To Be Great at Sales, Look for Railroad Crossings

“Oh, I didn’t live in that part of Boca. I grew up in a small cinder block house a half-a-block from the railroad tracks.” It’s a statement I’ve said so many times when telling people where I grew up. My kids make fun of me for sounding Dickensian, too. Whenever I would say that I grew up in Boca Raton, people would immediately go “Ohhhhhh!!” and there were no doubt visions of yachts and Bentleys and mansions on the Intracoastal. We were a close-knit family rich in love, but that’s about where the riches stopped. While we didn’t ride our bikes to the beach that often, we did hang around the railroad tracks a lot (against my mom’s wishes) and crossed them on our bikes every day to and from school. We’d even melt nickels under the rolling train car wheels when we could get away with it.

And then we moved to Atlanta – a city originally named Terminus, which was intentionally designed as a railroad transfer station at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Again, more trains, more tracks, more railroad crossings.

When I was leading business development at a national marketing and public relations agency in Midtown Atlanta, I often led discussions and trainings on sales and business development, but had been struggling to find a simple and concise metaphor for what it takes to be successful in BD beyond just that “relationships matter.” There was more to it, but I kept getting too wordy with it – much like this blog post. And then, driving home one day, I was stopped at a stoplight and looked over to see a sign I’d seen so many times before, but this time with new relevance: the “Crossbuck” railroad crossing sign with the R-X-R symbol.

The key to success in B2B business development is at the intersection of “Relationships and Relevancy.”

On Relationships…

People want to buy from those they know and trust, and if they don’t know anyone who does a thing they need, then they will usually ask someone they do know for a recommendation on whom to hire. There is a lot at stake in the B2B buying decision-making process. Someone’s job could be on the line if they choose incorrectly. There is also significant money at stake in hiring the right consultant/agency/vendor, but even more at stake in market share to be gained or lost. If the potential client already knows you and likes you, you’re 40% of the way there.

And on Relevancy:

People want relevant solutions to their relevant issues. Speak about the challenges of our times. Share your new point of view on an old but recurring business issue. Talking about the superiority of Betamax over VHS probably won’t win you any new clients (unless you’re my dad – he still believes in Beta), but talking about how to use AI to make data entry more efficient so you can level-up your team to do more impactful client work is probably going to get some clicks and eyeballs. Be timely, be topical and be to-the-point.

When you are sharing your perspectives on specific challenges companies are facing, while also taking a personal interest in individual people so they feel important and meaningful, then you have cracked 80% of the code to being a master business developer. You’ll also have a first-class ticket on board the “Make It Rain” train.

Are you curious about the final 20% it takes to be a master business developer? You’ll have to wait for the next whistlestop for that part. Or you can message me and we can talk all about it in the club car.