The Key To Identifying Business Development Opportunities

My long time friend and legal business development trainer/coach, Cordell Parvin, invited me to do a Guest Post on his popular blog. I was honored to offer these thoughts on how to find business development opportunities.

(In addition to subscribing to his Blog, you can follow Cordell on Twitter @cordellparvin.)

Listen. Do You Want To Know A Secret?

For anyone of a certain age (we won’t be any more specific) those words most likely prompt a mind’s earful of a catchy tune as recorded by the Fab Four.  (If “Fab Four” is meaningless to you, skip to paragraph 2.)  The lyrics of the song, simplistic as they might be, belie one of the key -- maybe even THE key criteria to successful relationship: be quiet; listen up; and you are likely to hear something of value.

Makes for a nice song.  But practically speaking, we don’t much care for the discipline that is required to really listen.

Don’t believe this?  Look around, and consider the precipitous decline in the art of conversation.  E-mail, texting, social updates (in as few as 140 characters, to boot) -- all make it infinitely more easy to browse, skim, filter and create shortcuts for messaging.  Key words and optimized phrases have become the shorthand of ideas.  Seems like this used to be thought of as “hearing only what we want to hear.”

And if one is really plugged in, technology will do much of the work for you.

Really listening, it turns out -- the kind of intentional act that puts aside agendas and preconceived notions -- is hard work.  It calls for focus and concentration.  It has one goal: to learn something.

Not to sell, disciple, convert or win.  To learn.  Because learning is the door to opportunity.

(As an aside, if your sales force or customer facing team is having difficulty identifying new productive and profitable opportunities, they may not be listening.)

This is what we tell our children: listen and learn.  It is -- to a lesser degree to be sure, but to a certain degree nonetheless -- the way we behave in the earliest stages of an important personal relationship.  Talking less.  Listening more intentionally.  Looking for insights that combine to form a bridge to relationship.  Alert to the most promising opportunities for connection.

The unfortunate tendency -- in the context of personal and business relationships -- is to far too quickly believe we know enough (if not, all).

And with “research” complete, the focus on listening shifts to a preoccupation with what we now want to say.

We agonize over brochure copy, web content, Twitter posts, and a message strategy for Facebook, Linked In and now Google +.  With so many ways to deliver our message, what we say becomes the focus.  Even in conversation, research points to the fact that often, while feigning listening, we’re really thinking about what we need to say next.

Few are the strategic discussions around the execution of a feedback mechanism.  Fewer still the times that the listening potential of social media or the firm web site appear on a meeting agenda.  These are, after all, messaging tools.  So convinced are we that connecting and communicating with the market is about messaging, that the absence of robust listening tools is scarcely noticed.

And we certainly don’t consider the listening opportunity inherent in social media.  (How many organizations do you know that follow clients or key customers on Twitter -- not to talk to them, but to listen to what they have to say?) 

This is not to diminish the need for or value in quality messaging.  It is, of course, critical.  It is to at least whisper into our collective marketing ears.

Want customers / clients for life?  Listen closely.  Given the time and opportunity, the market will tell you the secrets to their loyalty.

Five Keys To Better Conversations

To the degree that one life intersects with another – at home, on the job, socially (yes, even via social media) – few things are more central to progress and success than the art of dialogue.

Whether a political agenda, the endeavors of enterprise, social awareness and reform or a family’s pursuits, progress is impossible in the absence of an intentional and consistent focus on better conversations.  Better than what?  Better than those we had last year…last month…yesterday.

There is little value in having the same conversations over and over.  Eventually, no one is listening.  So, here are five ideas – two things to steer clear of, and three proactive steps -- that will instigate better conversations and more productive dialogue.

1) Avoid the devils you know.  These come in all shapes and sizes.  They may be rooted in legitimate analysis or the ghosts of self-awareness.  And though understanding the past is one of the ways to avoid repeating it, conversations (in the context of any relationship) that begin with the issues of past experiments and experiences rarely last long enough to break new ground.  Change – indeed progress – is born of aspirations.  Better conversations focus here.

2) Pass on the blame game.  It’s popular, and everyone plays it.  So much so that, masquerading as analysis, the language of blame (or CYA) is often the default language in any change related dialogue.  Understanding what precipitated difficulties of the past might be instructive (though I’m not convinced of that fact).  But attempts here almost always polarize and stymie.  Affixing blame is a waste of time, and an inhibitor of real conversing.  When it is of consequence, you can bet those who need to already have a sense who is to blame.  Play a different game.

3) Change the discussion.  This is the game we should be about, because it facilitates connection.  Much of the time the reason progress is so slow and minuscule is we’re engaging in the same discussions…over and over.  The same debate.  The same case.  The same retort.  And the same result.  Rather, invest in creativity and innovation.  Want to stand a discussion on its ear?  Drop pre-conceived agendas and seed a new idea.  Where true progress is the objective, new ideas – not agendas or platforms – will fuel a better brand of dialogue.

4) Be about solutions.  Conversations that begin with the problems rarely move past them.  Should you need a case study, witness the current non-dialogue in Washington, D.C.  Solutions, on the other hand, require creative thinking, broad (and deep) perspective, and a measure of courage.  Solutions to real-world-issues – without respect to venue – come laden with responsibility.  Whether on a personal level, in the workplace, or in the most convoluted of socio-political environs, solutions to multi-layered challenges always require on-going dialogue.  Solutions to our greatest challenges cannot be communicated via sound bite.

5) Listen more than you talk.  Ah! Here is the rub.  To the degree that conversation is merely what we tolerate in order to make our point and present our agenda, there is no real dialogue.  Dialogue is about erasing the whiteboard, and beginning anew.  Dialogue invests in intentional listening – without agenda, in search of shared aspirations, because this is where connection occurs.

At the risk of stating the obvious, all of this flies in the face of a communication strategy that says identify your message and stay on point no matter the topic or specific question might be.  Dialogue is hard work.  It is not media or camera-friendly.  Good sound bites are the accidental product of actual communication.

And so enterprise cranks out its marketing-speak; politicians rehearse and reiterate their sound bites; client service groups invent new ways to deflect criticism; we all learn to speak the same language, engage in the same conversations over and over; no one is listening…and dialogue is minimal.

I’m determined to be a part of better conversations.  Not only will the past not define the future, the mistakes of yesterday will not cloud today’s conversations.  If just you and I were to commit, what opportunities might be discovered?

Are We Losing Our Ability To Listen?

In an increasingly loud world voices, headlines, media and even strategic noises seem to compete for our attention.  The competition (naturally) gives rise to more creative approaches to capture a target's ear.  And in the process there is plenty of reason to wonder whether anything is actually being heard.

In this short video presentation, sound expert Julian Treasure suggests we are "losing our listening."  But stick with him; the payoff is five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening -- to other people and the world around you.

It's worth the listen.

When Marketing Fails

This post is dedicated to anyone who has ever asked (or been on the receiving end of the query) where did our marketing go wrong? 

And the answer is -- perhaps it went awry when the priority became creating, producing and delivering the message as opposed to identifying the precise point at which you might connect with your target.

Somewhere, somehow we began to equate marketing with the execution of creative genius. We recognize it, reward it, hand out killer-awards for it, revere it. And sometimes, inadvertently to be sure, producing the message became the point.  We began thinking of the ability to articulate or produce as the only tools essential to moving a target audience.

Don't misunderstand: I firmly believe creativity in all of its manifestations is a critical piece of the puzzle. Great copy, killer production value, insightful market segmentation and innovative media plans scarcely scratch the surface of essential creative components. But if the message doesn't emanate from the kind of listening that precisely identifies the point of connection -- shared experiences, concerns, aspirations -- we should not be surprised when the market barely moves in our direction. 

What might happen if, for a season, we invested in innovative listening? What if we found a way to lend our mind's ear to our clients/customers/targets (as opposed to engaging in a profunctary exercise)?

This is the essence of Intentional Listening. It employs the creative (and opportunistic) resources of the mind's ear to the fullest extent. This kind of listening is a relentless quest for common ground and points of connection.

Call it market research if conventional labels are more comfortable. By any label, this is the seed of succcess for our marketing efforts. Intently listen, and the market will reveal what it cares about, what it is searching for, and what it takes to sew seeds of loyal, enduring relationships.

Armed with this kind of baseline information, we might surprise even ourselves with the impact creative and innovative communication has on the bottom-line.