Never leave a meeting or conversation without a clearly defined next step in the calendar to move the business development process further. How often do we follow that rule? Frequently, next steps are forgotten. We leave a meeting with the client saying, “Sounds good, I’ll give you a call sometime next week and let you know.” What’s the odds on that happening? Dependant on industry, time and effort invested, it’s a fifty/fifty shot. The flip of a coin on whether the process will move forward. We often don’t have the guts to ask for a specific next step. We settle on following up later. The problem is following up frequently means chasing a client down and becoming a pest. When we set specific next steps we keep the business development process moving forward and prevent a client from hiding or avoiding a decision.
Be a meaningful specific, not a wandering generality. Set a next step that means something. If we need to meet again to close the deal, tell the client, “We need to meet one final time to decide, yes we are moving forward, or no there is not a good fit.” Same rule applies for timing. Don’t let a client get away with saying, “I’ll call you next week.” Set a day, time, and amount of time to spend with them. When we set specific expectations about when to meet and what we will be doing, we prevent surprises. A client is much more likely to do what they are asked when all the details of what that means are laid out for them.
Setting next steps also lets us deal with potential problems earlier. If a client is adamant about not setting a time to talk with us about a specific issue, they are probably saying no. Often times clients set generalized next steps because they can get away from us without saying no. It is a fight or flight mechanism for them to avoid a possible confrontation. The problem is that we are left waiting in the wings. Have the guts to push for something specific. Even if we force a “no”, it saves the hassle of chasing down a reluctant client. If they give us a no now, they were going to give us a no later. The difference is we avoided the struggle and annoyance of “following up”.
Setting specific next steps is laying a game plan out for both client and professional. It assigns what each party will do next and what goal each hopes to accomplish. This eliminates dead opportunities from the business development pipeline and saves time by not chasing bad clients. The key to accomplishing concrete next steps is to be gutsy in not accepting wishy-washy commitments. Be persistent in narrowing down what happens next. If we do this effectively we will save a lot of time and annoyance both for our clients and ourselves.
