. - Make it easy for perspective partners to contact you, - and you do this by making a visibly available place on your website that people can contact - you. - So this is just an example of elite form for publishers, - which is the component of biz Dev who we did deals with that single platform just makes it - very blatantly obvious where people can contact us if they're interested in learning more - about our A P I. - You also want to make sure if you're putting out press releases or articles that are - related to his death, - make sure to give them an email address. - Maybe it's business at whatever your company name dot com is or your specific email address - . - Make it easy for them to contact you easier. - It is for prospective partners to read you, - the more likely you're going to generate inbound opportunities number to create an inbound - opportunity. - Standard operating procedure. - And this is really just about efficiency and maximum easy maximizing your time. - And every time a lead comes in, - you're having to think about what you need to dio. - It's gonna end up just causing more of your time and energy that could be related to - something else, - like building out a new BT Channel. - So you want to create just a Sanders set of procedures that occur when this happens. - Here's an example. - Standard operating procedure for inbound biz of opportunities. - Number one first, - assign one person to manage these. - Ideally, - this is gonna be somebody Jr whose original job is just a filter, - the inbound opportunities and see who's important, - who's not. - But you established and criteria. - So again this person is gonna be filtering who gets a phone call who just gets, - maybe sent a one pager. - Whatever it is, - you want to just establish a set of rules for this person to determine what the next action - is. - For particular inbound opportunity Because of Google writes in or something allegedly - startup that Right writes in, - That's not gonna be around four weeks. - They should be handled differently. - Create a frequently asked questions document or partner on boarding. - Pdf on bees can often be the same. - They could be different. - Basically, - there's a certain level of partner that deserves personal attention, - like a phone call. - And then there's other people that just want to give them some initial information that - doesn't necessarily warrant a phone call because they might not be meaningful enough. - And this is where frequently asked questions. - Partner on boarding document can come in place, - so that's basically replaces you having to do this and answer these questions yourself. - Here's example. - Elements you might find in a partner on boarding documents so some information on the - company background benefit they receive from working with you. - Examples of sample partners, - maybe even a case study. - And this case study should be the ideal example. - Not any example, - because again, - this is what every perspective partner is going to be looking at that you give this piece - of information. - Do you want to make sure to carve it out exactly like the absolute ideal scenario for a - relationship for you? - Also you want include next steps frequently asked questions, - explicit best practices in contact information? - Should they have any more questions? - Here's an example off the partner on boring documentation for the single platform A P. - I starts out with just a brief about US section as well as a description, - the Benefit Simple Partner List and in case it specifies a perfect integration so that - every person it sees this ideally will use this as a model to replicate within their own - properties. - Before you either hop on a call or send the contract. - And again, - this is when a relationship has been product ized. - So assuming that this partner is meaningful and you want to build a relationship with them - and potentially see something big coming down the road. - Hop on a call in this person and maybe even for go sending the frequently asked questions - document. - Um, - but if it's not necessarily that important of a partner, - and everything that they need can be sent in the partner on boarding documentation, - as well as maybe even in a P I agreement if you're doing a P I just sending the contract - and asked them to read it over. - If they have any questions, - maybe then you hop on local. - Let's talk about another inbound opportunity. - Best practice eventually moving to self service if it makes sense. - So once you practice relationship, - you want to get it to as many people as possible, - and you want it to be as easy as possible for them to actualize its relationships. - You start driving growth If it makes sense for you, - you might want to think about moving yourself, - sir, - so somebody had literally sign up for this relationship. - Start implementing it without you even involved. - This is the fastest way to get a business relationship in the market. - It's a perfect example of this is open a P I, - with accessible standard terms of service. - So just to kind of give you an example of what that might be Foursquare has an open FBI - where anybody that wants to use their location information. - So the name, - address and phone number of the businesses on that site I can just get access to this by - simply filling out or clicking A. - I agree to the terms of service you know, - not top on a phone call their biz dev team. - You don't develop a contract and sign it. - They just little click on the I agree button and their given names like and that's a very - scale the way for them to get the force where Brand and Gaeta and as many places as - possible. - Okay, - let's talk about a few ways to maximize inbound opportunities. - So first way land of marquee partners and display them proudly. - So if you want to be the industry standard, - you have to look like industry standard, - and a great way to do this is basically go out. - An amazing partners appeals and then get those logos and put him on your website, - and one of the things you can do is in the agreement. - Make sure that you have the right to do this. - And here's an example of a single platform again, - my previous company, - where we're displaying all of the partners, - that people look to any industry on our page when somebody is deciding she would go a - single platform or should go to somebody else and they see Logo's like Yelp. - The New York Times all the men used Trip Advisor These are all incredibly strong signals - that we are ready Industry Lear, - which optimizes the number of people that visit the page for lead form and actually enter - in their information. - Number two turn his dad deals and integration launches into press events. - So the more press you can have around your company and the fact that you're doing these biz - Dev deals to drive growth more potential partners might see it and think, - You know what? - We should be doing this. - Why don't we get single platform recall? - So you should constantly looking to generate press and put it out there in the market that - you're doing these type of relationships in order to reach potential people and gain - visibility that could turn into in dumb leads. - Three. - Develop thought leadership within industry publications and add events. - So these are things like Guess blawg posts, - maybe by your CEO getting featured in magazines, - getting feature in digital publications and on panels. - These are all excellent places where there's a highly concentrated group of people in your - industry that are interested in reaching the same customer base that you want to get in - front of, - and just a quick example that is no, - this is our CEO, - Wiley Cirelli, - and we may never do You get him featured as a Panelist at the Street Fight Conference, - which is the leading source for local publishers and local data. - Which get is where our biz dev relationships were focused on is getting the publishers that - display local information like yelp, - foursquare yellow pages, - these people so we want to get in front of. - I'm going to be in front of them in a position of fault leadership so that they feel good - about a relationship or, - if they didn't work with us, - would think about it. - After seeing our CEO on this panel, - number four become an industry connector, - so you should constantly be looking to connect people whether you're working with them or - not, - that could benefit from known each other. - Having a reputation as a connector within your industry makes people want to get to know - you and the more people that want to get to know you and provide value to you. - A larger number of potential inbound opportunities are because you have a group of people - out there thinking of ways that they can add value to you and your company. - Okay, - final way to maximize inbound opportunities is to create a high, - highly valuable blawg that develops slot leadership in your industry. - So if you could be seen as a thought leader, - a place where people point other people to go to when they want to know about something or - become educated, - you're going to get in front of more people and more than more people you're in front of - that know about you. - They're talking about you that are looking to you. - The larger number of inbound opportunities and a great example of this is kids metrics - there, - a company that provides analytics software that marketers typically use. - And they just had this amazing blogged about analytics marketing and testing, - which is exactly who their customer bases. - So there's all these people out there that are learning about kiss metrics are talking - about guess, - metrics and eventually signing up to get more information and potentially even become a - customer of ours. 29. Bonus Details and Free Resources: - everyone. - Well, - it looks like we've gotten the end of the course right now. - I just want to give you a recap as well as some additional resource is that I think you're - gonna help you step up your game in your journey. - Before we do that, - I want to ask you fever. - If you found this course valuable and you've learned some new strategies and tactics, - they're gonna push you forward. - It would be really meaningful to me if you went ahead and left a review within the course - dashboard so that other people who are looking to step up their business development game - confined this course I also want to tell you about some or resource is for you to help step - up your business game. - A lot of people are constantly asking me Hey, - what are the best tools that you're using out there for staying on top of prospects for - cold emailing for being more productive? - I went ahead and created an insider toolkit, - which includes my personal list of BT tools that I'm always updating that you can get at my - main site. - Lifelong learner dot com back slash BD insiders Not only when you get the insiders kit, - but you can also be updated with new information, - presentations, - ideas and tactics that I come across all the time. - This is the place to go for that. - Now let's talk about what we learned. - Just a za quick recap. - 1st 1st module was all about introduction of business development and the mindset you need - to take. - Remember opportunities on Lee Come if you take a shot, - she have to be fearless out there and really go for the things you want, - because that is the path to creating scalable business relationships. - Part two. - Strategy. - So we talked about whether Biz Dev was actually an appropriate strategy for your company - and the different types of ways you might want to be going out and getting these initial - partners as you grow out of his depth channel. - Part three was all about outreach. - In approaching partners, - we covered how to find decision makers at companies the best way to cold email them and - even some cold calling techniques as well to get your foot in the door to get those initial - meetings and present your product potential partners. - Part four was about pitching. - We went over the exact way to go ahead and craft a pitch. - Why you need to create a script and the actual delivery of that pitch, - which is absolutely important. - Make sure that you take these steps before you go out and start approaching partners - because it's so important to make a very good first impression. - This section will give you everything you need to go out and do that. - Part five is about navigating the deal funnel. - So at this point, - you may have gotten a meeting. - You may have being conversation with partners, - but you need to push that deal through the finish line so you can build that relationship - that grows your company. - Part six was about implementation and in Bel opportunities. - Just because you've gotten a deal inked doesn't mean that anything is really happened. - Remember, - it's the implementation of the relationship that grows your company. - That's really important. - So here we talked about a couple ways to get hooks into deeper partners a couple ways to - get make sure that the implementation goes smoothly and lastly, - ways that you can generate inbound opportunities so you're not having to go out and - constantly knock on doors to grow your company. - Eventually you want to be in a place where everybody is coming to you for your solution - instead of you going to them. - So I hope you've enjoyed this course again. - Found it useful would be greatly review. - I definitely love to keep in touch with all you guys and continue to give you access to the - best things that I find so you can go out there and absolutely crush it. - The best place to keep in touch with me is if you go over toe lifelong learn dot com slash - BD insiders and entering your email address, - you will get access to the Insiders kit as well as upcoming updates on all the new things - that I'm finding new ideas, - new ways to step up your game. - I also have a podcast called The Competitive Edge. - If you go ahead and search that for the competitive edge on iTunes, - you'll find it. - And it's basically a show where I interview some of the most successful entrepreneurs and - thought leaders on how they're getting a competitive edge in the business in life. - Lastly, - if you want to shoot me an email, - the best place is Scott at lifelong learner dot com Which get is my means that site. - Thanks again. - I really appreciate it. - And I wish you the best of luck in your journey.