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Three essential questions in your new business development process
Over the past month in our work with clients and speaking to groups, a "back to basics" theme has emerged. Sometimes we try to get too fancy with our approach to business development - building out complex process maps, jockeying for an upper hand in negotiations, trying to master human psychology and extract all the information inside someone's head.
When it comes down to it, there are three basic
questions that we often forget to ask and can always fall back on. For
some reason, people get uncomfortable asking these questions. I remind
them that if your intent is high (ie: My intent is to facilitate a
process that will best help my prospect identify and get their problem
solved), you cannot ask an inappropriate question and people will almost
always give you an answer. If you ask these questions from a place of
genuine curiosity, not like a trial lawyer grilling a witness, people will
relax and tell you the truth. One final reminder is that if you don't
ask these questions, you are much more apt to waste a lot of your valuable time
(and your prospect's) on a sales process that is destined to stall and
eventually go nowhere.
You can ask these three questions a hundred
different ways. In the end, the fundamental framework remains. Here
are a couple of examples below:
- Why change (Why not just keep doing what you're
doing?)
- Why now (What is it about now vs. 6 months ago or 6 months from now that seems important? Why not just wait?)
- Who else cares about
this? (Is there anyone else who has a stake in
these issues that would like to see them solved?)
In your next new business call or meeting consider asking these questions before moving to any kind of next step. It will save you time, and in the end give you a better chance of closing the deal. Hard to argue with that.
Tom
a couple of other question ideas...
Your three questions are quite good.
Try mine:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of my old business?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of my new business?
With all these information gathered, where am I going with this?
other questions ideas....bizdev
(a) What would happen if you were to continue to be as you are today? The answers to this question tells me the pain, the quantum of pain and also the people who have the pain. For example, if the CEO has the pain then it is a good sign.
(b) What would happen if you were to change to the new solution? The anwers to this question would tell me the business impact of the solution, the people impact of the solution, who in the prospect organization would be impacted positively and who would be impacted negatively.
(c) Why should the change be now? What cant the prospect wait another six months? The answers to these questions tells me the urgency behind the drive, the ownership behind the drive. The anwer to this question tells me whether the deal will happen in the current year or the following year.
For a later stage opportunity where I would be facing competition, I would ask the following questions, since the need would be more evident than in the first case:
(a) Is the need for my offering evident? Can I fulfill the need with the help of my offerings? Stress being on the "my". This helps me ascertain whether there is a match between the prospect need and the offerings that I can provide him.
(b) Is there a budget that the Prospect has set aside? This tells me whether the prospect has already prepared a business case, taken board approval and is now preparing for buying. This tells me that they are putting their money where their mouth is.
(c) Will they spend the budget in the next six months? This tells me the timeline for the budget - whether this is an opportunity that will close within the present financial year or not. I am in Outsourcing Business Development, where sales cycles are in the region of 6 to 9 months and therefore 6 months can be extended to 9 months.
Based on the answers I get for the above three questions, I can then decide whether I will have the war chest opened for the opportunity. I call the opportunities for which the war chest has been opened as qualified opportunities.
I have learned from my professional life that these questions are better asked early and to the right people. Some of these questions need to be asked bluntly and the silence that follows should not be filled with the sales persons words. The prospect must think and answer. Silence is powerful.
more questions to consider...
Those are great questions to ask on a regular basis! I would like to add my three primary questions that I ask myself and my partners / team about any new business opportunity:
1a) Is there a definable market that needs and / or wants this product or service? 1b) Is that market already being well satisfied by a competitor?
2) Can that market afford this product or service at a price point that will allow for a profit?
3)How can we best reach that market to introduce and educate them on the values and benefits of the product or service?
questions to consider for start-ups...
Ray
Hi - great question - one every sales person should be re-visiting and tweaking throughout their career. Right now I am performing the very exercise in an start up so I guess the questions you might be asking will vary in this scenario Vs a company that has been trading longer. I tend to always adopt the following approach which is more 3 groups of questions rather than 3 stand alone questions. It has kind of worked for me so far:
1) What are we selling........?
What problem (pain) does the product or service I am trying to sell solve in my candidate market / client base? Can I allign my solution with this pain and articulate this message clearly in early customer enagements. Discovery meetings have to be focused on understanding this in detail - classic solution selling style questions work well here. What is the cost of doing nothing? What if there were a way to......? Can you demonstrate value?
2) Whats the market worth......?
Where does the money flow, who owns the problem and budget to spend it and how much is there (market opportunity) in the prospective market? I like to reserach the market and understand just how much the problem I am trying to solve is costing my clients. Being able to drop in a few well researched numbers / statements can help build credibility when discussing how your company can help - understand the context of the client's problem in the widest sense is key.
3) How am I going to achieve early sales wins........?
Where am I going to start first and pick up the low hanging fruit? With finite resources and minimal references you will need to seek out sales quickly. Is there a new way to work with early adopters, can we offer better commercial terms etc..
In doing steps 1-3 correctly, you should be better armed to make sales / develop markets that will be built on a firmer foundation for growth in the long run. Although there is always a element of luck and good fortune in sales and new business development, I dont believe there are too many short cuts in this process.
Hope that helps.
Regards
Nick Bradshaw
MD Sales-vision Ltd
other resource...
MD Sales Vision Ltd
Helping you grow in a complex world
www.sales-vision.net
shock and honesty...
Ray:
Great questions. This is what I call hard qualifying. If you have the real answers to these three questions up front, then you won't waste each other's time.
When I do this, buyers tend to be shocked. When I hear that they don't have any reason to change right now, I know it is not time for a deal yet. If no one else cares - then it will not happen. If they think things are OK - then they are.
Simple as that.
Tom O'B
Business development
Hi, This a great on new business development, which save our time and better chance of closing the deal. I think that its not hard to argue. ==================================================== caroline16 Addiction Recovery Indiana
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