What can the 1980s sci-fi classic Terminator tell us about marketing and business development?
Guest article: Jack Osbon, Wallace LLP
In a world where business development has stopped functioning, stalled, or perhaps even started, it can be difficult to win trust, engage and do what you’re there to do.
Without the ability to time travel, what can you do to drive business development activity, strategy and succeed in turning the BD terminators you work with from Skynet servants to BD machines? Here’s how.
The business development resistance
How many times have you met resistance in your attempts to do business development? Or dare I say it, even worse, zero resistance, being completely disregarded or barely acknowledged. You’ve been told, ‘we’ve always done it this way’, or ‘that’s not how we do things here’.
So you must find your inner John Connor (the prophesised leader). Within the flock of terminators you work with there is likely to be pockets of resistance. Maybe a T2 model who will support your passion, your ideas, your endeavour, and follow you down a new timeline of business development victory.
Work on some quick and easy wins to build momentum, spread the word, and instil some belief into the teams you work with.
The business development battlefield
There is activity on multiple battle fields for you to contend with. Gatekeepers, naysayers, autocrats. Many battles are likely to end in defeat. Be strategic to achieve good results.
Some key battles for you to focus on and win.
Data driven decision-making. It could be historic data, it might be financial, it might be unnoticed touchpoints, but using any kind of data as supporting evidence for ideas and tactics is a good way to win battles over gut feelings
Mitigating unknown threats. Whether that be budgets, internal politics or track records, gathering emotional intelligence of all kind is an important victory in order to continue to push BD strength
Maintaining front of mind position. Being visible internally, and at the right time, is essential. Without the luxury of time travel, support the terminators when they need you the most, even if that is a pitch with a next day deadline (obviously…)
The business development Judgment Day
How often do we define our own Judgment Day? Particularly if a tactic is monotonous, time consuming, energy sapping. I’m thinking legal directories, big events, copious minor amendments to a capability statement. And then we think that’s it. We’re done. We did a decent job, and the lawyers seem happy, so I’m going to move on. We’ve got some decent engagement on this tactic, and we’ll call it a win. Judgment Day has passed. (Prophesised as Judgment Day of August 29, scarily in the year 1997…)
But as we know with Terminator timelines, things aren’t so linear. And, in fact, this is a good thing.
It gives us an ability to redefine judgment. Add more value. Seek out that continuous improvement. Simple things such as internal follow up, debrief matrixes, useful ideas to continue the conversation all allow a BD professional to add the Kaizen effect and reignite that business development touchpoint. Without it, things can get long forgotten and we’re back close to being terminated.
So there really is no need for the blue time travelling portal. Unless we travel back in time and destroy the very first notion of Hasta la vista, BD!
Jack Osbon is a Business Development & Marketing Manager at Wallace LLP.
