Book Club Fail and Business Development

Book Clubs start with the best of intentions, don’t they? In today’s episode, Karen and Michelle turn their book club fail into an opportunity to amp up your business development for a great Q4.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane with VoiceMatters  and my ever steady captain of the ship over at Solo PR Pro, Karen Swim. Hey Karen, how are you?

Karen Swim, APR (00:18):

Hello, Michelle. How are you doing? I'm doing great. It's good to see you after the Labor Day holiday and we did some pre-recording, give ourselves a little bit of a break, so it feels like I haven’t seen you in a while.

Michelle Kane (00:33):

I know, right? We're getting back into things because back to school, even though I hold firm that summer's not yet over until the autumnal equinox. And I know here those of us like me on the East coast, you are more closer to the center of our country, we're having some delightful record heat this week, so that's wonderful.

Karen Swim, APR (01:01):

The weather has really reminded me about how your experiences can shape your responses to things.

Michelle Kane (01:09):

Oh, is that not so true!

Karen Swim, APR (01:10):

It's a good thing to keep in mind with our clients. I have five, six Brazilian families on my block. I love that. And I was talking with a couple of the neighbors the other day, and it's been in the nineties and humid, so it has not been pleasant to people like me who don't do well with those temperatures, but they are thrilled to pieces and they just want to make this last. And so they were saying like, “Oh my God, isn't this great? Do you want to take a walk later?” And I'm like, “No, no, I don't, as a matter of fact, want to take a walk and this oppressive, horrible, hot as hell, heat.”

Michelle Kane (01:57):

Exactly.

Karen Swim, APR (01:58):

I just want to take my dog and go in the air conditioning. That's what I would like to do, but they're so happy. And I thought, for me, it's super uncomfortable and I feel like I can't breathe. And for them, they're just like, amazing. Let's enjoy every second of it. And I'm like,

Michelle Kane (02:17):

You enjoy for me. Okay.

Karen Swim, APR (02:20):

Yeah. So yeah, our experiences definitely shape our perceptions and as we're putting together campaigns for clients and messaging, it’s a good thing to keep in mind that what we intend is not always the way that people will receive it. And a good example of that is our Book Club Fail. Michelle and I are starting a book club where we read a book together and we were going to share with you our findings. And so we have a list of blogs that were recommended for communications professionals, and there was one that caught our attention, and the title is Surrounded by Idiots: How Ineffective Communication Causes Chaos. Now as communicators, we obviously thought this book was about client work, and this will be a fun read and a short read. Turns out,

Michelle Kane (03:20):

No, not so much. We failed our own challenge. No, it was definitely more of a DISC-ish kind of approach, and it was really about not about communicators at all. So…

Karen Swim, APR (03:37):

Yeah, it was for leaders who do not know how to communicate now. So I guess the idiots they're referring to are sometimes the people that we encounter in our work.

Michelle Kane (03:51):

That's put in such a loving way, Karen, but yes, yes. So yeah, we were so excited and so pleased with ourselves. And then, yeah, so maybe the next book we choose, but you know what, isn't this really what happens with book clubs? Does anyone really read the book? They just go for wine time and giggles. So with that, we're going to talk about other challenges because Karen has launched a cool challenge over at Solo PR Pro. Do you want to talk about that a little bit and share with our audience and invite them to come on this challenge with us?

Karen Swim, APR (04:32):

I do, I do. I do. I'm so excited about this. Ridiculously excited.

Michelle Kane (04:38):

That's good.

Karen Swim, APR (04:39):

Yes. So we launched a 21 day business development challenge, and if you have had any encounter with me, you know that I am somebody that likes to keep it pretty simple and I don't like things that are complicated. So true to form. This is super simple. The idea of this challenge is to help us all to build that business development muscle with consistency. So we're inviting you to participate by choosing a business development activity or two, not 10, not 15, one or two activities, and then just spend 20 minutes a day on that activity. That's it. Super simple. And there's a blog post that was published yesterday that outlines our thinking. But again, super, super simple. And it doesn't matter if you are in the communications industry because this really business development is for everyone. And so if you want to join in and follow along, we invite you to do that.

 

So I'm excited about it because I think that when we participate in business development and rather than just waiting around for passive referrals, it energizes our business and it gets us to thinking about how we're talking to people about what we do. It gets us to reconnect with previous prospects and previous clients, and good things always happen because you definitely reap what you sow. So when you're participating in business development activities, new business will come. It definitely will, and it helps us to stay in that positive mindset. This has been, it's been a weird year and we've been surrounded by a lot of challenging news about the economy and layoffs, and we've had to fight against that. We've had to keep ourself in our bubble of staying positive and just continuing to do the things that we know work while hearing all these messages that tell us life is not good. So I think this challenge is perfect for right now because the end of Q3. So it sets us up for Q4 and a strong start to the new year.

Michelle Kane (07:04):

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And a lot of this is what we already know, but it's so hard. I could be speaking for myself, probably some of you out there when it's yourself, it's so hard to just do this. And really it's thinking about this. Whenever we try to engage on these challenges, I like to frame it of how is this going to make me feel if I do this, it's going to set me up to feel more confident no matter what the day brings, because I know that I am working on business development. So if God forbid, something falls off, you're not scrambling. It happens. It happens to the best of us of, oh my gosh, so-and-so just called to quits and what am I going to do?

Karen Swim, APR (07:58):

Well, on that note, I have to say personally my team, we made a decision at some point this year that we weren't going to do business development because we were tired and needed a little bit of a break to be just fully transparent. We just didn't, like, I don't have the bandwidth for this and I just need a break. So we knew that things were going to roll off and we were going to have a bit of a slow period at some point, and we did, and it was beautiful and welcomed. And then we were like, okay, we're refreshed. We're ready. Let's hit the business development gas pedal again. And we did. So I want to share with you one tip that you may or may not be doing, but again, sometimes we overlook the simple things. We try to overcomplicate this stuff.

For myself, I keep all of my leads in a separate, I have a tag set up in my email and I push all of the lead emails in there, and that allows me to go back and track who I've talked to. And then it also allows me to stay in touch. So even though I am really good at maintaining connections with people and staying in touch, and I genuinely like the people that I meet, there are some that kind of fall through the cracks. Maybe we did a proposal and they decided to go with somebody else or they changed directions. So I go back through those and I reconnect with people. So I did that after our little business development break and set up some meetings, which led to some new proposals, led to some new referrals. And so I encourage you to do that because we know that referrals are our, in the communications industry, it's our number one source of business.

The problem is we are passive about it. We don't ask for referrals. So we don't talk to our current clients on a routine basis about, “Hey, I've got some time on my calendar. Would love to work with another company like you. Do you know anybody?” We don't ask don't for more business from our current clients like, “Hey, we're doing a great job with this department. Are there other departments that we could support you on? Are there other initiatives that we could jump in on? Are there other things that we could be doing for you?” We don't open up our mouth and we don't ask. You've all seen this where you've gotten an email where people write in the signature line or their email, say, invite you to refer them business. Do you do that in the emails that you send? Do you do that in the social media posts that you are putting out on LinkedIn?

Do you invite people to refer business to you and are you clear about the type of business that you want? I would venture to say that most of us do not. If you are a blogger, are you inviting people to send you business? You have to let people know that you're open for business and tell them what kind of business that you want, and don't be shy about it because you have something valuable to offer. But yes, looking back at former clients, existing clients and the people that you've already talked to before, don't be afraid to go back. Even if you we're down to the final three of a bid and they went with somebody else, don't be afraid to reach back out and say, Hey, we chatted back. It's been a couple of years since we've chatted, and yes, I did go back years. Just wanted to catch up and see what things are happening and what new initiatives you're working on. Reach out and make that connection. And even if they have left the company, then connect with somebody else in the company and say, Hey, I last chatted with so-and-so. I know that they're no longer with you. Wondered if you would be interested in setting up an appointment to chat about what you're doing, reach out to the person if you could find them on LinkedIn at their new job and say, Hey, I saw that you changed positions and the last time we talked, you we're here. Would love to catch up on what you're doing. So don't overlook that because you already know the person. So the first step, it's not like it's a cold lead. Don't be afraid to be assertive and ask for a meeting and get caught up, and that can lead to things for you.

Michelle Kane (12:29):

I think that's so true because I think so many of us, not that we try too hard in that phony way, but we think, oh, it's got to be a program. It's got to be put together. It's got to be the best thing, and it's got to be so ready, no, just keep it simple. Not only are you spending less precious energy on it, you're just doing the basic thing of touching base and being, again, being helpful, being that potentially helpful person. And maybe it's even making connections too of saying, depending on how you met them, ”Hey, I know we met at blah, blah, blah, and you were considering whatever it was and just wanted to check and see if you found the resources you needed.” Those are great sideways ways to touch base with someone. And it's so true. You don't have, because don't ask and oh, how many of us do that? Pointing that myself, right? It's like, oh yeah.

Karen Swim, APR (13:35):

I'll tell you though that my motto and I shared this with clients is that nothing is ever wasted. And I'm like that pretty much in my life. I'm somebody that likes to ring every last drop of usefulness out of everything in my life. So I'm like a dog with a bone. If I have a pitch and it doesn't get a secured opportunity, I keep all those pitches too. I keep them in client folders. I keep them grouped and categorized. I may go back to a pitch two years later because it's relevant again and something comes up. And so I never let go until I've gotten everything that I possibly can out of it. And it is like done. It's ripped, it's done.

Michelle Kane (14:25):

It's like never, no stone left unturned.

Karen Swim, APR (14:30):

I'll never let it go. I do not give up. But honestly, when it comes to business development, I have honestly had clients that have closed more than a year after an initial discussion a year. I just didn't let it go. Talking to them, there is one client that was, oh my God, one of my favorite clients still to this point, and I do love all the people that I work with, but we talked through, we started talking when she was at one company, three companies later in the client, three whole companies.

Michelle Kane (15:14):

Well, that brings to the forefront a really important aspect of business development. It doesn't happen overnight. I mean, you might have those unicorns or someone contacts you and by the end of the week the deal is sealed, but so often it takes months, six months or a year just because of the day-to-day of the potential client. They may know they have a need, but budget's not approved, but the product's not ready or this isn't right. Everything has to align. So there's two sides of that coin, right? On the one side is if you have a significant gap in your workload that can stress you out. But on the other side, it's kind of nice to know of, okay, this, it's like I say to so many, I say, it's a slow burn. It's not going to necessarily have someone come to you today.

Karen Swim, APR (16:14):

Yeah. That's why you have to keep your pipeline filled because you're going to have people at various stages. You are going to have those people that are longer leads just with the media, but you're also going to have those short-term hits. You're going to have people that are ready to pop. And that's why consistency is really key, because you're always nurturing relationships and you're putting more in that pipeline. So there's always someone along the path of becoming a yes. And so if you're doing business development every day, you're not going to have to wait six months until you close something. You really aren't because you're active. You're putting yourself out there. And even if you say, you know what? My business development activity is going to be thought leadership via LinkedIn. If you're on LinkedIn for 21 days and you're providing information and thought leadership, and you are letting people know that you're accepting work, someone is going to reach out to you. You just have to have that attitude of openness that they are going to reach out to you or you're going to connect with somebody that you then make a step and say, Hey, I saw that you were doing this because you're in that mode of developing new business and developing new relationships, and so your efforts can put you in front of people that are ready to go. And they were like, “Hey, we were just talking about this. We're looking for a PR agency.” I mean, that's happened to all of us.

Again, that's why you need to have a mix of opportunities and consistency. So think about it. If you're going to people that you've already talked to, maybe it's somebody that you talked to a few months ago and they just weren't ready, but you go back and now they're ready. Maybe it's somebody that you worked with before, then they didn't really need ongoing pr, but now they're like, Hey, perfect timing. We wanted to do a six month project or a four month project or a three month project. That's a piece of business that would not have happened if you didn't think to reach out. So getting started and just doing it over and over and over again, and once you develop the habit of consistency, then you'll be able to carry it forward. And then you won't be in that position where you're like, uh oh.

Michelle Kane (18:40):

Like an unread book for book club.

Karen Swim, APR (18:44):

Have the safety net cushion. Let's just be real. Losing business doesn't feel good. And you're like,

Michelle Kane (18:55):

Right, right. And it's funny, and I tell myself all the time, when that day comes, it's also, it's usually, it's always, well, I'm not going to say always 99% of the time, it's nothing personal, it's just business. Even though I know in our profession we tend to get attached because we're so invested in the success of the client, it does hurt and it's going to hurt. But that's okay. That's okay too. So just roll with that. And I think even if you take one of these tidbits from today, not the don't read the book for book club, but one of these great business development tips are, heck, just read the chapter titles. You'll be fine.

But we do hope that you'll join us on this challenge. It's 21 days, and I love, Karen, that you framed it that you can start on any day, but do it this month. Do it this month so that you're not still saying, I'm going to start in November. Start when it feels right for you. So this is no pressure. We want you to be cool, calm, and consistent in your business development. So check out the blog at soloprpro.com. Check all the other goodness out there too. If you felt this was valuable to you, please share it around to your friends. Share it out on your socials. We would really appreciate that as well. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.