One of the more challenging things about being in the qualitative research business is continually filling a pipeline of new business. I know that when I am in fieldwork week after week and then in report writing mode, I don’t always focus on where the next set of projects are going to come from. This can lead to a few months of solid work followed by a month, or two, of “slowness” and anyone who knows me knows how much I hate “slowness.”
That said, this year has been pretty good for me. If I were an independent moderator, the revenues and margins from my projects would have left me in a very comfortable position. However I am not an independent moderator, I work for the US office of a London based consultancy called Truth (www.truth.ms) and it is partly my job to keep the lights on and mouths fed. As such, I have been focusing more and more on new business even when I am in the middle of fieldwork; I simply have no choice.
There are three elements of new business development that I have found to be crucial in my own success; personality, persistence, and foresight. I am fortunate in my life to have relationships with people who taught me the importance of these characteristics and would like to take a moment to introduce you to each of them now.
First up is my father, Don Carlon. Dad spent his entire professional career (43 years) as a salesman and general manager within American Express. I say professional career because he was also a bus driver, ice cream store manager, serviceman, and “letter carrier” prior to wearing a suit and tie. I am sure I am forgetting something and no doubt will receive an email from my mother with some additions (as well as grammatical suggestions to this piece). The Don taught me one important lesson about sales, “Michael,” he would say, “The most important thing is for people to like you. If someone likes you, they will buy from you.” He would then go on to tell me how no one was able to sign up Stew Leonard’s (a unique grocery store in CT and NY) to accept the American Express Card. Dad went in and met with Stew Leonard himself and signed him up after one meeting (this was before Stew went to “college” for a little register skimming issue). When dad asked what changed his mind, Stew replied, “I like you Don. I didn’t like anyone else that you sent, but I like you.”
Being likable is something I always keep in mind and I think it is one of the reasons that my clients come back to me time after time. In addition, being likable is a pre-requisite to being a moderator (it takes a unique personality to not only be comfortable leading a discussion while clients observe but also to encourage groups of strangers to divulge their attitudes, opinions, and emotions on a wide variety of topics).
If my father is the embodiment of personality, then Tom Deierlein (@tomdeierlein) is the personification of persistence. Tom and I worked together in the early days of a company called Dynamic Logic (@dynamiclogic) and he taught me many things about business development. The most important thing he taught me, however, is the importance of being persistent. Tom knew he wanted to work for DL when he saw our founder, Nick Nyhan (@nick9nyc), speak at NYU. There were only 4 or 5 of us at the time and we were very much a start up. Rather than having us think we couldn’t afford him, Tom led us to believe that we couldn’t afford to succeed without him. He went so far to show up at a trade show where we were exhibiting and started pitching our company’s AdIndex product to attendees. Needless to say Tom was hired and was a large part of the company’s success. Tom also has a very compelling personal story that you can read about at www.tdfoundation.org.
We cannot rely on our clients to always call us when we get slow. We have to be persistent in reaching out to our existing client base and new clients in order to grow business. I find that when I pick up the phone and start calling old clients I have more proposals to write. In this age of Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging, and Facebook, it is relatively easy to always stay in front of clients and prospects; you just have to be persistent (and disciplined) in using these tools to stay top of mind.
When foresight is combined with personality and persistence, you can really become a new business machine. No one taught me more about the importance of foresight than OTX founder Shelley Zalis (@ipsosexchange). An entire book can be written about Shelley and my summary of her story will not do it justice. Lets just say Shelley left a really big research company (Ipsos) because she had a vision that marketing research had to evolve through the use of interactive applications. She started a company called OTX and later sold it to Ipsos. She taught me how to “skate where the puck is going to be,” and continually reminds me that some people are never happy they are comfortable.
In a business development sense this means always bringing new thinking and products to your clients particularly when they are not asking for it. I am pretty sure the phrase “innovate or die” will be on her tombstone (which is the only way she will stop innovating).
Obviously there are more ingredients than personality, persistence, and foresight to being successful in driving new business. However, I do consider these three elements the foundation to all business development efforts. This is my opinion of course, what have you learned in your journey?
