[00:00:17] Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Tea and Timbits. I am Andy coming to you
[00:00:24] from the United Kingdom again.
[00:00:26] Hello everybody, I am your other host Scott and I am still in Toronto.
[00:00:30] That's fantastic. This podcast is about global perspectives on business development to help
[00:00:34] you prosper and this week we are going to be talking about helping a client to qualify
[00:00:41] for EU, which is an interesting topic. I am looking forward to finding out what Scott
[00:00:46] meant when he wrote that down. But before we get into that, Scott, do you have a story
[00:00:52] for us this week?
[00:00:53] Oh, it's my turn, right? Yes. So I was recently facilitating a workshop. We were
[00:00:59] doing a strategic planning exercise on e-commerce and it was run through the
[00:01:11] startups to larger, mid-size, more established clients. We introduced the workshop. I was
[00:01:19] circulating around the room and I went over to talk to somebody who was trying their
[00:01:26] hardest to follow the template and the structure that I had provided. They were
[00:01:33] just really stuck so I put the template aside and said, tell me a little bit more
[00:01:39] about your business. Anyway, they were a sole proprietor and they were a bit of a
[00:01:47] craftsperson and they were into textiles and clothing and manufacturing some of their
[00:01:54] own stuff as well. The way that they sold was going to different festivals and shows
[00:02:00] and community events and whatnot and building up a presence there and physically
[00:02:05] talking to the people and getting specific about the fabric that they wanted and all
[00:02:10] that kind of stuff. And I said, boy, it seems to me like you do not need an e-commerce
[00:02:15] site. And when I said that to them, they just like this light bulb, they had
[00:02:20] this moment. They were like, wow, I never even thought about not doing it. And I
[00:02:27] said, you just need brand presence. You need social media presence. You need digital
[00:02:32] to support what you're doing. But you showed up here because somebody told you
[00:02:36] you need an e-commerce site or you thought you needed e-commerce because you had
[00:02:40] to be online. And she interrupted me and said, absolutely right. Well, I'm
[00:02:45] here to tell you as the guy leading the e-commerce workshop, you're probably
[00:02:49] in the wrong room. I said, just keep, you know, you might get to that point
[00:02:53] eventually, but focus on what you're doing really well and put more into
[00:02:57] your brand and your marketing and doing what you're doing really well. And
[00:03:01] when you're ready to scale up and use some of these shopping tools, you'll
[00:03:08] know when that time is ready. And she was like, I'd lightened her load by
[00:03:13] a thousand tons at that point. So thought I'd share it for whatever
[00:03:16] perspective that's worth. You don't always have to be doing what the
[00:03:20] latest trend is or what you think you're supposed to be doing. So there
[00:03:23] you go.
[00:03:24] But it's also very important to make sure that if you see that in
[00:03:29] someone's business life or personal life, for that matter, that they are
[00:03:32] in the wrong lane, that you give them a helping hand to get them back on
[00:03:36] track.
[00:03:37] Yeah, there you go.
[00:03:39] I like it. Very good. So Scott, tell me, what are we talking about
[00:03:43] today?
[00:03:45] So this is helping the client qualify you and it's a bit of a, it's a
[00:03:51] bit of a mutual conversation. But I find that a lot of times when you
[00:03:57] go into these conversations, you have an opportunity to make it more
[00:04:03] efficient for both parties. And by doing that, I think it actually
[00:04:07] increases your likelihood of success. So I can get into it more and
[00:04:13] that's what I will do. But that's, you know, what the conversation
[00:04:17] is about is just what can be done. And in the context of an
[00:04:21] account based selling approach, which is what we said we were going
[00:04:25] to talk about in September, I think it applies particularly well. And
[00:04:30] so I hope that, you know, coming out of this conversation, people
[00:04:33] can reflect on what they can do in the way that they are engaging
[00:04:37] with some of those opportunities to streamline that, that evaluation
[00:04:42] and qualification process.
[00:04:45] How do you do that in your business?
[00:04:47] Yeah, so
[00:04:50] you knew that was coming.
[00:04:52] Yeah. So in our business, there are two things that we want to
[00:04:57] establish, like before we even get into establishing budget and making
[00:05:01] sure the economics and investment is aligned. But do we actually do
[00:05:10] something? Can we do we actually have a product or service that
[00:05:13] fits the problem, the challenge, the opportunity that the client
[00:05:17] has? But do we and then the second part of it is, do we deliver
[00:05:23] that in a way that's congruent with the client with the
[00:05:27] prospect? And so I think it's the second part of that that I
[00:05:31] had in mind when I suggested this topic, because it is, you
[00:05:36] know, I would say just about if not more critical to make
[00:05:41] sure that there's process and cultural alignment between us and
[00:05:46] client, then financial alignment. So we really want the
[00:05:53] client to know how we do what we do in detail in depth. So
[00:06:03] that the client can go wait a minute, is that going to fit
[00:06:07] into my missing puzzle piece? Or or is the way that they do
[00:06:14] going to ruffle feathers? Or are we going to be struggling the
[00:06:18] whole time to to get along?
[00:06:23] Basically, yeah, no, that's a really important factor that you
[00:06:26] mentioned there as well is that it can't just be that the, you
[00:06:30] know, the company is trying to sell something is, is reaching
[00:06:34] out and saying, Oh, well, you know, do they fit in this
[00:06:36] particular, you know, model that we've decided that is our
[00:06:41] ideal customer? Most companies have an ideal supplier, you
[00:06:45] know, as well. And they have, you know, well, this supplier
[00:06:50] must be based in this region must have these type of
[00:06:54] things must be able to project. Yeah. And again, we
[00:06:59] all know that our customers have access to the internet
[00:07:02] just like we do. And they're able to do research about who
[00:07:05] you are, what type of company you are. And so make sure
[00:07:09] that, you know, you are representing yourself, both
[00:07:12] individually and as a company, in a way that you want your
[00:07:17] customers to learn about you not just to promote your own
[00:07:20] products, but about how they can understand what it's like
[00:07:23] to work with you.
[00:07:25] And that's what it's all about is this process alignment.
[00:07:30] You know, because if you don't provide that framework, then
[00:07:36] the prospect is going to fill in the blanks. Exactly. And, and
[00:07:41] you're not going to be aware of that. They are going to have
[00:07:44] an expectation of how this engagement is going to work
[00:07:47] and what they've or what they've done before, or the
[00:07:50] last time they worked with somebody like you, or they
[00:07:53] would have done their own due diligence and talk to
[00:07:55] somebody who knows somebody who said, Well, you should ask
[00:07:58] these kinds of questions and be set up this way. And maybe
[00:08:02] it's pretty close to the way that we do things, but I can
[00:08:04] guarantee you it's not going to be identical. And so then if I
[00:08:07] don't, if I don't go through that exercise to make sure I'm
[00:08:11] giving that information away and resetting or establishing
[00:08:16] that understanding, then they might be very excited to buy
[00:08:20] from me what I deliver, because they've seen how
[00:08:23] successful it was for somebody else or whatever, I sell them
[00:08:26] the benefit of the thing. And then we go through the
[00:08:30] process and we're like, it's like oil and water. So part of
[00:08:34] it is one making sure that your thing or your service does
[00:08:39] satisfy the need and you're not just trying to sell them on
[00:08:42] the I mean, this is old school stuff, right? Like the
[00:08:44] features and benefits and and but telling you those things
[00:08:47] are still relevant. Those things are still relevant.
[00:08:49] It's just about how you how you package it and how you
[00:08:51] put it forward, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So not
[00:08:57] just showing them your feature list and your capabilities, but
[00:09:01] okay, I have these things. But let's just also make sure that
[00:09:04] we can pull the right pieces off the shelf and apply them to
[00:09:08] your situation and go through at a discrete level. You know,
[00:09:13] if we did this, you know, how well would it be received?
[00:09:16] If we took this step, who would be involved? We want to
[00:09:19] be able to deliver this Do you think it's relevant?
[00:09:22] There's a lot of steps in the kind of work that we do
[00:09:24] that people don't see any value in or they've already actually
[00:09:28] figured out and they can just communicate that and we don't
[00:09:30] have to go through the discovery exercise to uncover it
[00:09:32] that kind of thing. And just by having that transparency and
[00:09:36] clarity, we will also uncover some things that they
[00:09:39] really need to do x y z and we're like, Whoa, wait a
[00:09:42] minute, that's that's not even in this sphere of
[00:09:46] services. But in their mind, it should be or or or
[00:09:51] was from some other vendor that had a more diverse
[00:09:54] service base or something like that. I don't know. So
[00:09:56] yes, it's about the product alignment. And it's about the
[00:10:00] the service alignment and I think it's about it comes down
[00:10:02] to intention here, right? So
[00:10:04] yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:10:07] That's right. And I think ultimately, it's having that
[00:10:11] partnership mindset though, isn't it? It's creating an
[00:10:14] environment where if someone wants to work with you, you
[00:10:18] make it so that they can so that it isn't a, you know,
[00:10:23] an us and them relationship. It's a relationship.
[00:10:28] Yeah. Absolutely. And I think an important part of this step,
[00:10:33] this concept of helping the client qualify you is you you
[00:10:39] also get to say and by the way, we are qualifying the
[00:10:42] opportunity for ourselves as well. Like we want to know if
[00:10:46] this is a legitimate thing that we can solve and we're
[00:10:48] qualifying the client, but we want the client to also be
[00:10:51] evaluating us. And if you set up that expectation from the
[00:10:56] get go, that's the part that I think leads more like to more
[00:11:01] likely success than than otherwise. Yes. Yeah, it's
[00:11:03] like there's a it's a it's a genuine sort of it's not a
[00:11:08] scarcity sort of game. But but you're definitely saying,
[00:11:12] you know, I'm I'm particular about who we work for. And
[00:11:16] I'm not trying to be too choosy here, but I am only
[00:11:20] going to get involved in opportunities that are the
[00:11:24] right ones for each of us. And we might desperately need
[00:11:28] what we can do. But if I don't say it that way, but you
[00:11:32] know, you get the idea. But if it's not gonna fit with our
[00:11:35] process, then it's not worth proceeding together and, and
[00:11:39] vice versa. I want you because you know more about
[00:11:42] the way that you work. So I'm going to tell you as much
[00:11:44] as I can about how we do what we do. You know, please take
[00:11:47] that internally and don't just evaluate it for what is
[00:11:50] getting delivered. Yeah, exactly. And I think that
[00:11:53] that's particularly important in an account based approach
[00:11:57] to selling services and products. Couldn't agree more.
[00:12:03] I was trying to think of what more I could add to you.
[00:12:10] I think I think it doesn't need any more explanation than
[00:12:13] that. No, no, but it's a key thing that hopefully people
[00:12:17] will go away from is the importance of making sure that
[00:12:20] the way you are representing yourself, the way that you
[00:12:22] are going out to market and your intentions when you're
[00:12:24] going out to market is important because people are
[00:12:27] going to be looking at you. They are going to be judging
[00:12:29] you and they are going to be qualifying you so help them
[00:12:31] to do it in the right way.
[00:12:34] Excellent.
[00:12:36] Thank you very much, Scott. That was a short but
[00:12:38] interesting episode. And I'm very happy to have covered
[00:12:42] that topic. I was a little bit scared when I didn't
[00:12:44] realize what we were going to be talking about. But you
[00:12:46] helped me along the way that.
[00:12:49] If you want to get in touch with us and suggest any
[00:12:52] future complicated topics for me to figure out, then
[00:12:56] do so by going to T and Tim bits.com and you
[00:12:59] can find multiple ways to get in touch with us
[00:13:01] there and many ways to subscribe to our podcast and
[00:13:05] listen to past and future episodes. Thank you,
[00:13:08] Scott.
[00:13:09] All right. Thanks, Eddie.