Welcome to episode 17 of Creative Collaboration: Conversations with Veronica and Jillian. In this episode Veronica Guguian and Jillian Vorce advocate a holistic approach to business development, stressing proactive and patient relationship-building strategies. They highlight the significance of a positive mindset, genuine engagement, and adding value without expecting immediate returns. Their emphasis on personalized outreach, consistent efforts, and adapting to changing circumstances underscores the importance of fostering connections and sustaining long-term success in the ever-evolving landscape of business development.
Today, Veronica and Jillian emphasize the need for proactive, creative, and patient approaches when building relationships. Veronica mentions her SPIN methodology regarding understanding the audience and planning tactics to approach them effectively.
Veronica Guguian discusses the importance of mindset in business development and emphasizes the need to switch from a negative mentality to a positive one. She suggests being curious, attending events, and engaging with people without expecting immediate business outcomes.
Veronica also emphasizes the significance of follow-up and offers practical tips for maintaining contact, such as using calendars or LinkedIn. Jillian Vorce agrees with Veronica's approach and adds that building relationships through genuine conversations is vital in business development.
Both speakers stress the value of adding value to others rather than simply selling products or services. They highlight the importance of making connections between individuals without expecting anything in return but still following up on those introductions later if necessary. Additionally, they discuss how rejection can lead closer to success by filtering out incompatible clients and mention that circumstances may change over time, making previously rejected prospects potential future customers.
Veronica Guguian emphasizes the importance of focusing on the undecided segment of potential clients and building relationships with them. She also highlights the value of gathering feedback to improve services and increase conversion rates.
Jillian Vorce discusses the significance of raising one's profile through different mediums like content creation, networking, speaking engagements, etc. She advises leveraging both online and offline strategies for maximum impact. The transcript also touches upon the concept of outreach, suggesting that personalized and well-researched approaches are more effective than cold emails. Consistency is emphasized as a key factor in long-term success, while neglecting business development can lead to feast or famine cycles.
People & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
1. https://nomorenetworking.com
3. https://creativecollaborationpodcast.com/episodes/sales-marketing-miscues-opportunities
4. https://creativecollaborationpodcast.com/episodes/networking-tactics
About Veronica Guguian
- Website: https://spinideas.nl/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-guguian
About Jillian Vorce
- Website: https://thejilliangroup.com/better
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianvorce
Credits
- Music Composed by BeeLa Music
- Voiceover by Amanda Balagur
Veronica Guguian
·19:14
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 17 from Creative Collaborations, Conversations with Veronica and Jillian. And as always, I'm Veronica and I'm here today with Jillian. Hello, Jillian.
Jillian Vorce
·19:38
Hi. Happy day. Happy Wednesday, Thursday, whatever day of the week it is where you are. So today we're going to chat about business development strategies. But before we get into that, let's check in. How's it going? What's up? What's been going on with you? Anything cool to share? Any experiences, insights, tools, et.
Veronica Guguian
·20:07
You. For our listeners that don't know, we are based in the Netherlands. So in the Netherlands during this period is the networking conference, workshops, everything season. So a lot of things are happening. That's very exciting. And yesterday I attended one of these events. It's not a new event, but it's new to me and it's no more networking. It's a small micro type of networking event. And I wasn't sure what to expect, but because I'm kind of organizing slightly bigger or going attending bigger events. But I have to say I loved it because I think were around ten people, we had a presentation and the fact that because were such an intimate group allowed us to really talk, share, make connections.
Veronica Guguian
·21:02
So if you're focused on quality and not quantity, definitely my advice or my share of the week is look for this type of events in your city or maybe travel or the guy is organizing. Marcel is actually a digital nomad, so he's organizing the events in different places. Very interesting to meet people, to just have deeper conversations. And this is a shout out to him as well. We're going to make sure to place the link to his website and definitely give it a go and just speak with people and maybe organize your own micro event and go and chat. And I think that will be very in line with our today's topic.
Jillian Vorce
·21:57
I think so. And it also reminds me of our. Let's see what one I'm trying to take a quick look to see. We did networking tactics was episode twelve, I believe. Is that correct? I'm trying to look on the fly. Episode twelve, we talked about networking tactics and I believe that's one of the things we talked about, is also not being afraid to host or to kind of facilitate small group gatherings. That's right. In alignment with what you're talking about.
Veronica Guguian
·22:30
Exactly. And not only host, but maybe co host, go and volunteer to these type of events and learn how to do it.
Jillian Vorce
·22:37
Yeah, for sure.
Veronica Guguian
·22:38
It's your networK.
Jillian Vorce
·22:41
So my update is also related to our topic today. So it seems to be theme of the week in some ways. So this week I volunteered for an organization called the Duplexy Foundation. They're based in the US and their objective is to make sure I'm saying it correct. Yeah. Is to partner with 1000 diverse business owners to help them generate a million dollars a year in sales or revenue.
Veronica Guguian
·23:15
I like this.
Jillian Vorce
·23:17
Yeah, it's really amazing. And the numbers are, I learned, I believe it was only 4% of women business owners achieve seven figures. Like get to seven figures and I think it's 0.4% of black women that have businesses. It's such a small percentage. And so that's what he's targeting is people who aren't typically the first in line to get access to resources and all of these things to help lift them up. So he's got this great organization. And so there is a sales day of service this week, pairing mentors with business owners from around the US and looking for ways to help them achieve their sales goals for 2024 organization.
Veronica Guguian
·24:07
I love the idea. It's focusing only on the American market.
Jillian Vorce
·24:12
Yes.
Veronica Guguian
·24:13
Okay. Because I was about to actually launch a call to all our women entrepreneurs and founders and invite them to join. Maybe we should see how we can bring this to Europe because I look and I think it's needed. It's as badly needed here as in the States.
Jillian Vorce
·24:38
I think so. Yeah. And it's a great organization. But as we have seen, we have quite a number of listeners from the US too, so can be relevant for them and otherwise.
Veronica Guguian
·24:47
Exactly.
Jillian Vorce
·24:48
Still, I mean, I volunteered as a mentor from here because I can still show up via Zoom. But in any case, that's my update for today.
Veronica Guguian
·24:59
I love that.
Jillian Vorce
·25:00
All right, so what's our segue into our topic about business development? I guess that it's like business development, everything. Yeah, I know. So we had another episode talking about sales versus marketing, and today we're talking about business development, which is not necessarily the same for sales. I kind of think of it as marketing and business development are lIke, helping to set the table for sales to happen.
Veronica Guguian
·25:32
Yes.
Jillian Vorce
·25:33
It's a lot smoother to have those things in place. Before you enter a sales conversation, I always use this.
Veronica Guguian
·25:40
Like, the sales is basically the question, do you want to work with us? Do you want to sign the contract? Just to make it more clear, what exactly is that particular step? Because that's the final step, the closure, the closing of the contract. So basically, what we discussed in I think you mentioned episode twelve, as well as what will bring it up today is more all that preparation, the funnels, how they're also called, or how do you build that relationship with the prospects and the clients? I do understand why people are confused because it's such a fine line between those. Where does marketing, business development ends and sales starts? Because business development is closer to sale than to marketing. However, it's in the middle.
Jillian Vorce
·26:37
Yeah, I think they're definitely intertwined for sure. I don't know, do you want to start or go through or you want me to start, or how do you want to tackle this one?
Veronica Guguian
·26:51
You start and I'm going to join.
Jillian Vorce
·26:55
Okay, perfect.
Veronica Guguian
·26:56
I do have some tactics and some ideas to share, but you go with it. I think it's more your domain, this, I think.
Jillian Vorce
·27:07
Yeah, I don't know.
Veronica Guguian
·27:07
We'll, we'll see.
Jillian Vorce
·27:08
See, we'll check afterwards. You see, if you're like, nah, Jillian, you didn't bring it today. I don't. So first and foremost, to me, as with most everything, it starts with mindset and just the mentality and how we're showing up to do the thing that we're trying to do. Right? So when I think about business development, I think about three things about being proactive. I think about being creative and being patient. And so I realized at first glance, being proactive and being patient might feel like contradictions, but I think they're not contradictory. I think they're complementary, and I think they're both equally important. Okay, so that's my opening section there about the mindset and how to show up for business development. Okay, so from there, I guess the first thing that comes to mind in a business development arena is building relationships, right?
Jillian Vorce
·28:13
And so putting these three pieces like these, be proactive, creative, and patient. Those are relevant and should be kind of like, I don't want to say checkbox approach, but a nod to each of them with every tactic. Right. So this first one is in terms of building relationships. So one of the starting points that I think is useful, and I'm actually, I feel like, full disclosure, I'm actively doing all of these things right now. So this is not just random ideas. It's actually the things that I'm doing and have done previously in terms of the relationships, how I call it the stakeholder ecosystem. And so I think of it as like two sheets of paper or something.
Jillian Vorce
·29:01
So one side is like drawing out my business, and then all of the circles all around me that are other businesses that are related to mine, like service providers that I use or who I work with, who I collaborate with, partners, vendors, who's in my community, online, offline, like this whole kind of ecosystem approach, and then doing the same thing for the type of client that I aspire to work with or that you aspire to work with. So who are the people or companies organizations that influence them? It's all of the things like what type of events do they go to? What type of podcast do they listen to? Do they read? What are their hobbies and activities, and what are the things that are important to them? What other vendors and partners and whatnot do they work with?
Jillian Vorce
·29:54
Who are their customers? And looking at those two, it's such an easy thing to just gloss over and be like, oh, yeah, I know that. But when you actually sit down and do it, you start to see some points of intersection and it starts to illuminate areas that make sense like that. Looking for those eclipse areas of the Ven diagram situation, of where to spend maybe more time. And so going through this process and researching to identify opportunities, like potential partnerships or looking for who are the influencers and how can I be proactive? So if you see an overlap between the two of an industry or a couple of companies, now you're in the driver's seat and can be a little bit more proactive to reach out, like do some research, find out what's going on with a company, XYZ.
Jillian Vorce
·30:42
Start to be creative, thinking of some ideas of how you could collaborate or work together, or ways that you could add value to what they're doing. So that's being proactive, being creative, and then eventually reaching out to those people, but then giving some time for things to germinate. So it's not always, I feel like I'm firing off a bunch of things at once, but I think there are a bunch of pieces. But that last part about reaching out to somebody, sometimes that can be three months, six months, or three years later, at least the way I go about it, because I wait for a relationship to be, generally, I wait for a relationship to be mature enough or the root to be deep enough for it to not just be a cold, try.
Veronica Guguian
·31:29
To, out of the blue, reach out.
Jillian Vorce
·31:32
Yeah. So, yeah, that's the first thing I think is in terms of business development strategy, it feels like Captain obvious, but I think it's how we go about building relationships. So it's those pieces. And then the last part I'll tuck into this one is a really important piece as well, is being organized and having a system for how to approach this. Otherwise it'll be scattershot and it gets overwhelming and you get burnt out. And then when you get overwhelmed, it's not organized. We tend to not be consistent with it, and therefore it can prolong the results. And so if you're consistent and you're doing the same things and organized, it's also easier to then assess the kind of efficacy of things or be able to identify what are the areas to focus more on or less on based on the results.
Jillian Vorce
·32:26
So that's a little bit for me. What say you?
Veronica Guguian
·32:30
It's very similar. What you described will be step two and four from my spin methodology, because the second step is actually knowing your audience. And if you know your audience, then you identify how they think, where they spend their time, what events they go. How can you reach them? When should you reach them? Through whom? Basically everything that you just shared. And then step four is actually how the planning and choosing the right tactics to approach them. Should you go to an event and start talking with him, with them, or should you shoot a message on LinkedIn? How should you do it? Should you organize a micro event like I mentioned, and invite them there and provide value before asking them?
Veronica Guguian
·33:19
But before diving into this, actually, from my experience, what I noticed, and let's be honest, that applies to us, at least I know it applies to me. Everything starts with the state of mind, because if you approach it and you are, oh, I don't want to do this, and what will happen, or I will get a no and I will be rejected and I don't want to do that. And we all have these, all of us. So once we switch this mentality, I think we are more keen into going and doing the work because it's consistent work that needs to be done. Do we need to identify, do you need to go? One of my approaches for business development is actually being curious. Going like the event I went to yesterday and speaking with people without expecting to get business out of it.
Veronica Guguian
·34:06
Very important. That's key. Yes, it is. I'm going and I'm curious. I'm just sharing. And the moment you do that, people are, oh, so this is what you do. It doesn't come from a place. When I want to book you, I need your business. It comes from a very authentic place where I love what you're doing and let me provide my input into that. And if we click, or if there's a fit between our values and ideas way of working, then you follow up with the meeting. Oh, there are actually so many things that we could share about this.
Jillian Vorce
·34:44
I know.
Veronica Guguian
·34:47
Following up is so important. A very easy way to do it actually is to open your agenda, your calendar, and start making appointments for you. Send an email to that person. Two months later, have a follow up call with that person. Just create that habit in your if you're a big company, probably you have a system put in place, but maybe if you're a small business owner, you don't have that. And you just have your email and calendar and LinkedIn, just use those. It doesn't need to be fancy. If you're a big fan of Excel, just open an Excel file and do that. I will never do that. But I do follow up on LinkedIn. That's my tool. So you maybe have a place to use that one. It doesn't matter. It's up to you.
Veronica Guguian
·35:46
But follow up, at least the first coffee should be. You can say, hey, we discussed about that. You said you are curious. Let's have a conversation and see if there's any interest. So follow up not with the intention necessarily to send a proposal, but with continuing that conversation and start qualifying them and start saying hey. And by qualifying means, like do we actually match in terms of values? And do you actually need my services? Can you afford my services? Very important, because otherwise you put a lot of effort into it for nothing. And is this the right moment for you to start working with me or for me to start working with you? And based on that, actually you can start building the relationship.
Veronica Guguian
·36:36
And when I'm saying these things, it's not that you go and actively ask exactly the same, like what I just shared, but this is a type of information. Either you're just curious about the business and you want to know more and build a relationship, or if depending on what you're doing, some sales cycles are shorter. So in that case you can actually have this type of conversation. And one more thing that I always say to people and what they are saying in sales, every single no takes you closer to a yes. So don't be afraid to have no's, because that means you're not going to waste your time on that. And also means that you actually had a good conversation with someone, probably, and you met someone else.
Jillian Vorce
·37:25
Yeah, absolutely. And I think on that one, the no's lead to a yes. I also think of it a no as a not now, because we know things change rapidly in this new world that we live in. And the person that said now might end up getting a new job tomorrow or next week. And now remember, and now be in a position to bring you in, because oftentimes the decision they're making is not their own. It's a mandate or budgetary or whatever it is. So it's that. And the other thing, I really like what you're talking about showing up and being curious and those things and the reach out and the mindset, because it is really important. I think business development is really about seeding opportunities.
Jillian Vorce
·38:12
And the way that we interact with people in our business development activities really sets the tone. It's like we teach people how to treat us. So by the way we interact with people, right. We're able to demonstrate who we are and how we work. So there's a lot of stock to be put in that, right. And so if we're showing up and for example, finding if you go through this kind of exercise and figure out and narrow down a couple of a particular industry, or maybe there's a handful, three to five companies that you're really keen about. So now if you're truly coming from a place of curiosity and being creative and really looking for ways to kind of collaborate, et cetera, then you look at this company, ABC company, here you can have a more genuine conversation with them.
Jillian Vorce
·39:10
It's like, hello, I noticed X, Y and Z, or you've been over here, I saw you were doing this. Do you also know this company or this event? I didn't see anything online. Have you guys ever considered working together? It's one of the things, and this is providing. I just very seamlessly went into what I say because this is what happens. I've said it a million times and it is genuine. It's like this is one of the things I love most to do, is aligning, bringing people and resources together to create a greater impact, looking for opportunities to collaborate. And I don't know if you already have a relationship with them, but it seems like a great opportunity, et cetera. Maybe I could put you in touch.
Jillian Vorce
·39:56
And so people are used to being sold to, but they're not used to having value added in, kind of being treated like people and having actual conversations.
Veronica Guguian
·40:12
And listening, bringing value.
Jillian Vorce
·40:16
Yeah, it's not so much. So I think that's a really great way to go about it. Because we know this quote, right? It's like people don't remember what we say, they remember how we made them feel. And so the way we conduct ourselves matters more than whatever thing we're trying to sell. It's like the way we conduct ourselves. So I think that all fits in the kind of the mindset piece and then how we build relationships.
Veronica Guguian
·40:42
I'm really happy you brought this up because yesterday's networking that I mentioned, they are really good at this. So people there are, oh, you need to talk with that person or let's do this. However, a couple of weeks ago, one of the other events you do have, I did meet amazing people, but they are shy, or they are not necessarily shy, but they are just too new to this. So for me, exactly. For you, it's natural. I met you five minutes ago. I met that lady that actually is looking for what you're offering. So let me introduce you to. And then you just make the introduction and you go. But that actually is not only for us, it comes naturally. And I think everyone could do it, but it's like a muscle that you do need to train and to be open to it.
Veronica Guguian
·41:32
And I think it's a mindset that you need to switch from scarcity to abundance. Because the fact that you're introducing someone, it doesn't mean that you're going to lose a business. And probably that person will never be your client. But the fact, exactly like you said, you introduce that person to the right connection, at least I do it because it is very selfish. Makes me feel good that I help someone. Yes, me too.
Jillian Vorce
·41:55
Me too.
Veronica Guguian
·41:56
So it's up to them what they will do afterwards. And I don't expect them. And I think this is very important. If you do that, don't expect them to come and say thank you or them to do something for you. Just do it and let it be. Because if you turn it, then the energy is not where it should be.
Jillian Vorce
·42:15
Absolutely. However, you could also then make a note in your system to follow up, however long later, two weeks later, or something to say, hey, by the way, did that conversation happen? Was it actually valuable? Was it helpful to you, et cetera, just to follow up on that?
Veronica Guguian
·42:33
Definitely. You can do that.
Jillian Vorce
·42:36
All right, so what else from business development strategy? So we have the mindset piece. We have building relationships.
Veronica Guguian
·42:43
Actually, I'm going to tap a little bit in the first point that you said you need to be active, because I don't even know if it's like a rule, but it does apply. So you have a third of the person you are reaching out to. They will be your client, and they will be ready to book with you. And it's the perfect time, the perfect moment, the perfect. The stars, the line, and everything is pink and lovely again. They will be your clients. A third of them. They will just say no because they are just not your client, or it's not the right moment, or they're just not your client. And that is fine. You need to say thank you and move forward. I always like to ask them, why not?
Veronica Guguian
·43:29
So I understand what is happening and maybe my product is not good enough or like my service, or it's a learning opportunity for them. And the third is actually the part that you need to focus on because that third part, they are undecided. So either they don't know they need the service because they don't understand it. Maybe they don't really trust you yet because you don't have a connection with them or a relationship, or maybe they are just scared of investing, or maybe they just need a little bit of more education into the topic. So that particular segment is the one that you really need to put the effort on and build that relationship and qualify and see what is happening and really start. Then the sales process actually starts.
Veronica Guguian
·44:32
I think I'm always asking, even if they say yes or no, like, why did you choose us? Because that gives you the information that you need in order to better your service, you as an entrepreneur, but also how to approach the funnel and how to convert a higher percent of that one third that I mentioned to become your clients. And I think the beauty of this, then the sales starts. And that's the beauty of the sales. How can you make it fun? How can you make it better? How can you actually provide value to your prospects in order for them to become your client and also be fun for you. For me, it's not fun to actually approach or sell it just for someone to be a smooth process, if I can use this word, for a lack of better word.
Jillian Vorce
·45:28
It's true. It's a good word. I think it's relevant.
Veronica Guguian
·45:33
How about you?
Jillian Vorce
·45:35
So another area, I think yes, to all the things you're saying, I think that makes sense. Another area that comes up for me is about raising a profile. So raising your own individual profile. Yeah, it is, because it's about creating impressions. Right. And so this also is like stacking the deck, in a way. So if you're building relationships with certain people, either in person or and online, it works in both ways. So you're building the relationships. But then if those people, I feel like it's old school checkers. It's like when you get to the end, king me or whatever, which. Why is it King me, not queen me?
Veronica Guguian
·46:26
Anyway, how we say, like, guys listen to something, even if there are only women present.
Jillian Vorce
·46:32
I know. Come on, Peeps. Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, so it's like that. So you're building the relationships. But then when those people that you're building a relationship with see you as a speaker somewhere or see an article in a LinkedIn group, or again, going back to that ecosystem part and knowing where they consume, who influences them, where do they learn, where do they go, those things, when they then see you in those other places, it's like a compounding effect that happens. And now it's like generally they are more aware of who you are, how you are, especially if they had a favorable experience of you. Right. Those positive impressions. And it can help to build trust even if you haven't actually worked with them directly yet because of the associations, those positive impressions. So looking for ways to kind of raise the profile.
Jillian Vorce
·47:33
So one way to do that is through content, right? So it's creating and publishing content. And so I know one pretty typical question around that is like the very specific tactical part, like how often should I post and what kind of things? And so I'm just going to preemptively answer that question that you might be wondering. So my take on that is the answer. The secret sauce is whatever is sustainable for you?
Veronica Guguian
·48:05
Yes.
Jillian Vorce
·48:09
There is not, except for whatever is sustainable for you. Because for some people, they're more inclined to write one long, very dense, very thorough piece of content a week or a month or whatever it is, other people are great at churning out lots of short, little bite sizes for social media. So whatever your natural thing is, leverage that and so do that. So it's quality and or quantity, and not to say if it's quantity, it's not going to be quality, et cetera.
Veronica Guguian
·48:41
No, one doesn't exclude the other. And yeah, I love how you turn it because that's actually how the spin methodology is structured. And the first step is actually all about you because it doesn't matter, actually, even if as experts, right, we're going to come and tell you need to create a piece of content each day. If that doesn't fit your profile as entrepreneur will not be sustainable. So it will not work until you don't identify what is realistic for you. You can't really start building any of what we are discussing here. So everything starts with the basic, you, audience, and then you choose how to approach it.
Jillian Vorce
·49:25
Absolutely. So, yeah, that's a really important one, to just own what you're able to do. So that's the first part I really.
Veronica Guguian
·49:36
Like your advice and I'm going to jump into. And it's building your thought authority, like your thought leadership, and that can be done on content or going and meeting people. So what I want to point out, depending on the industrY, on what you're doing, don't see it necessarily that you need to write on social media, wherever, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, whatever platform works for you. That can also mean you can be present in hubs and speak. You can go and network and shake hands or do videos. It really depends on you as a person, you as an entrepreneur, your business, and the audience you're targeting.
Jillian Vorce
·50:25
Yeah, absolutely. Raising a profile is really important through all of those things. And I think it's also worth saying that, yes, work within your play, to your strengths, but don't limit yourself based on your comfort zone just because you're like, oh, yeah, but I really like this. This is my thing. We're not saying, great, only stay there. I still feel like you all need to get out and shake hands, too. It's an important thing. It's like there's no such a must.
Veronica Guguian
·50:59
There's no excuse not to do it.
Jillian Vorce
·51:02
Yeah. So I think there always needs to be a hybrid offline online strategy which is related to all of these pieces. It's related to the relationship piece, and it's definitely related to raising the profile because that can be like you're saying, through thought leadership and whatnot, that's creating content, publishing, podcasting, speaking at events, et cetera. It can be any and all across the board.
Veronica Guguian
·51:26
Yeah, I forgot what I wanted to say. While you were speaking, a thought came to my mind.
Jillian Vorce
·51:35
All right, it'll come back up. When you think of it, just jump in. So the last part for me is like, I already started to allude to it, but it's the outreach. So we have the mindset piece, then we have building relationships, raising the profile, and then the outreach. And so the way I think of outreach is, number one, it's hard for me. I don't really think there should be any such thing as cold emails or cold outreach anymore. We have so many tools at our disposal to just take the time to build a relationship with somebody, make an effort, like do something, and therefore it's not really cold. If you've done the research, you have other things to talk about. You can create some sort of context around your outreach to them at a bare minimum.
Jillian Vorce
·52:27
So I think when it comes to the outreach, it shouldn't be too much cold stuff, generally speaking. And I also think related to that is being prepared, being direct, but also being human. And so the timeline around when to outreach also varies. And I think this is one of those things that is an art in a science. And it's also why it's important to keep track of what you're doing. So you can see if there are any trends or any themes, like what can you learn from or improve upon. But I think generally speaking, if somebody sees you, it's like this idea of the marketing thing. If people need to see something seven times, et cetera. Yeah.
Jillian Vorce
·53:15
If you can end up on the radar of your prospect 3457 times before you make the outreach, in many ways they feel like they already know you or you're already familiar to them, and so you're able to skip a whole bunch of steps in the process. So it's quite advantageous. So that's why I was mentioning earlier about being patient as well.
Veronica Guguian
·53:40
That's the consistency. And this way it's important. It doesn't matter how small you are, but you have some processes in place.
Jillian Vorce
·53:46
Yes, absolutely.
Veronica Guguian
·53:49
By doing that, actually, you create habits for you because it's about, as you said, it's a long game and it's creating habits and it's not enough. If you do it for one week or two weeks, you need to do it for months and months and years, and then you'll see the results. That doesn't mean you're not going to have sales before that. This is not what I mean, but it's about you being consistent. And we all seen that. And I do see it also with my clients, especially the small ones. They will be very actively selling, doing very well, getting a lot of clients, focusing on clients and ignoring completely the business development side. And then the contracts end and then they need to start all over again.
Jillian Vorce
·54:32
And that's feast or famine. No, typical. I don't do that. I just thought of a quick example, like real time. I can't believe it. Just like a little delayed reaction here. But I'm actually doing all of these things right now. For example, with this guy. I have a conversation, I'm having a follow up chat with him tomorrow. So in my previous conversation with him a few days ago, he was in the middle of the wilderness on recreational time with no reception. So anyway, we're having the continuation of our conversation tomorrow. But when were chatting, he told me that he has already sold off many of his companies and he's now preparing to sell off the rest. And so in 2024, he's going to have plenty.
Veronica Guguian
·55:18
That's what he said.
Jillian Vorce
·55:19
He'll have plenty of capital and plenty of time. So he's trying to think of what to do. Of course. I'm like, and this is a guy I like, and we get on well and whatnot, but I'm not going to jump in and start trying to sell him on anything. That would be ridiculous. It's not my tactic or strategy at all. So instead, my first thought is, when chatting with him, I found out about a foundation he now has and some other interests. So straight away I'm thinking about, I'm really keen to find out what's motivating him now and to see if his kind of drivers have evolved over the last five to ten years, his kids have gotten a little older, et cetera, so that I know who else to introduce him to.
Jillian Vorce
·56:05
I know some really great projects happening in different parts of the world in which his capital infusion could create significant legacy and impact. So that's how I'm showing up in the conversation with him tomorrow, is doing all of these pieces here. So it is a business development situation because I'm looking to further build a relationship, find out what he's looking for, what's of interest to him. So that gives me a little bit of a roadmap to know what other resources or what other people I can bring into the equation with him. So, yes, it's like real relationship. This is it. This is how it goes. Yeah.
Veronica Guguian
·56:41
Bringing value without really expecting nothing in return. Yeah. I think we have, again, a very long episode, so probably wrap it up. But all good points. And what I want everyone to remember is you need to do a little bit every single week. I'm not saying every single day you need to sell, but you do need to build relationships every single week and do it consistently, because I think that's the main problem of especially smaller size businesses. Yes, they tend to forget it.
Jillian Vorce
·57:22
And so I'm going to use this as a segue to our next episode. Episode 18 is about working on your business instead of in your business. And so I think we're going to unpack that conversation. So skip ahead to Episode 18. We'll see you there.
Veronica Guguian
·57:41
Thank you for listening and see you on episode 18. Ciao.