THe Art of the Business Blossom

Spring has sprung. Now is the time to come out of hiding and make your business blossom. The BUSINESS BLOSSOM is a way to find other business professionals who have the same type of prospects that you do. Most people would think that a realtor and a mortgage specialist would have the same customers in common. However, if the realtor only sells condos of less than $500,000, and the Mortgage specialist only does #1 million dollar plus mortgages they may have very few customers in common. THE BUSINESS BLOSSOM is the ability to break your prospects down to simple components which any one can decipher.

The more components you have in common, the more likely you will have prospects in common. Each component is a petal on your flower.  Don’t assume that people have the same clients you do – create a method for politely gathering the right combination of qualifiers.

At BAO, we are looking for VPs of Marketing/Sales of “techish” companies who have Sales Reps who make six-figures, who sell a product of about six-figures, who need to meet V/C class executives. There are five petals to the blossom: 1) VP of Marketing/Sales, 2) “techish” companies, 3) sales reps making six-figures, 4) product/service of about six-figures, and sell to V/C level executives.

The keys to a good BUSINESS BLOSSOM are the answers have to be easy to obtain. I had one friend who was trying to meet CFOs who had properties with over $50,000 dollar energy bills. WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Energy bills don’t come up easily in conversation; nor is it easy to ask someone what their energy bill is. Instead he came up with a derivative: I’m looking to meet the CFO of a company that owns building with five plus stories or have parking lots which can hold over 100 cars. Now that is easy to figure out.  You need to come up with petals that are easier for people to see or ask.

It is easy to ask a realtor is they sell house or condos or both.  In fact, if you ask that, they might not stop talking.  It is easy to ask a Mortgage broker, what is the high and low size of mortgages they sell.

After you create your BUSINESS BLOSSOM, you need to make sure that the people with whom you network, know exactly what you would like to do. It is a simple call and response.
Many times, I have heard financial advisors asking to meet prospects with $1,000,000 in assets. WOW that is an embarrassing question to ask. He narrowed the questions down to three easier questions. If you are talking with someone with a out of state summer home – I’d like to meet them. If you talking with a person whose whole family vacations in the Caribbean every year- I’d like to meet them. If you are talking with someone who trades in their BMW/Volvo every year- I’d like to meet them.

Just because someone does not qualify with all the petals on your blossom does not exclude them from the list of people you want to meet. At BAO, we would love to meet the Sales Rep who is making 6-figure selling a 5-figure product to C/V level executives. We’d also like to meet the CFO of a company selling 6-figure products to C/V level executives.

Finally, you may have to create two different BUSINESS BLOSSOMS if you have one product line for commercial customers and a second line for personal customers. When I worked at Eclipse Video in Cambridge, we sold video productions to small business, we also created photo montages to weddings.

Finally,  my favorite blossom was from a friend of mine named Bill.  Bill is a painter but he really wants to paint faux finishes.  Now most people would think he wants to meet, handyman, carpenters, plumbers.  But many of these professionals may not meet his ideal customer.  Bills ideal customer is a (1) female (2)VP or higher of a company, who has (3) a child who has a (4) milestone coming up in (5) three to six months  graduation, wedding, etc.  His clients are more likely to do finally do their dream high-end interior wall painting when there is a reason for a lot of relatives to come over to the house.  He is looking for the client that has the means, but may not have the time to manage the project.  So, Bill was really interested in meeting people in the high-end wedding market - Wedding planners, live wedding bands, etc.

Each of his five petals are questions that are not hard or embarrassing to ask.  And any one of the petals could be dropped out.

Have fun going through your client base and find out what they have in common and then build your own BUSINESS BLOSSOM.

THe Art of Whoooo Hoooo

I first learned the Art of Whoo Hoo in Junior High. I used to pitch baseball. I was definitely middle of the road pitcher- except, when my dad showed up and I could hear him cheering from the stands. It was worth a couple of extra strikeouts a game.

In the 80’s, a friend of mine asked me to run in the Boston Marathon, even though I had never run more then five miles in my life. The interesting thing about a marathon is that you break into a routine pretty quickly, and that routine just slows down the further you get into the race. About the halfway mark, you are about as numb as you are going to get. It is also the point where you pass Wellesley College. The entire school is cheering you on. Suddenly you have the power of the Chariots of Fire and you can do anything.

The a couple of years ago, I got an email from one of my clients saying thanks for setting him up with one of his top ten prospects. I spent the next week with renewed vigor and set up another meeting for him. The reason I bring this up, is I had been calling on these prospects for several months without much success. The difference now is that the territory had been handed over to a new sales rep, who took the time to send me a Whoo Hoo.

This past Fall it was my turn to Whoo Hoo when I adopted the Bedford High Varsity Girls Volleyball team. Many of the players I had coached years before in soccer. Although, I lost my voice, I knew that the newest way to say Whoo Hoo was to post game photos on Facebook that the girls could share. I made sure to deleted all photos that might be embarrassing for any number of reasons before posting. The games were always during rush hour traffic, so I knew a lot of parents couldn't make many games. Oh, by the way, they surprised everyone and were league champions

Take the time to send out a Whoo Hoo. What is a Whoo Hoo? An unexpected outburst of joy or glee. Some Whoo Hoos are public, some are private. Some are immediate- some are thought over and handed hours later. My dad could always be heard of the dim or cheering voices. The Wellesley girls had no idea who I was, but they were cheering on all who had made it that far. My Sales Rep could have decided that I was just doing my job and not bothered. I could have let the other parents cheer on the girls, or I could set the bar high - by the end of the season, the girls were saying, "Hello, Mr. Hoyland."

Make a point to send out two Whoo Hoos every day.

First, send out a Whoo Hoo to someone you know – whether it is family, a friend, or a co-worker. Someone does something good everyday- you need to send out an unexpected burst of joy or glee. Call up a niece or nephew when you hear that they did something astounding – they will never see it coming. When someone brings in breakfast treats, wait to the end of the day and stop by the desk and say. “you know, that was really nice what you did this morning- Whoo Hoo.”

The Second Whoo Hoo should be to someone you don’t know personally. Tell the person at the coffee shop, who makes your coffee every morning, that they deserve a Whoo Hoo. Send a thank you e-mail to a company that gave you excellent service.

Whoo Hoos are like Grandmother hugs – there are always more that can he handed out-it is one of the most renewable resources – and its very “Green friendly”.

So Dad, thanks for all the Whoo Hoos I got. Wellesley Collegians keep cheering on the Boston Marathon Runners. And Sales Reps keep sending in emails about how I’m making your life better. And BHS Volleyball, keep saying HELLO, MR. HOYLAND.