The Nurture Cycles of Engagement (NICE)
What is Business Development?
Always Be Closing (ABC)
Good for Sales...Bad for BD.
Use my NICE method instead.
Nurture Intent Cycles of Engagement (NICE)
Helps business developers nurture intent.
Based on science...Fogg Behavior Model.
How it works....
1. Corporate Content Gear
Start with content showing Purpose, Empathy, and Truth.
2. Prospect Permission Pinion
Prospect grants permission to provide content.
This starts Trust Building:
- Consensual "Up-Front Contract"
- Confirms prospect is Problem Aware
- Confirms your purpose aligns with prospect's extrinsic needs
WARNING:
Only control the Process and never the Prospect.
Controlling Prospect destroys Trust.
3. Prospecting Team Gear
Prospecting Team Gear is largest gear because of Physics...
- Energy transferred from a smaller gear to a larger gear multiplies force. You need a lot of leverage in the beginning.
- Larger gear moves slower than the smaller gear; trust building moves slowly at the start.
- Your first engagement must deliver a large amount of value to the prospect so they become Solution Aware.
IMPORTANT:
Exchange of Energy between you and prospect can't be one-sided. You must also receive valuable information from them. Value exchanges share prospect’s pain points and Cost of Problems (COP). Your solution must decrease or eliminate the prospect’s COP.
WARNING:
Laws of physics dictate that if First Value Engagement is weak, then engagement stalls or grinds to stop.
4. Next Best Action
As trust gains momentum, prospect intent signals trigger Next Best Actions.
Prospect Trigger examples...
· Behavior: Searches for similar products or product reviews
· Engagement (Micro-Conversions): Subscribes to newsletter, asks about detailed product features, or comments on your social media post.
· Emotions: Anger about a problem, fear of failure, happy about a solution.
· Events: Birthday, job change, venture funding, contract termination.
Fogg Behavior Model (FBM):
Prospect behavior changes when their intent (Motivation), ability to make the change (Ability), and triggers (Prompt) happen at once.
3 Categories of Triggers:
· Sparks: Low Intent and High Ability
Increas prospect motivation by highlighting prospect’s pain points.
· Facilitator: High Intent and Low Ability
Increase prospect ability to make a purchase by providing info about solution.
· Signal: High Intent and High Ability
Calls To Action (CTA) invite prospect into the Second Value Exchange.
Standby for my next post about the 2nd Value Exchange...
See what I did there?
Tony Gray, BDP
Author of the Business Development Body of Knowledge
Get your copy on Amazon today!