The Three Ways To Build The Book Of Business You Want

What's On My Mind

One way to think about growth towers over all others.

Prologue: Most experts don't put nearly enough thought into building their book of business and relationships, so you're already ahead of the game by being a part of this amazing community!

Given that...

There are three ways to implement The Snowball System and our much more comprehensive GrowBIG Training.

How you think about implementation will determine your results.

Level 1: Sporadic.

The key word here is random. Random acts of lunch. Random outreach emails. Random effort.

Crazy: this is probably better than 60% of professionals because they're doing nothing or close to it. There are still so many people that think business development can't be learned or impacted. Wrong!

The problems with this approach? Many! People using this method are at the whims of others: little control of their work flow, type of work or the clients they work with. It also feels awful because the person doesn't feel in control.

Random acts of anything create nothing.

Level 2: Sprint.

Here the professional has sustained efforts, but they don't last long. A push until they get busy again. A "push to the end of the year." A sprint has an end date, whether realized or not.

My guess: The Sprint mindset puts someone in the top 75% because they start gaining some control over their future.

The problems? This method is still super inefficient, creating what we call the Roller Coaster Effect. Almost as soon as momentum starts, it leads to being busy, which leads to putting BD to the side.

Stop-go-stop-go is the sure way to move slow.

Level 3: Systems.

Here, we think in slow, concentrated efforts. Little bits consistently done at a specific cadence. Sustainable!

There are no problems with this approach.

The problems people might think about this approach are myths in their mind.

This can't be enough. This won't produce results quickly. It can't be this simple!

It is this simple.

Systems thinking will put you in the top 95%.

It won't happen right away, and that's the point! Most people won't keep up a sustained effort over time.

Keeping the cadence is where the magic is.

Marketplace momentum. Faster learning. People wanting to be around you.

Let's think about other impressive traits.

Staying in shape is impressive because it takes sustained effort.

Eating healthy is impressive because it takes sustained effort.

And everything in BD is impressive because it takes sustained effort.

Show me a rainmaker that "suddenly" closes a huge contract and I'll show you someone that worked at it consistently.

Examples bring ideas to life.

Here are three...

Asking for referrals

Sporadic: I should remember to ask my raving fan clients for referrals!
Sprint: I'm going to ask 3 clients a week for referrals through the end of the year. I need to do this! I can do this!
System: Every Friday at 8 am I'm going to take 10 minutes asking a client "Who do you know that would benefit from meeting us?

Having a clear BD strategy and implementation

Sporadic: I'm worried about this pending recession and gosh darn it, I'm going to get out there more this year!
Sprint: I'm going to write a BD strategy and schedule monthly meetings for a few months to get me back on track.
System: I'm going to evaluate my BD level every year with BIG's 100-point self assessment tool and then do the most important three BD tasks every single week using their BD Habits framework.

(By the way, we have a gratis BD Habits course that's impacted 1000s of professionals. No charge for this and you can get it HERE. People love it!)

Writing

Sporadic: I'm going to write an article the next time new regs come out!
Sprint: I'm going to write a 5-part series on the new trend I'm seeing. Time to call our PR group!
System: I'm going to write an article every single week and schedule it for 5:05 am Saturday mornings.

;)

Let me close with this.

Your business development results are going to determine the arc of your career.

Great results, great career.

And your results will follow implementation approach.

Great implementation, great results.

A Sporadic approach will work out OK, but won't be great. At least you'll be better than those suckers doing nothing.

A Sprint approach is better. Bursts here and there followed by nothing. At least the Roller Coaster Effect is fun half the time when you're rolling downhill.

But...

The Systems approach will give you unstobbable momentum.

Small, consistent efforts at specific cadences.

So let's pop over to you...

What do you want to focus on next?

What small weekly effort could you fit into your schedule?

Schedule that.

It's a good sign if it seems too small. That means it's doable.

Pick what you can do every week that takes you in the direction you want to go.

Then keep the cadence.

Because...

Systems thinking creates staggering results.

ps. We're getting some great candidates for our new entry level account management role! If you know of someone that would be interested, have them apply HERE. We're collecting candidates for a few more days.

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