This book - Pitch Perfect - Feel the impact of a winning sales approach - is definitely worth a read, especially if you are new to a business development role, or looking to manage your own company or agency for the first time.
It is a straightforward, no-nonsense guide to attracting and winning customers.
Don't be put off by the foreword, which has a slight self-help American-style feel about it - "this book is not for the faint hearted, it's for those individuals that want to make a difference".
Yeah, yeah, let's just get on with it.
Its premise focuses on three areas for business development success:
- Functional Mastery - consultant speak for knowing your offer;
- Customer Connectivity;
- Momentum (which is all about having confidence in yourself).
Although reasonably generic and probably written with traditional client-side sales people in mind, it is relevant and applicable to agencies and I would say that it would certainly prove useful background material for training teams on pitching.
One of the main points it makes - unlike material I have read on this subject - is that it places a great deal of importance on the link between the personal goals, values and motivators of the individual business developers and the goals of the business.
It even gets you to do a self-test and it paints four rather scary pictures of typical business development people - you know the kind of thing where three out of the four are nerdy, annoying or dull, and one which is glowing and all-becoming.
You spend the whole time trying to convince yourself that you are profile number four, and thinking about your fellow industry colleagues who surely must fit into the other profiles ...
Joking aside, it's an important point.
Your business development will only be as good as the level of drive and motivation of the person at the "sales" helm.
Something we sometimes forget to consider in the agency world.
A small criticism of Pitch Perfect is that the examples given tended to focus on traditional salesmen-like roles.
I imagine the authors - John Moon and John Leach - never looked as far as agencies in their research.
Although, as I said, it doesn't make it any less relevant.
I also felt that they perhaps skimped on one of their last sections about how to keep clients. This is a big topic and one which has warranted books in its own right.
Moon and Leach's attempt at summarising what you should do in terms of client retention was superficial. They would have been better to quit while they were ahead.
Nonetheless, overall an interesting and easy read. Even the most experienced of business developers might find it useful as an annual MOT.
Amanda Phillips, business development director at Proximity London.
This book review was first published on Brand Republic's website at brandrepublic.com.