I just posted a new class on Skillshare called Business Development: Going In Cold
About The Class
This class is an entry level Business Development/Sales class focused on how to go about getting meetings with people you don’t know. This class is ideal for entry level BD/Sales people working at startups who will need to maverick their way into getting in the door or anyone interested in this role at a startup.
In this class I’ll teach the basics of:
Building A Pipeline
How to Identify Decision Makers and Play LinkedIn like a Keyboard
How to Find Anyone’s Contact Information
How to Write a Cold Emails that Actually Gets Responses
How to Ask for Intros Without Being A Toolshed
Cold Calling Strategies* – Cold calling will always suck, but …
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One mistake people make in BD and sales is they assume prospects speak their language.
“We provide a free API….”
“It’s the simplest CMS on the market…”
These are presumptuous statements. I’d like to think that the prospects I reach out to know what an API or CMS is, but it’s just not always the case. If understanding my value proposition is contingent upon familiarity with specific terminology I risk losing an opportunity. Why? Because people are too lazy to investigate something they’re not familiar with. That’s why it’s imperative to communicate your value in such a way that anyone can understand. It sounds incredibly obvious, yet I see people make this mistake time and time again.
For initial outreach I aim to include …
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In the first part of this post, I talked about ways to prevent prospects from going cold. The reality is that even when you do all these things, people will still go cold…even after they act super interested initially.
Here are a few tactics I’ve used to reinvigorate a cold conversation, starting with the least obvious first.
Blame Yourself/Act Like It’s Your Fault
Again, my thesis is that people who initially seem interested go cold because they’re weary of confrontation. They’d rather just ignore someone than say “not right now” or “I really like this but my boss thinks its not worth our time.” Communicating these type of responses makes them uncomfortable. They anticipate you’ll react by continuing to sell and they don’t …
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Anyone in business development or sales has probably had someone go cold on them. Everything seems to be going well than the person on the other side stops responding to your emails or calls.
Why This Happens
Each situation is unique, but I think it all comes back to the same underlying reason: people avoid confrontation. They don’t want to deal with the pressure of saying no or being sold, especially when they’re not buying.
Saying no or even not right now is harder than saying yes or not responding at all. It’s just easier to ignore someone than to tell them that their offering isn’t a priority right now.
Preventing Radio Silence
As a BD/sales person, I love when people are transparent with me. …
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How do you if know a business development person is “good” at an early stage startup?
I think one mark of a great BD person is that they’re able to get that initial deal with a meaningful party. Generally speaking, they’re able to convince someone worthwhile to take a chance on them.
If I’m a successful company why should they take a meeting with a lowly startup? Why should I trust you can execute what you say you can? Why should I potentially risk time, energy, and resources on something that’s largely unproven?
A great BD person can answer all these questions. But it takes much more than answers to get these type of deals done. It takes a meaningful relationship to get …
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“Before we hop on a call, mind sending over a deck or one-pager my team can review”
I get this all the time. Target partners and customers often want collateral on your offering prior to taking a meeting with you. It’s a filtering mechanism they use to spend their time efficiently.
I avoid sending material prior to a first meeting at all costs. Here’s why:
The person on the other side is going to look at what you send them and immediately draw conclusions about what your company does. From here they’ll quickly determine whether they’re interested in taking that meeting. If they are, awesome…proceed as usual. But if they’re not, odds are you’ve lost the deal and this person will magically become …
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The first thing a Dr. says when you step into his office usually goes a little something like this:
“So tell me what’s a matter?”
Only after you answer this question can the Dr. treat you.
But what if he didn’t ask this question? Say you injured your ankle playing hoops. After three days of trying to tough it out, you head to Dr.’s office for treatment. When you finally get a chance to see the doc, he just starts putting your arm in a sling?…he tries to fix a problem you don’t have.
Business development and sales people make this same mistake all the time. I know I have.
You finally get that meeting. All you want to do is tell them how awesome …
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In business development or sales, the biggest fish in your prospect pond are often what I like to call “arms dealers.” Arms dealers provide a related product or service to a group of fragmented targets. By selling to or partnering with an arms dealer, you can reach this group of targets in one fell swoop versus approaching individually. Hence, it’s typically far more efficient doing business with an arms dealer.
An Example of Partnering with an Arms Dealer:
Say my company provides a commenting platform for professional bloggers. One approach is to go to every major blogger on a popular platform and try to convince them why they should utilize my solution. This would require many instances of repetitive labor. Alternatively, I …
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