Are You In the Right Seat When It Comes to New Business?

Navigator? Driver? There’s only one driver’s seat, and when it comes to new business, it’s the decision maker who needs to be in that seat. Yet when many professionals begin active business development, they often think, talk and take action that says to the prospective client “Hey, look at me---I’m in the driver’s seat.”

After all, they are the experts--- they studied for many years, they’ve experienced applying this knowledge in multiple ways, over a long period of time, and they’ve won countless awards and accolades.

Here’s the problem: all these professionals really want is to connect with the kind of people that would benefit from their expertise. But, when all they do is talk about that expertise, they’re pushing potential clients out of the driver’s seat, the only place from which decisions are made.

Consider the following example. Envision a CPA who has been referred by her brother-in-law to a business owner. She calls the company and gets a meeting with the business owner scheduled. To prepare for the meeting, she packaged up the firm’s marketing materials. At the meeting, she pulled out her laptop and started up the PowerPoint. “Our firm was founded 110 years ago; we’ve grown from two partners to 112. I’ve been with the firm for twenty years… “

What is the business owner thinking? “Why is she here”? Or “Why should I care”? The sad part about this story is that what the business owner wants---someone who will help him better minimize his tax obligations--- is her #1 talent. And what she wants--- more chances to serve great companies---is what she just walked away from.

If she’d moved over to the navigator’s seat, she would have asked questions that explored the business owner’s needs. She would have shifted her prep time and instead of creating yet another boring PowerPoint that was all about her firm, she would have framed a series of thoughtful, open-ended questions about the organization. She’d have written a game plan for the meeting, anticipated the business owner’s questions and drafted responses, and sent a draft agenda ahead of time. During the meeting, she’d guide by asking more about his wants, his current situation and his visions of what could be better. Roughly 15 minutes before the meeting was to end, she would have asked things like:

· What would need to happen before it would make sense for you to consider changing CPAs?

· What do you like about the firm you’re currently working with?

· If you were to make a change, what kinds of criteria would you use to make that decision?

· What would it take to earn the right to work with your company?

· What do you think might be our next best step?

When professionals are doing work for their current clients, most of the time they are--- and should be--- in the driver’s seat. When it comes to discovering possibilities of working with potential new clients, the professionals will be more comfortable and far more successful if they take the navigator’s seat.

We guide. They decide.