Springboard

We Make Sales Happen

FAQ’s What’s your SECRET SAUCE?

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Answering more of your questions – if you have one email me at kschwartz@springboardbizdev.com

 

What’s your SECRET SAUCE?

I always laugh at this guestion.  What’s the Secret Sauce on a Big Mac, it’s Thousand Island dressing – there’s no secret and they know you won’t do it on your own at home, it’s too much work.  For us, there is no secret sauce, we simply talk to people.  I hate to make it sound so simple but that’s really all it is.  We aren’t growing your business, dealing with employee challenges, handing client fulfillment and service, meeting with the bookkeeper, etc.  You don’t have the time and typically you don’t have the desire to identify, find, and develop relationships with decision makers that lead to opportunities.  It’s not easy, it requires a tremendous amount of dedication, time and focus that you simply don’t have right now and its all we do.

Our consultants understand their base so well; they understand what they need, where they are going, what they need to get there, who’s a good fit culturally, what won’t work, how we need to communicate with them, etc.  So a strong baseline understanding of the prospect is critical and then we simply talk with them.

I think the biggest thing is there’s no bullshit.  There’s no tactics to convince someone to work with you, there’s no manipulation or bait and switch; it’s simply a conversation about need and fit.  This is the reason our prospects continue to work with us – we’re respectful of their time, their needs, their budgets, their focus, and we make sure they get what they need so they can shine.  That doesn’t mean they are always correct in their thinking so we present options to help them see what’s available.  What we find is as we move forward in our relationships with these decision makers they recognize that we only bring unique, game changing capabilities to the table for them.

FAQ’s How Do we CLOSE deals?

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Answering more of your questions:

 

How Do we CLOSE deals?

I’m not a believer in hard closes or sales tactics, either there’s a need or there’s not; either there’s a fit or there’s not.  We don’t want someone to buy your services and 3 months later having buyer’s remorse, terminating you and then telling all their friends how we talked them into doing business with you and you didn’t deliver.  3 months worth of revenue and commissions is not worth it!  For us it’s a simple discussion, are we the right fit and what do they need from us to make a final determination?  If there are additional questions, we answer them.  We do handle objections which quite frankly are just a need for more information – we’ve missed something in the conversation and so we ask what additional information do they need?

We’re also not naive enough to believe we’re the only firm they are talking with so we’ll discuss how things may have changed along the way, what if anything is different in the competitions presentation and should we consider that as well?  We want to ensure we are talking apples to apples and that when we deliver our proposals we’re all still on the same page.

So I hate to say it but there isn’t a closing style or tactic we use, many of our clients are putting together proposals and its a competitive process so there is a bit of a game to the process.  We need to be the right fit at the right price.  It’s the nature of the beast today.  We try to do more work up front so there’s no need for heroic efforts on the back end.

FAQ’s What we need from you

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What do you need from me?

Initially as we work through the market research phase and begin the build the pipeline we’ll need to learn more about your experiences with clients, what’s worked, what didn’t and why.  We need to know your ideas about target markets and review your marketing material.  We certainly do not rely on marketing material however it can be helpful; if you don’t have marketing material it’s not a deal breaker.  Case studies are always helpful for us to learn more about your business but also so we can share results with your prospects.

What we need most from you is to be a team member.  Our ability to be successful requires us working as a team.  We need to know enough about your services to be dangerous but we need you to be the expert.  We are able to open doors to extremely high level decision makers and we need you to shine or we risk damaging that relationship that has taken years to develop.  We’re very careful about who we bring in front of our contacts as we know one wrong move and we may never get that opportunity again.  So for you it’s about respecting all that we do today and all we’ve done to create the relationships we have that ultimately will benefit you.  We put those relationships on the line to help you grow your business.  We need you to recognize that you need to bring your “A” game to those meetings, you need to follow up in the appropriate manner and frequency, you need to deliver on what was promised at the time it was promised and you need to service the hell out of that account.  If you intend to raise your game by growing your business you need to start today with our very first introduction.

How Fast can you Close Deals?

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When I’m asked a question like this I immediately start to wonder if this prospect is the right fit.  Why are they asking this question?  I get it, you’re looking for Return on Investment, I understand completely, you’re putting out money and you want to know the value of what you’ll receive in return and here’s the answer…I don’t know yet.

Let’s face it sales can be a bit of a crap shoot.  Anyone who guarantees you increases in sales/revenue at “x”% is without question lying.  A couple things we need to consider:

 

  • What’s your currently sales cycle?  Why is it that long?  Are there challenges that contribute to the length of the cycle or is it just that long?
  • Who is your potential buyer?  And why?  How do you connect with the potential buyer currently?
  • Do you have a presentation or marketing materials?
  • How do you price?
  • Who’s your competition?  What do they do really well?  What’s unique about you?

Many of these questions may seem silly but here’s why I ask:  We can typically shorten the time it takes to get to a decision maker but the sales cycle is the sales cycle.  You should not expect any major changes to the amount of time it takes someone to close a deal just because you’ve hired an outsourcing firm.  That being said it’s not uncommon for us to close deals in half the time it takes you but for others it may take longer.  It depends on the complexity of the deal, the process necessary to get the deal complete (RFP, multiple decision makers, large vs small deal, etc).  We find that many of our clients don’t have a strong grasp of their target market or they target someone they want to be a client but will never be one.  We find that many of our clients have little marketing materials that are usable while others have too much and it can become confusing for the prospect.  We don’t rely on marketing material but it can be a good conversation starter so it’s certainly helpful if done right.

When we ask you about your competition there’s nothing that drives me more insane then hearing you say “Well, our people are smarter and our service is better.”  As if your competition would actually say, even if it were true, that they hire below average staff and their service stinks.  This is the equivalent of telling your prospect “blahblahblahblahblah”.  What makes you unique, if you don’t know, it’s time to figure it out or you can forget competing – you’re essentially making yourself a commodity and now it’s all about price.

Pricing.  Oh pricing, it can be the devil in this relationship.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken a prospect into a decision maker for a deal that would double the revenue of their company only for them to price the project so far out of the realm of possibility that the prospect is literally in shock.  They loved you, you came highly recommended, they felt you could deliver and make them shine like the rock star they are and you blew it with cocky aggressive pricing and then you blamed me for losing the deal.  Here’s the deal, when it comes to closing with outsourced business development, it’s a partnership.  You rely on us to ensure you have a qualified lead, a decision maker with a budget and a strong connection either personally or professionally.  We rely on you to showcase your value, deliver high quality and always on time, and to price competitively.  We can go to bat for you if you’re within reason but if you’re off the mark, there’s nothing we can do to help.  In fact we’ve probably damaged that relationship by bringing you in the door.

So how fast can we close deals?  I don’t know, it’s different for every client.  Some happen within the first 2 months while others can take a year or two.  If you’re not viewing business development as an investment in your company’s future then perhaps it’s not right for you at this time.  If you’re counting every dollar and every minute that goes by you’re not seeing the forest through the trees.  Business development is about building the relationships that are going to change your business and when was the last time you built a long lasting, happy client relationship over night?

So, who do you work with?

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When we started the company almost 5 years ago our clients were very small professional services firms.  There’s nothing like starting a company several months before one of the largest economic downturns this country has ever seen and yet we’re still here today.  Over the years we’ve refined our business model and our target markets where now we represent professional services firms and government contractors in the $2-50,000,000 revenue range.  We’ve found that our sweet spot is $5-30,000,000.

Originally we only worked with professional services firms but around here everyone targets government contractors and they started asking “Can you do this for us?”  Originally I said no, it wasn’t our model and it would mean learning an entirely new business practice and you can just forget about learning all the acronyms.  Eventually we found the team that exists today that allows us to offer top notch service to our government contracting clients.

You’ve probably read our customer rants blogs but here’s why people come to work with us – we give them the strategic business development executive they want at the price they can afford specific to their target market/s.  It may be commercial, Federal government, state and local; it may be in NYC or it may be here in the DC metro area.  We’ll be the first to tell you if we’re not the right fit.  We have a Client Acceptance Protocol that helps us determine right fit clients and I’m accountable to the operations team and my business coach to ensure we aren’t bringing on anyone outside the parameters.

To see if outsourcing your business development needs makes sense, give us a ring at 410-832-7560, ask for Karin.

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