Maximizing the Technical Professional’s Effectiveness

The technical professional is vital to the business development process, just examine why clients buy. Clients don’t want to hear a sales pitch. They want their problems solved. They want to feel confident. They want a trusted advisor and reliable support. In essence, the techie is the real anchor in the stormy sea of information overload, sales presentations, and confusion, but don’t ask him/her to make cold calls or open new doors. You’d be wasting their time and eroding a valuable resource.    

The good technical professional strengthens client relationships, gains valuable client insight, and can position the firm into a more competitive posture, as well as potentially increase revenue, especially on Requirements or On Call- type contracts. It is not uncommon for a technical professional to increase a contract value ten fold, and sometimes 100 fold, just by being on site and seeking out opportunities with the right approach.

So how can you maximize the effectiveness of the technical professional? First, he/she must know or learn the following:

1. The Business Development Process. Some “techies” know and some don’t. It’s not just submitting a proposal or doing a presentation as many think. The techie should be knowledgeable as to how leads are generated, how clients are qualified, intelligence gathering, positioning, how to navigate an organization’s decision- making process, regulations, budgets, politics and personalities, influencing the scope of services and evaluation criteria, and other related activities. Only by understanding the business development process will he/she see the technical professional’s valuable link in the B/D chain.

2. What’s My Role?  Whatever you do, don’t use the word “sell”. It’s a dirty word to the technical professional. “Support” or “technical support” amongst others, is better. Techies can perform a plethora of business development support activities, such as:

a. Identifying Leads. Usually, management never asks, but everybody reads, and perhaps the technical professional may have learned of an issue or potential project that could be of benefit to the firm. Attending technical seminars or local events involves some interaction with peers. If a technical professional is not challenged with the task of identifying opportunities, don’t expect to receive them. If for example, you are part of a fifty person organization, consider the “gift” of identifying and receiving just one good opportunity from each of your staff members each year.

You may have heard of the “Six Degrees of Separation”, whereby we are all linked by acquaintances and are only six introductions away from any other person on Earth. The actual number is 6.6 which was verified by researchers at Microsoft upon analyzing the records of 30 billion electronic conversations. It starts with an unselfish sharing of contacts that can benefit the firm, which include a commitment to networking and capitalizing on relationships. 

b. Task Order Marketing. More and more contracts are being issued by clients in the form of Requirements Contracts, also known as On-Call, Task Order or Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contracts. Against a total dollar contract amount, specific task orders or work orders are issued. The key is to get the client to use up the money in the total contract, and to issue additional task orders.

Well, who is in the best position to accomplish that task? The technical professional, of course. He/she usually has the best relationship, credibility, client intelligence, and positioning to be in the right place at the right time to uncover the need and offer to fill it. The problem is often in the lack of  training, and learning to position his/her antennas to focus on the prize. Firms often fail to use their leverage as an incumbent.

c. Night Time Selling. An old well-respected boss of mine who built the largest mechanical contracting company in America, used to call after-hour sales, “night time selling”, because the client was more relaxed and it offered a better opportunity to “take the tie off”, entertain, and get to know the client on a different level. Many of these opportunities occur at out-of- town conferences where you can casually interface with senior executives who would be normally unapproachable during business hours. It works well at evening events and association/society meetings.

Working closely with the firm’s management and B/D staff, the techie gets appropriately introduced and has an opportunity to discuss his/her relative success stories, solutions, etc. in a casual setting. This is often called “working the room”. The danger comes if he/she lacks a sense of business awareness. It’s okay to provide approaches and solutions to problems, but at what expense. At some point the technical professional’s alarm should go off, where he/she tells the customer that “we’d be happy to help you”, “Can we arrange a meeting?” or “Do you have any money in your budget for the implementation?”.
 
d. Proposal Support. The management and writing of proposals is a major subject unto its own, but suffice to say that technical professionals play an important role, if not typical in the development of proposals. They are usually knowledgeable of the issues and approach to the project delivery, solving problems and the implementation of an effort. Their input is vital, and many enjoy supporting the proposal effort, as long as it doesn’t detract from the performance on their own projects.  

e. Presentations and Papers. Much has been written about presentations that follow proposals, and how to present. For the presentation the technical professional is key, as the sophisticated client really doesn’t want to hear from the salesperson. In coming articles, I will write further on “Winning Presentations”, but keep in mind the following key points:

While presentations to a group often accompany a sales call, conferences also provide a venue for the presentation of papers. The power of the presentation given by a technical professional can have lasting impact when done right. I once answered a telephone inquiry from a potential client who had attended a seminar 10 years ago, given by the president of a medium-size company. That company today does over $200 million in sales - built on seminars and technical presentations. 

3. Incentives and Training. One of the keys to techie participation will come from management support, incentives and training. We will address these issues in the next issue. We will also address “Recollectivity", or making sure that you get the call from the client when their need arises.

Summary

The technical professional plays an important role in the business development process. However, their operational duties must be carefully considered and balanced with their participation in the business development process. With management support, proper training and the right incentives, technical professionals can significantly add to the top line, and at the same time feel a greater sense of corporate participation and an important team member.

REPRINT GUIDELINES 
You are free to reprint this article in your newsletter, publication, blog, magazine or on your website, provided that it is unedited, and that the copyright,  “J.S. Barclay, pc”, and contact information below appears with the article. As a courtesy, please provide J.S. Barclay with a copy of the reprint, electronic issue or URL if posted on the web. All articles are authored by

Joseph C. Hoffman. If you wish to include a photo, you can find one here. 

Copyright © 2009 J.S. Barclay All rights reserved       

J.S. Barclay, PC  
Website:  www.jsbarclaymarketing.com
P.O. Box 2326
Cherry Hill, NJ 08003
jhoffman@jsbarclaypc.com