Business Development Tip: Fishing net approach v fishing rod approach

Fishing rods catch one fish at a time and tend to be used for recreational purposes. Fishing nets catch lots of fish at the same time and are favoured by commercial operators. Whilst I'm not a great fisherman, if you check my point about fishing rods and nets with Robson Green or JR Hartley, I'm sure they'd both agree!

So what's this got to do with business?

Just imagine, you've made the breakthrough. After months of warming up your contact, (someone who you know is the key decision maker), you've at last been hired to do some work.

It took longer than you thought, but numerous phone calls, 2 x face-to-face visits, some Linkedin activity spread over a period of time and plenty of patience, have clearly done the trick. You've delivered your first piece of work and it's been well received, things are looking up and you can see the work pouring in.

But next week the bombshell is dropped. When you ring your contact for a catch up call (and hopefully a gaze into her crystal ball), you are informed by her PA that she's left the company.

All that work, all that time, and now it's back to square-one. You'll have to start the warm up process all over again with her replacement, whoever that is, and what if replacing her takes a while?

Question: Is there any way to avoid this horror?

Answer: We can't control what other people do, so the short answer is "no". People move companies, people become ill and people retire. But we can adopt a business development strategy to help us deal with this situation before it arises.

Fishing Rod Approach v Fishing Net Approach:

Good business developers start with a fishing rod approach, which means they focus on catching the key fish (the principal decision maker). But once they've attracted the key fish and caught it, they put the rod away and pick up a net.

Fishing net tips:

Tip 1) When your contact is ill, on annual leave, or simply away, and you receive an automated email response, check to see if anyone else at the company is named on the auto-response (they often are).  If there are names, develop a friendly connection with the people named on Linkedin. You could also call them whilst your key contact is away, in order to introduce yourself ... so long as you can think of a credible reason for the call.

Tip 2) Ask your contacts who might deputise on the occasions when they are away.

Tip 3) Ask your contact who he/she reports to and then try to connect with them on Linkedin.

Tip 4) Ensure you fully explore the people structure around your contact both in terms of identifying the people and also in terms of how it functions.

This is something which can be done early on in the relationship, or it can gradually unfold as the relationship progresses, but NEVER forget to do it! You can frame your fishing net approach as a win/win, because from the point of view of your contacts, the better you understand the structure which supports them, the better service you can give.

For you, the more familiar you are with the structure around your contact, the stronger your position will be should your contact leave the organisation.

Thanks for reading

I help businesses become more profitable by developing their people: 

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