Breaking BizDev

Pricing is a major lever for revenue and growth, but most business development professionals are not involved in setting price. In most firms, there are a three main approaches to pricing  services: Cost-plus Market-based Value-based  In this episode, John and Mark beat up pricing and offer a new perspective to help you guide buyers to making the right decision. You'll hear them discuss: Why...

Delve into the importance of *showing* that you understand your buyer in the sales process. Craft a standalone "Statement of Understanding" as a foundation upon which to develop a solution. In this episode, John and Mark break down the importance of understanding. Listen to hear perspective on: The importance of true understanding  The power of listening Critical elements of the statemen...

On this episode, John and Mark beat up a few metrics like "leads" and "win rate" and share 5 marketing and 5 sales numbers professional services firms should be paying attention to if they want to grow their firm. Top 5 Marketing Metrics: Qualified Opportunities by Source Client Lifetime Value Client Acquisition Cost Revenue by Source Return on Marketing Investment Top 5 Sales...

In professional services, people are your biggest asset. Especially when it comes to developing new business. Unfortunately, many firms set people up to fail before they're even hired, which could translate to stagnant growth as a result. It all starts with the job description. In this episode, we beat up disastrous job descriptions for the following roles in professional services firms: BD M...

The client success story can go by many names; case story, case study, use-case, past performance, the list goes on...  But how should it be structured? When can it be used? How can it be used for marketing? For sales? In this episode, John and Mark break down the client success story in professional services—what it is, how it’s used, and mistakes to avoid. The Client Success Story Framework: The...

LinkedIn is the primary social media platform for most professional services firms. But oftentimes, it's not used as effectively as it could be to build visibility, generate leads, and move prospects along a buying journey.  In this episode, John and Mark break down how to use LinkedIn for business development (marketing + sales). You'll be sure to pick up actionable strategies and tacti...

Referrals are a powerful tool to use in lead generation toolshed. Referral leads tend to move faster in your pipeline, they're more likely to close, and they end up becoming fantastic clients. But referral generation is used unevenly across professional services firms. On this episode, John and Mark outline a process on generating new referrals: Create a list of potential referrers Define you...

On this episode, John and Mark call out every single person who, in the name of “BD”, has sent a useless “I’m just checking in” email that produced zero results. We'll break down: Why "checking in" is bullsh*t The hamster wheel of ghosting (and why it happens) The role of the magic email After listening to this episode, you'll have a new tool in your toolkit to get your pipelin...

"Strategic planning" is an oxymoron. Strategy and planning are two different things. In this episode, Mark and John beat this topic up, differentiate between strategy/planning, and offer a revenue-centric lens with which to help with both your strategy and planning efforts.  There are three lenses to look at revenue in order to help define your firm strategy, and  ultimately your plannin...

We all know there are good and bad salespeople. We get inundated with the flood of "pitch slaps" on LinkedIn, cold email clogging up our inbox, and sales reps who can't quite seem to understand your challenges. Which begs the question, do "good salespeople" even exist? On this episode, John interviews Mark about his perspective on bad and good selling in professional servi...

In this episode, Mark interviews John about what poor marketing looks like in professional services firms, including: Lack of plan or lack of patience Poor customer experience Messaging is too company-centric Brand is based on assumptions Lack of a content strategy Listen to hear what not to do, and how firms can turn these blind spots into areas of relative strength. www.breakingbizdev.com Share...

Professional services firms lump marketing and sales together into one bucket. It gets confusing. Sometimes, it’s a total mess. They call it “business development.” In this episode, John Tyreman and Mark Wainwright introduce the Breaking BizDev podcast and explain how they're going to break down, beat up, and redefine "business development" for the professional services firms of tom...