What are the qualities of a successful marketer?

Quality marketing staff members complement their business development partners. Great marketers are:

• Organized— a good proposal is, above all, well organized. Similar to baseball pitching, in which body control equals ball control, an organized process often leads to an organized document. It steps the reader through the persuasive argument for selecting the proposed firm. An organized marketer provides a foundation of smoothly stacking the building blocks of the document to build a logical and persuasive argument for the selection committee. The competitive proposal arena is all about communicating to potential clients—often with an overwhelming amount of information. The number one responsibility of the marketing staff is to tend the data with the same care as a farmer tends a thousand acres of corn.
• Parallel Processors— a good marketer will always be involved in numerous pursuits simultaneously, all at different levels of gestation. The ability to push forward each assignment a little at a time, while maintaining a cool head, is an important characteristic for anyone; in the marketing department of a busy technical services office, it’s the engine that drives the bus. A firm has to be able to efficiently crank out enough proposals to cover their share of the market. That’s a lot of paper. A team of well organized, efficient and effective marketing coordinators is critical to success. 
• Clear Thinking— marketing staff are bombarded by demands from all directions. At the same time, there are multiple tiers of issues to be resolved, ranging from the mundane (how do I get a proposal delivered on time during a snow storm?) to the profound (we are well-positioned to win a pending major opportunity, but our team recently ran over budget on an assignment with the same client). The ability to sort through and prioritize the myriad of thoughts in a clear, level-headed way is highly valued in marketing staff. Not everyone can do it, even fewer are accomplished at it. Many individuals have a knack for seeing through the trees to find the forest in a world of multiple, competing challenges, then thinking of the right thing to do-- and doing it.
• Cool demeanor— there’s no doubt that marketing for a technical professional services firm is a pressure-filled job. Any project performed under a deadline, with a variety of people, and with limited control, is a recipe for conflict. A marketer who can navigate through this process, while maintaining emotional equilibrium, is priceless. You cannot underestimate how the emotional highs and lows of a marketer affects the mood of the team.

 

What does a good technical salesperson look like?

Business developers come in every size, shape, and type. Of course, you know the BD person who can memorize every name in the room, or the one who can squeeze information out of any recalcitrant contracting agent. Those are obvious. But for every glad-hander, we know dozens of sales geniuses who defy typecasting. Some are modest, quiet, hardly say anything at the office, but they always return from business trips with million dollar contracts. What qualities do they all share? In fact, they share many of the same attributes.

•  Empathetic— great business developers care about the challenges people face and they have a desire to help. They show a natural curiosity, because it leads them to ask questions and learn. Learning about another person’s goals and problems leads to creating a trusting partnership centered on common interests.
• Competitive— successful business developers enjoy winning work, no doubt. But they show their greatest passion when they lose. Great BD people hate to lose. Their disgust in seeing the competition selected is so crushing that they push themselves relentlessly to avoid defeat. They are the people who make one extra phone call, write one more draft of the proposal, prepare one extra hour for an interview. That’s what sets them apart from others.
• Strategic— most great business developers think strategically about pursuing new work. Like great chess players, they strategize several moves ahead of their current position. It provides them with constant momentum. They know the steps that will lead to successful selection and they know how to sidestep the competition’s efforts. They may work harder than anyone, but they set themselves apart by working smarter than everyone.
• Optimistically Opportunistic— Great business developers envision opportunities where mere mortals only see the immediate project in front of them. Their sense of timing is acute, acting speedily to position their firm for the best possible outcome.
• Perseverant— these people never give up. They overcome long odds by continually finding new ways to win. Their stamina gives them an advantage, enabling them to outlast the competition. Some have been known to pursue a sale for ten years or more.
• Street-smart— we were tempted to say that great business developers have a lot of common sense. This is certainly true, but it understates their business prowess. Great business developers can cut through the fog of technical details and politics and see through complex issues with clarity. There is no substitute for hard-won experience coupled with savvy.
• Urgent— most importantly, the characteristic of a great business developer that sets them apart is their overriding sense of URGENCY. They’re not impatient, they’re certainly not desperate, but they approach work every day with a sense of urgency. That part of their personality makes them move constantly toward closing the deal, moving every conversation toward an inevitable contract.

 In our experience, these are the traits that successful business developers share. Of course, you often have to share the room with other aspects of their personalities, including oversized egos and embarrassing selfishness. But no one’s perfect. And a salesperson with a well-fed ego often has justification. They win work, a lot of it, and they want you to know it. We can live with that.

How do business developers work with marketers and technical people to “get things done?”

We have never seen a firm where marketing is in control of the business; it is always in a support function. Most marketers will not be able to tell a technical professional what to do, how to do it, or when to do it. To be successful, a marketer needs skills and a demeanor that are based on reason, logic, influence, and charm to get technical professionals to do what needs to be done. This means that in order to be successful in sales, and in their career, marketers must be INFLUENTIAL.

When we think back to the memorable business developers and marketers we’ve worked with, what stands out is that they knew how to motivate us. They worked with us as partners, knowing that each person is a key player in getting a proposal out the door. Too many senior salespeople are “lone rangers” and make their support staff feel unimportant. As a result, these BD people never have a team who are willing to make the extra effort, so they are ultimately less efficient and less successful.

A great BD leader can rally the troops and turn pursuits into memorable efforts. Much of the time, they bring people together largely through making compelling points and relating their own experiences. Rarely do these individuals need to lead by “command and control.” However, if the conditions call for it, they have no problem using their authority to achieve results. They know how to deliver results in the face of adversity and command respect under fire. Teams under their leadership follow their direction willingly because of confidence and respect for their judgment.

Business developers should spend the majority of their time developing relationships with potential clients, but they should never forget that trusted relationships with their colleagues and marketers will build the internal partnerships they need to deliver sales.

We’re Technical Professionals, “Why do we need sales?”

We are inevitably asked, “Why on earth do we need ‘sales?’ Our technology and methods are superior. Our work and qualifications speak for themselves.”
We always thank the questioner, because they are playing right into our hands. Our response is consistent. Precious little in professional technical services is unique. Often, clients cannot discern the differences between qualified firms. Marketing and sales skills are required to differentiate a firm from every other qualified competitor. Other non-technical factors such as relationships also are common influences in the client’s decision on whom to select.

Reaction to our assertions is also predictable – denial – and understandably so. How could technically educated professionals, using methods honed over decades of practice, be possibly confused with garden-variety competitors? (Shock and disbelief often follow denial.)

To this, we say simply, “We feel your pain. But the fact remains that anyone educated and trained as an expert in technology has little or no grounds for appreciation of the role of marketing and sales professionals, until they earn the bruises and lumps on their head from hard-won experience. Simply put, it’s not good enough to be smart.”