Business Builders Podcast

Driving Business Development - How to create a Business Development plan?

Brenton Gowland & Ron Tomlian Season 2 Episode 22

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In today's episode, our hosts Brenton Gowland and Ron Tomlian continue the series on Driving Business Development. Today's episode explores Business Development Planning and in particular, how to create a Business Development Plan.

The topics covered in this second part of the series are: 

  • The pathways to a career in Business Development
  • An overview of creating a Business Development plan
  • The six questions that guide the creation of a Business Development Plan
    • Question 1: Who can we sell to?
    • Question 2: What else can we do?
    • Question 3: Where's the opportunity?
    • Question 4: How do we get to it?
    • Question 5: How much can we win?
    • Question 6: What do I need to get this done?
  • The importance of documenting your BD plan

 

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Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Business Builders Podcast. Until next time, keep building!

Brenton Gowland:

Today on The Business Builders podcast, we're continuing our series about driving business development. And our topic is planning. So we're getting into the nitty gritty about how to put a business development plan together. Ron talks about the fact that actually firing clients can be a good strategy for growth. And I talk about being careful not to overcommit. Well, welcome to the Business Builders podcast. We are your hosts, I am Brenton Gowland.

Ron Tomlian:

And I'm Ron Tomlian.

Brenton Gowland:

And if you've just joined us, we're doing a series at the moment around driving business development. Now, this is our second series for the year, our first series was all about demystifying strategic planning. And I think that went pretty well, Ron.

Ron Tomlian:

I think so we've got some good feedback.

Brenton Gowland:

That's excellent. And I think some people have been using it and been commenting to you and commenting me about which episodes they've liked the best and how they've kind of used that within their business.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, I've had some people who have been talking about strategic planning, say that it guided them in terms of the process with strategic planning. So it's always helpful when we get feedback like that says that we can make these podcasts even more useful to people in the future.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, I think what's good about that is shining a light on a process sometimes really helps people understand a process. And I think one thing we really aim to do here at the Business Builders podcast, is to make these processes as clear as possible for us and as human as possible, so that we can really understand them. Because sometimes I think we just make things too complex on our own.

Ron Tomlian:

I think that's true in life in general.

Brenton Gowland:

Indeed. Now, with the driving business development series, we've got four topics that is planning your business development, monitoring your business development, aligning your whole team with your business development efforts, and then winning as a team. So they're going to be our four topics. And today, Ron, we're going to be looking at?

Ron Tomlian:

Planning.

Brenton Gowland:

That's right, planning your business development. But before we do, I think we should get stuck into our sponsors.

Ron Tomlian:

So first,

Brenton Gowland:

We have SA Business Builders, who are?

Ron Tomlian:

A group of people who get together on a regular basis. We just had one meeting last month, or last week, I should say, fantastic. Talked about networking. And if you like the etiquette of networking, and how to improve your networking with three panellists who were fantastic.

Brenton Gowland:

That's right. And it was kind of looking at emotional intelligence and navigating the pitfalls of networking, and avoiding the rocks. I thought that was really good. And we were talking just before this podcast, and we think we should actually do a series on networking, because I know we started off this podcast, boy over a year ago now with some topics on six ways to improve networking and why the elevator pitch must evolve, and so forth. And they're some of our most listened to episodes even to this day.

Ron Tomlian:

And if that's useful, then let's continue with that usefulness and have a whole series on it.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah we might do that after business development. Now, our other sponsor is Adapt_CO and Ron, what do they do?

Ron Tomlian:

They do? Well, you tell me because that's you.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, I was trying to get you to iterate what I do. But anyway, look, I go into businesses, and I help them with their marketing. So basically, I sit in the business, help them plan out how to get the best out of their marketing, and then I help them do that. So my job is often to grow a business from X value to Y value and help them do that from a marketing point of view.

Ron Tomlian:

And that's why you are the person who I'm going to be asking a lot of questions of today in terms of business development.

Brenton Gowland:

So how do business development and marketing kind of relate to each other?

Ron Tomlian:

Well that's always that's a vexed topic. Because oftentimes, people get the two confused. Okay. Yeah. When I first went into a department many years ago, it was called the Business Development Department. And their whole emphasis was on creating marketing plans.

Brenton Gowland:

Interesting.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah. Because nobody really understood in that organisation. What the difference between the two was.

Brenton Gowland:

Okay, well, we're getting into our topic. So I think that's good. But on that I think it might be good to talk about just before we get to this, what are some of the pathways that you've found along the way and along the years about how people get into business development?

Ron Tomlian:

Well, it's an interesting one, because there's, unlike many years ago, when people were on the path to marketing, and there was no professional development in terms of marketing, I think business development is pretty much there at the moment and the same spot. Nobody can do a business development degree at university. And business development is all oftentimes in my experience as something that people fall into. Because they're either good with other people. They don't necessarily have tools that they've been shown along the way. There's no courses they can do. So they fall into it because somebody needs to do it. And they happen to have the gift of the gab or they happen to be good with people. And it's a pretty onerous sort of task and when you when you've got no support, no recognition for it, it can be almost soul destroying at times.

Brenton Gowland:

Oh, yeah. And to your point. I've been around business development people for a long time. And I've been doing business development. I think most people do some sort of business development at some point in their career if they're in a professional role, but there was a gentleman at the event, SA Business Builders event the other night, who I met, who asked him what he did. And he said that he was now in a sales business development role. And I asked him what he did prior. And he said, Well, three weeks ago, I was an engineer. And I was like, Well, how did you end up being a business development person, he said, I just wanted to progress. And I, the company recognised that I was good with people and, and here I am. And I find that that's often the way that people get into the business development space, I've met other people who have had different pathways, but they're all similar, some pathways prepare people more, I think, coming from being an engineer, to being in sales and being a business development person, that's going to be a smack in the face at some point, because there's so much to learn in there really, in some senses should be a degree, or at least a course that you can do. And there are, of course, courses with me. And I think I shared a bit of this last time when, when I realised that I needed to remember Feed the Beast, we were talking about that in the last episode, and the beast was the business that I'd created. And five or six people at that point. And my biggest concern was keeping them all fed, I realised I needed to learn about business development. So I went and found myself a mentor, I paid that person and she taught me how to do pipeline management, how to strategize how to do all the things we're actually going to be talking about in this series. So we're really bringing some of the experiences that I've had in learning how to do business development, and trying to put it into a really usable format for people out there who have had a pathway similar to the gentleman that I spoke about the other day, and also for business leaders who have BD people in their business, because I find a lot of CEOs, and MDs and business owners don't understand how to lead their business development, people that just like go out and get some sales, what what's the problem,

Ron Tomlian:

And how they can support them as well.

Brenton Gowland:

How they can support them how they can give them advice, you know, a real simple thing is finding someone who can mentor them in learning the sales process or the BD process, because it can be a bit of a shock when you get into it and you fuel the pressure of having a quota on your head that I'm partly responsible for the success of this business, there's no hiding anymore, it comes down to me.

Ron Tomlian:

And look, let's be fair, you're at the pointy end, when you're in business development, the pointy end of the business,

Brenton Gowland:

Yep

Ron Tomlian:

If you fail, then the business can fail as well.

Brenton Gowland:

Yep. And I gotta be honest with you, I find that there's a lot of movement sometimes in the BD world with BD people. And I think some of that is because you know, the pressure mounts in some businesses, and the BD people go looking for greener pastures. And often they find themselves back in the same spot in another business if they can't sell and they can't progress and so forth. And sometimes you have to make a decision, can I do this job, because it is a very tough job, don't have any kind of misconception about that. Business Development is not an easy job. And it's always, always on job more than most other jobs. Because often, when you're doing business development, you'll have to go out at night to events, you'll have to be up in the morning at breakfast. And you might say everyone's doing that, but you are always on. So when you're out at an event or you're at a bar with some people, you always got to be thinking, how am I going to approach this person? How am I going to build rapport with them? How do I find out if they're an opportunity, and it's it's an always, always on job.

Ron Tomlian:

Which means pressure.

Brenton Gowland:

Pressure lots of it.

Ron Tomlian:

So if we're talking about planning, I always like to as we didn't demystifying strategic planning, what questions are we asking ourselves in terms of the plan? So what's the first question you'd be asking in developing a plan? What's the first question?

Brenton Gowland:

I might outline all of the questions just so we got a direction for where we're going in this episode, but to me, there are six key questions in creating a business development plan. Right. And so there very simple. It's much like the de-mystify strategic planning series. So the six questions are, Who can we sell to? What else can we do? This is a business development question, right. What else can we do? Not just selling the same old thing? Where's the opportunity? How do we get to it? How much can we win? And what do I need to get it done? There the six questions you need to ask in my view, to put together a business development plan.

Ron Tomlian:

Okay, so going into the first question, Who can we sell to? What does that mean?

Brenton Gowland:

Well, that basically means that we need to do some analysis, who can we sell to is really starting to deeply understand who our customer is, and who's going to buy our products and services. So we spoke about in, again, the Strategic Planning series about looking at environmental impacts and doing a PESTLE analysis or a SWOT analysis, but you can do some of that. But it should already be done.

Ron Tomlian:

Because of your strategic plan.

Brenton Gowland:

Correct. So we're really hoping that in the strategic plan, you'll notice that in these questions, there was a who, what, where and how, but there was no when. Now, with business development, planning, the when is usually going to be a quarter it will come from the strategic plan. Within the next quarter, I'm going to do this within the next six months, I'm going to do this, within the next 12 months, I'm going to do this. So the BD plan is usually going to be broken up into quarters. Right.

Ron Tomlian:

So an important aspect of all of this is your Business Development Plan is informed and directed by.

Brenton Gowland:

Yes.

Ron Tomlian:

Your Strategic Plan.

Brenton Gowland:

Yes. So on that point, in the strategic plan, people are going to say, there will generally be some things about we want to grow in this market, or we want to do this, or we we want to do that. So this first question, Who can we sell to? Is all about really understanding who our products and services are going to be most aligned with, and we're going to have the best opportunity to be able to sell them. So this is a research piece, okay. And this is really identifying current customers, and current markets, and potentially some markets that we can grow into.

Ron Tomlian:

Okay.

Brenton Gowland:

With our current products and services.

Ron Tomlian:

Using marketing jargin, we're talking about markets, we're talking about segments, we're talking about target segments, that type of thing.

Brenton Gowland:

Correct. So who can we sell to?

Ron Tomlian:

Right. Next question.

Brenton Gowland:

What else can we do?

Ron Tomlian:

So what does that mean?

Brenton Gowland:

Well, business development is not just about your current products and services, business development is looking for opportunities to grow your company. And that might be by developing new products and services for clients that are currently outside of your current target market. So for example, you might get an opportunity where, let's say 80% of the project fits within your current products and services, but 20% of the work sits outside of your current capability. Now, a good BD manager might explore this opportunity and determine that if we outsource that 20% to a partner supplier, we can do the whole project and make it profitable. And if that works, the natural flow might be that that BD manager presents a case for developing that particular skill set in house. And if the numbers add up, the company might make an acquisition of another business to provide that skill set or develop it themselves. In the advertising world this is pretty common, because how we communicate is changing so quickly and advertising is a communication business. So the classic is that a marketing or advertising agency has been outsourcing their web work for a while, and they realise to best serve their clients, they need to be able to build websites themselves. So they'll go and buy a small web company or start employing developers so that they can deliver these services in house. Now there are pros and cons to both of those scenarios, which we won't get into. But the question or this question really is about where are the profitable opportunities that are just beyond what we're doing now that we can actually grow into? So it's not just about selling? It's about going and finding the opportunities that your business can grow into.

Ron Tomlian:

A source of information for that would be what customers, current customers are saying, could you do this as well?

Brenton Gowland:

Correct. So well, this is actually a research piece as well. So, Who can we sell to? And, What else can we do? Are both research pieces, because they're going to require you to do research, then present that back up to your management and your team, because the management and the team will have to decide whether this opportunity is something that they want to integrate into the business moving forward, again, informed by the business development plan. The business development plan might say, we want to develop in this particular direction, and you might, in your planning around BD go, actually, we can do that by following these paths. And we can do that by integrating but there has to be a forwards and a back motion here where you report back to your management team to get clarity on this. And sometimes that can be done through the plan. So often, when you're looking at, What else can we do? There might be for that particular quarter that you just gather data to see if it's possible. You might say we could do this. But you might then, exactly what you've said, go out and talk to people in the market. And they say, yeah, there's a real real opening for that.

Ron Tomlian:

There's an opportunity or there's a need for it. More importantly, we can see you doing this. So it's consistent with where people see your company or your brand, being able to offer services. As an example of something that doesn't fit. I always use the, yeah we found an opportunity for somebody to develop a particular flavour of ice cream. But if you're an accounting firm, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Brenton Gowland:

Yep. Correct. So the first question Who can we sell to? That's about our existing clients and existing markets, but sometimes it's also about going into new markets with existing products. But what else can we do? That's about our future clients and future markets? This is about what we can do that's new. So who can we sell to is about existing. What else can we do is about new?

Ron Tomlian:

Okay.

Brenton Gowland:

Does that make sense?

Ron Tomlian:

New products and services?

Brenton Gowland:

Correct.

Ron Tomlian:

Yes. Okay, Where's the opportunity? That's the next question. Really what we're talking about where's the money?

Brenton Gowland:

That's right. I like that a lot better and love that old Tom Cruise movie.

Ron Tomlian:

Show me the money!

Brenton Gowland:

Show me the money! This is literally about show me the money. So this is an analysis piece as well, these first three questions are all doing your research, right. So there could be, when you identify who can we sell to even what else can be done, you can look at all the places where you can get money from and go, hey, that's really low hanging fruit, but, Where's the opportunity? Is actually about filtering all of those places where we can get money from and making sure that it aligns with your business. So I'll give you an example.

Ron Tomlian:

Is it just about filtering? Or is it about prioritising as well?

Brenton Gowland:

Well, actually, I think it's about prioritising, you're right. But it's filtering and prioritising. So it's, it's putting a priority filter, let's say on the opportunities that are out there. So we choose the right opportunities for our business. So we could take on the really easy work, which is people who just want to buy but maybe those customers are really hard to work with, or whatever else, or maybe our business is already, our pipeline is maxed out, and we're in a very enviable position where we've got enough work. So then the opportunities are not about just finding any random new work, the opportunities are about, you know what, we're already at capacity. So our strategic priority with within the business is, and this is going to sound a little bit counterintuitive to some people, but is to lose some clients and replace them with better clients. So it might be to find more profitable clients. So a strategy might be that there's certain clients that we spend a whole heap of time on in the business. And they are not making us a lot of profit, they're leaving everyone stressed out, et cetera, et cetera. So you might want to start upping the price on those clients, because they are very difficult to deal with. And they might choose to go away, but at least then if you have the price, you make the pain worth it. But your job might be to go, well, there's all these people who could buy from us. But I want someone to work with us who is going to be a profitable client, they're going to be easier to work with, they get our ethos from our strategic plan, they get our methodology, they align with how we work, and they're going to be a better fit for our company. So it's not about taking any money. It's about choosing what is right for our business to help us grow in the best possible way. And if we're already at capacity, it's then not about growing our revenue, it's about increasing our profits. So there's a different priority to just taking any money.

Ron Tomlian:

So it challenges the idea that any customers are

Brenton Gowland:

This is about almost defining, Who is not your good customers, right? customer? Right.

Ron Tomlian:

Very good.

Brenton Gowland:

So it's like the first question, Who can we sell to? Is about our existing customer. What else can we do? Is about our future customer. And, Where's the opportunity? Is about defining who is not our customer. Which actually reveals who are the customers that are an ideal fit for us.

Ron Tomlian:

And who do we want in the future?

Brenton Gowland:

Correct.

Ron Tomlian:

I know one business that on an annual basis, sacks, a number of clients, because they want to move, they want to take the time that they have available and move to more profitable and better aligned customers.

Brenton Gowland:

I'll tell you a quick story as well. And this is from the advertising industry. And it's from Sydney. An agency I know, took on one of the big supermarket chains. Now there's not many of them, I'm not going to name who it is. And this client was worth a lot of money to them to the point that they doubled their staff and they thought this is the golden bullet. This is going to be fantastic. Well, it almost sent them under and I won't go into the reasons why. But they ended up hating that client so much, then they tried to find every possible way to get away from it. Was it because they're a bad client? Absolutely not. Was it because the agency couldn't do the work? Absolutely not. It was because they were a very bad fit for each other. And getting that client that was the behemoth was not worth that would have been better for them to get three smaller size clients that aligned more with their methodology as a business. And they literally almost went under, but it would have made their lives a lot easier. And they would have been a lot further progressed today than they are because of that one experience. So choosing the right clients for you, not just choosing what looks great because the money will in the long run, make you a healthier and more successful business, in my view.

Ron Tomlian:

Absolutely right. And you can always grow into bankruptcy. You have to be careful of that one.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, that's a really good point. But yeah, so that's why and you know, the BD people have a lot to do with this. Because you as a BD person, inform your management as well about the type of clients that are coming on. It's an interesting process.

Ron Tomlian:

Okay, so we've gone through the analysis part. Okay, what's next?

Brenton Gowland:

How do we get to it? So, once we've defined who we're selling to and what our opportunities might be, and who's not our client. We then start looking at. How do we get to it? This is about planning how we get past the gatekeepers. This is about planning, how we find the decision makers within the business that can create the possibility of bringing that client on board.

Ron Tomlian:

And it's not I mean, if your market happens to be in a business to customer, that there are gatekeepers there as well, you know, people who are influencers, I hate using that term, but there are, you know, the people that used to be called market mavens. Now they're called influencers.

Brenton Gowland:

That's very, very true. Because they're doing all the reviews out there online, and most of us go out and read the reviews and.

Ron Tomlian:

And is that important to your customers? And is it a direct influence? Those sorts of things are, How do you get to the how do we get to these people? And are there mechanisms for doing that. An interesting story when I was CEO of a company, we decided, as a management team, that we were going to go out and talk to our top 80 customers, and I put my hand up as the CEO and said, I'm going to top talk to the top 20. Yeah, it was simple. I'll just call the CEO, and I'll give make an appointment with them and talk to them about what we were going to do in the future. After two hours of calling CEOs. I never spoke to one of them. I spoke to their PAs.

Brenton Gowland:

Yes.

Ron Tomlian:

And I had, guess how many appointments after two hours of phone calling?

Brenton Gowland:

Zero?

Ron Tomlian:

Absolutely right. My PA came in and said, Oh, that looks like a lot of hard work. Why don't you leave it with me? I said look, sorry. If they're not going to talk to me. Why are they going to talk to you? Being the arrogant young thing that I was at the time? I went off to lunch came back half an hour later, she had gone to those companies that have called before. How many appointments do you think she had an half an hour?

Brenton Gowland:

How many people was she ringing?

Ron Tomlian:

20.

Brenton Gowland:

10?

Ron Tomlian:

Yes.

Brenton Gowland:

Oh, really?

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah. 10. I don't know if I've told you the story before. And I couldn't understand how that could be the case. So I ate humble pie and said, tell me how does it work that you can get to these people, and I can't. She said, simple. I'm a PA, how do I determine all those people who call you whether they should talk to you or not? Whether they should have an appointment with you? I use a simple rule of thumb, if they're calling direct, they don't talk to you. They're not important enough. If they have a PA calling on their behalf, they are important enough, you are never going to get through those PAs to get appointments with the CEOs, because you're not important enough if you're calling yourself. Yep, little rule of thumb, understand how the gatekeeper works.

Brenton Gowland:

So there's one strategy, right, literally what you've just said. So if you're dealing with businesses, where you have to get to the decision maker, who might be a CEO of a company, and they've got a PA. Get someone else to ring them and be your PA. So that that could actually be part of the, How do we get to it? Right. So the other things, and that's a really good example. But the other things, you want to create warm introductions, the whole cold calling thing as you found out doesn't work. And you know, getting your PA to ring is is almost like cold calling, but almost not quite, because you're giving them a. It's qualified. Yeah. But the other things you

Ron Tomlian:

It's qualified. would do in this kind of part of it is you'd plan well, what are my strategies for getting to people, and sometimes it's, who are my referrals going to be? So I know that I need to get to this group of people, because we've done all the analysis, which should be in your plan. So you might go, well, I know this person, this person, this person, this person who has relationships with a group of people in this industry, so I would have typically a referral strategy. So who are my referrers? What am I going to do to build my relationship with them over the next quarter, six months? It will be what networking events, I'm gonna go to where did these people hang out? What associations are they involved with associations are great, because let's say it's the Mining Association, which is in South Australia called SACOME. So you go along to that, and you know that if you're interested in getting to people in mining, that they're all going to be there and you can build relationships over time on an even keel. It might be that I think that's the shipping industry, the even keel.

Brenton Gowland:

That's true. But you would list out all the kinds of ways and identify how you're going to get to those particular people, what are your strategies to do that, and that's what the, How we're going to get to it? Part is literally writing down, these are networking events I'm gonna go to, these are the people I'm going to build relationships with. This is what I'm going to do. And this is where the marketing part comes into it as well, because we won't go into detail about how marketing and BD relate. But marketing is supposed to deliver warm qualified leads to you. So this is where you can actually discuss with marketing in a, wow would I get to this particular kind of person? Because sometimes it's going to be advertising strategies or what you post on LinkedIn, or it could be a reach out strategy. There's lots and lots of different ways, but this is the part where we really flesh out how we're going to get to the people we need to build a relationship.

Ron Tomlian:

So figuring out where they hang out and how I can go and hang out.

Brenton Gowland:

Correct 100%

Ron Tomlian:

Okay, then we ask the question, How much can we win?

Brenton Gowland:

That's right. This is where the rubber meets the road because this is where we make a commitment to the business. So the business in the strategic plan will often have some sort of reflection of BD and what the expectation for quarterly results are, and so forth. But this is where you've got to really put your brain into gear and forecast. Based on the research you've done for the previous four questions. Who can we sell to? What else can we do? Where's the opportunity? And, How do we get to it? This question, How much can we win? Is where you need to forecast the financial result you believe you can achieve, but you have to make a commitment, otherwise, you're not going to be able to effectively measure your

Ron Tomlian:

Well, I think you have to at least make a results. commitment to the activities that you're going to undertake, so that you can get to the point where you can say with a certain degree of probability, we can win this amount of work.

Brenton Gowland:

It's about making a projection. So you might say it's a prediction more than a commitment. But if you don't make a reasonably accurate projection, in the future, people aren't going to believe what you're saying. So you've got to put some real thought into what can we actually win here.

Ron Tomlian:

And so that that's about with all the documentation you've done up till now, taking a stab at, within a certain time period, how many people can I see? How many events can I go to? How much work can I put on the table for my business to win?

Brenton Gowland:

And this will also work backwards. And you know, we just talked about, How do we get to it? This will tell us how much time we need to spend on certain things. Because let's let's say for instance, let's take a round figure, let's say our responsibility is to bring in a million dollars a quarter. Well, that will generally, rule of thumb, mean that you need a $3 million pipeline, because most people have around about a 30% close rate.

Ron Tomlian:

And that's about understanding what you've converted in the past.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah.

Ron Tomlian:

And what's your probability of conversion is?

Brenton Gowland:

Yep.

Ron Tomlian:

So using data from the past, to predict what you got likely to do in the future is really important. That's why this whole process of planning is as much about documentation. So that you've got a basis for when you go to do this the next time.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah.

Ron Tomlian:

And people I think, ah, business development people, who are really keen on action. And good luck to them that they are, need to step back a little bit oftentimes, I found and just do some of this documentation. It's not what they're good at. But as they need to do the documentation so they have a basis for convincing people that.

Brenton Gowland:

That's right.

Ron Tomlian:

I know what I'm talking about. Because this is the pattern. These are the trends I've seen in the past.

Brenton Gowland:

And I feel for business development people, because there's not a lot of really great guides for how to put this documentation together. And, you know, maybe maybe reach out to us if you need it, we'll try and get you some examples. But look, the real thing is these these questions, if you align the things you put in your plan, and sometimes it just needs to be bullet points on a page. And then when you get to the bit about where you're doing projections, you, you just do a spreadsheet about this particular product or service, I believe we can do X from based on the fact that we can get to this many people we think in the next quarter. And we think we can turn over a million dollars, because we think we can identify about $3 million worth of opportunity in the next quarter. And we know that when we build relationships with people that represent about $3 million worth of opportunity. Well, we know that we can close about a third of that.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, it's interesting. I do a lot of work in the strategic planning area, and then help people move down into the action planning. Oftentimes, they're very grandiose ideas about what they can achieve, when they start documenting it and saying, Well, I think that's gonna take me 10 days, or that's gonna take me five days, when they put together what they're going to do over the quarter, it turns out to be about 400 days of work. That's why it's important to document and priorize.

Brenton Gowland:

And the reason this question is so important, How much can we win? When we actually put that down on paper that then informs what we're going to do in the, How do we get to it? Part because so many business development people can get so tied up in building relationships and becoming everyone's friend and, and then not really getting anything over the line. So it's a really dangerous position to be in if you don't have that clear point driving you have I'm going to commit to trying to find my $3 million worth of opportunity in the next quarter so I can close a million dollars worth of work.

Ron Tomlian:

Professional coffee drinker.

Brenton Gowland:

Correct. So you need to have something driving you which is why this question is so important. And then if you have accountability in place, because you've got your strategic plan, you've submitted your BD plan back up the chain so that it's answering that part of the strategic plan, then you've got something in concrete and that drives you. So you shouldn't be afraid of committing to numbers, but you should be, they should be well thought out. They should be well researched, and then you let those numbers drive your activities or at least influence you the way you spend your time.

Ron Tomlian:

And it also informs being able to answer the final question, which is, What do I need to do to get this done?

Brenton Gowland:

Now this is something that I find a lot of BD people do not including their BD plans. This is kinda like the finances of the BD plan, right. So a BD person might need tools, they might need brochures and point of sale material from the marketing department. So you'd list that down, I need this, I need a corporate brochure update, I need resources for this event, I'm going to, I need a stand made for this, I need a CRM, I've been using a spreadsheet for years, and it's getting to a point where I really need something a bit more. So I need a CRM, or I'm gonna go to this event. So I need to have aeroplane tickets, I need to have transport. Or maybe I need some professional development. Maybe I need to do a bit of investing in me. But this is your opportunity to list out what you believe you need to do or need to have to get this plan done. And sometimes it might be I need a day a week to work from home. So I can just be unaffected by everyone. I know The world's changed, but And that's more acceptable now. But it might not have been in the past. But sometimes it's really important for that BD person to get away from the normal environment, and just spend some real time kind of nutting out what am I going to do for the next week? It might be part of their routine, half a day will be spent just in a coffee shop somewhere planning, but you need to be able to articulate. So all those things we've just done. Who can we sell to? What else can we do? Where's the opportunity? How do we get to it? How much can we win? We need to work out, What do I need to get this done?

Ron Tomlian:

And it's not always the obvious in terms of time, which is important. Because as I said, if you've got 400 days, it's crammed into a quarter, which is only, only got maybe 100 days available to it, you're just not going to get what commitments you've made done.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah. And the simple way of illustrating that, as I remember, someone asked me once, Oh come on, we can do 50 phone calls a day. At 10 minutes a phone call? No, we can't.

Ron Tomlian:

It's physically impossible.

Brenton Gowland:

Physically impossible. Maybe we can get 10, maybe 20 done a day, but then we're going to do nothing else. Because you get someone online, you talk to them for 10, 15 minutes theres your day gone.

Ron Tomlian:

that can inform what you're do into the a future.

Brenton Gowland:

It's like part of it might be we need to commit to the, How much can we win? Or putting parameters on things, we might say I commit to eight meetings a week. Well, each meeting is like an hour long. And then to find the time to plan the meeting, travel to the meeting, return from the meeting, do the follow up actions, etc. If you do any more than let's say 8 to 10 meetings a week. So if you're aiming for 12 or 16 meetings, then your whole week is just meetings, how are you then going to get anything else done, let alone find the time to fill up your meeting roster?

Ron Tomlian:

And the efficacy of the pipeline that we're going to be talking about next week comes from monitoring this stuff as you're going along.

Brenton Gowland:

Correct. And but that's next week. So once you've got the plan in place monitoring it helps you get it done. Right.

Ron Tomlian:

That's right.

Brenton Gowland:

So any final thoughts from you on that list of final questions? Do you think?

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, one of the things that I know I emphasise this a lot, but it's really important, is making sure that you document this stuff.

Brenton Gowland:

Yep.

Ron Tomlian:

It might be great to have it in your head, and it drives what you do. And it's more fun that way. But documenting it means you can go back and have a look. So don't underestimate the importance of making sure this is in a document of some type, whether it's electronic, or even on paper, make sure you keep records of what you've decided to do, and how you've done it.

Brenton Gowland:

And look, it can be very, very simple. It can just be bullet points. So the who can we sell to part whatever you call that in your plan? It's just dot points. It's dot dot dot dot dot, it's, How do we get to it? dot points. Or it might be just a little table with a few headings at the top. Who are we're gonna get to? What industry are they in? How do we get to them? All that kind of stuff. So documenting does not have to be difficult, but it just needs to be under some certain headings, whatever else. And once you've got it documented, the really important thing is, the next time you go to do it, it's a lot easier because you can go to the document and you can modify and update rather than create from scratch.

Ron Tomlian:

understand where you're coming from.

Brenton Gowland:

Yep. So the elements of a BD plan that we've discussed today, just to reiterate, are, Who can we sell to? This is part of the research. What else can we do? Where's the opportunity? How do we get to it? How much can we win? And one of the important questions to include at the end, What do I need to get this done? That's basically summarising how to put a BD plan together.

Ron Tomlian:

Fantastic.

Brenton Gowland:

Cool. So next week, we're going to look at monitoring the BD plan and why that's important and how we do it.

Ron Tomlian:

We keep saying next week exactly two weeks time.

Brenton Gowland:

Oh, it is too. Well, maybe we should go to weekly. No that'd be too much. We'll stick to fortnightly. Now as always, if you're listening, we thank you for listening. Please reach out to us. If you have any questions please rate us on Apple podcasts or Spotify or whatever your listening platform of choice is. We really like the interaction and we love the feed back so.

Ron Tomlian:

And we can help in any other way just let us know.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, and if you do like the whole BD plan thing, sometimes it is hard to find a template. Reach out to us if you need and we'll see what we can do to point you in the right direction. Okay,

Ron Tomlian:

So until next time.

Brenton Gowland:

It's bye from you

Ron Tomlian:

And bye from me.

Brenton Gowland:

I was expecting you to say its bye from you as well. Goodbye, everyone. We just think it'd be funny. Have a great fortnight and we'll talk to you again in a fortnight. Bye.