Saying yes feels good. It’s helpful, it’s human—and it’s how your firm quietly bleeds to death. 😵

In this episode, John and Mark dive into the real power of saying NO: qualifying hard, protecting your pipeline, and choosing clients and marketing efforts that actually move your firm forward. Plus, they explore the cognitive traps (hello, sunk cost fallacy and FOMO) that keep you from doing it.

00:00 Introduction
02:06 Welcome
03:21 Qualification
08:16 Cognitive Biases
10:48 FOMO
14:25 No Keeps The Buyer's Interest In Mind
15:31 Saying 'No' To The Wrong Types Of Clients
22:36 People Over Projects
27:38 Saying No To Marketing Overload
34:27 Wrap Up

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Your CRM is haunted. Not by ghosts...but by cold leads, stalled proposals, and “maybe next quarter” conversations that never saw the light of day. In this episode, John and Mark take you on a guided tour of the Pipeline Graveyard—where dead deals lurk, and second chances await.

Despite the Halloween theme, this one’s evergreen. Because let’s be honest: deals go dark year-round. We’ll show you how to diagnose the truly dead, spot signs of life, and—when the timing’s right—resurrect opportunities without looking desperate.

It’s part sales therapy, part post-mortem, and part playbook for turning silence into closed-won. So grab your flashlight and a shovel. We’re digging in.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:48 Welcome
01:16 Introduction
02:57 Common Causes of Deals Failing
06:29 Diagnosis
11:17 Signs There Is Still Life In The Deal
13:27 New Information
15:03 Reflection
18:19 How To Raise The Dead
24:50 Digging In The Graveyard
34:43 Segmenting

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Go ahead, put all of BD on the shoulders of your most expensive asset. What could possible go wrong? 

In this episode, John and Mark explore the pros and cons of partner involvement in business development. They look at the benefits and drawbacks of a firm partner's role in both marketing and sales. Identify actionable strategies for helping your firm's partners engage in the right kind of business development efforts.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome + Listener shoutouts
03:18 Episode Rundown
04:49 Marketing and Sales Continuum
05:16 Pros of Partner Involvement in Marketing
08:39 Cons of Partner Involvement in Marketing
13:12 Pros of Partner Involvement in Sales
18:01 Cons of Partner Involvement in Sales
27:31 What Good Look Like
30:33 Rapid Fire: Who's the Bottleneck?
35:16 Takeaways and Conclusion

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"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie

In this episode, Mark and John explore the importance of understanding clients better than they understand themselves. The conversation focuses on how actively listening to understand client needs can transform your business success, highlighting key concepts such as the empathy gap, the empathy map, and how this level of understanding serves as a significant competitive advantage. 

Want actionable advice on how to understand your clients better? Listen to this episode today and jot down some notes!

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
01:20 Two Years of Breaking BizDev
02:41 Episode Rundown
03:38 THE Empathy Gap
11:20 The Empathy Map
15:11 Competitive Advantage
19:19 Competitive Insulation
20:36 Learn What Matters to Your Clients
27:26 Create Feedback Loops
32:31 How to Turn Empathy Into Action

The Empathy Map: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/empathy-map-why-and-how-to-use-it

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Before you pitch slap that prospect, listen to this episode.

John and Mark tear down some terrible 'pitch slaps' from their LinkedIn DMs and offer a better way to approach social media. Shift your social media marketing from spammy sales tactics to authentic relationship-building. Listen to this episode to learn more.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Welcome
00:59 Origins of the Pitch Slap
03:20 Social Selling
10:47 Pitch Slap Examples
19:50 A Different Way to Do Social Selling
30:48 Connect Instead of Create
35:54 Final Thoughts

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What kind of buyer did you talk to on your last sales call?

When it comes to buying professional services, there is usually more than one buyer. Some refer to this as a 'buying committee.' So what different roles do each of these buyers play? How should you engage them? What should you watch out for? These are the kind of questions that John Tyreman and Mark Wainwright will answer in this episode of Breaking BizDev. 

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
03:00 The Buying Committee
04:32 The Three Different Buyer Roles
05:17 The Visionary
08:28 The Operator
13:32 The Risk Mitigator
16:54 Stories and Examples
28:24 How to Take Action
34:08 Summary

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Why expand existing accounts when you can chase new logos forever? 😵‍💫

On this episode, John and Mark break down the concept of 'account expansion' — growing revenue from existing client accounts:

• The difference between upsell and cross-sell
• 3 common mistakes firms make in account expansion
• Identifying key decision-makers and organizational triggers
• The importance of curiosity in building trust in relationships
• How to frame your services in the context of what the client values

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction 
02:37 Benefits of Upsell and Cross-Sell
05:30 Cross-Sell vs Upsell: What's the Difference?
10:39 Common Mistakes in Upsell and Cross-Sell
20:10 Effective Strategies for Upsell and Cross-Sell
26:39 Building Client Relationships
30:52 Embedding Yourself in Client Organizations
36:35 The Role of Trust in Client Success
38:54 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

#businessdevelopment #salesdevelopment #sales #professionalservices #marketing #podcast

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For consulting firms that have exhausted their network and the referral well has run dry, a digital marketing strategy is essential to attract new clients. But how?

In this episode, Mark and John walk through a step-by-step framework perfect for experts and firms who need to reach a broader audience to generate new business opportunities. This doesn’t mean you need to become a well-known celebrity or go ‘viral’ at a Coldplay concert. Instead, build visibility within a tight, focused slice of the market. Become well-known to the people who actually value your services.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro & Welcome
03:13 Overarching Themes
07:08 Research Your Buyers
12:17 Create a Lead Generation Framework
16:06 Source content from a podcast
17:47 Optimize ALL your content (not just web pages)
19:44 Use LinkedIn
21:37 Weekly email newsletter
24:35 Create and Continually Refresh Evergreen Content
27:12 Create a Measurement Plan
30:36 Conclusion & Final Thoughts

Read the full article from John: https://www.redcedarmarketing.com/blog/digital-marketing-strategy-for-consulting-firms

Past episodes mentioned:

• Free vs Paid Offers: Crafting an Effective Lead Generation Strategy
• Don’t Boil the Ocean: The Paradox of Focus, Specialization, and Positioning

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Professional Services. It's in the name. If you're in professional services, you're in the business of SERVING clients.

On this episode of Breaking BizDev, John and Mark take a look at the transformative power of adopting a client-centric mindset in marketing and sales activities. Listen to this episode and you'll hear:

• From selling to serving—an overview of the core mindset shift
• Where firms get it wrong
• What a client success mindset looks like in practice
• How to build the culture that supports it
• What this unlocks for firm growth

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*Trust* is what wins new business in professional services...but your ideal clients can't trust you if they don't *like* you, and they can't like you if they don't *know* about you. 

On this episode of Breaking BizDev, John and Mark break down "the mere exposure effect," also referred to as the "familiarity bias" and how firms and experts can take advantage of this cognitive bias and leverage psychology in their business development strategies. 

This episode also features guest voices from Ryan Paul Gibson, founder of Content Lift, and Melina Palmer, CEO and host of The Brainy Business.

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