Be Curious: New Business the Lasso Way

The success of comedy and entertainment shows such as Ted Lasso comes from the depth in which they explore human psychology, empathy and emotional intelligence. In this particular series, also leadership and people management. The best comedy shows tend to tap into the human to connect.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, for anyone who has built a successful career in sales, new business or account management, developing a keen understanding of these traits is absolutely critical.

With the release of the new series of everyone’s favourite Kansas football manager, the infamous darts scene from series one has been replayed across all manner of social platforms.

“Be curious, not judgmental.”

Quite a striking quote, but this is incredibly important for agency new business. One of the challenges we have to overcome when we are speaking to prospective clients is “how can you represent my business in the same way I do?”

We don’t have to!!

Yes, we need to be polite, professional and courteous and we need to be armed with facts and case studies relevant to each prospect to provide evidence and a rationale to consider our clients agencies. But most of all, we have to be curious – i.e ask questions. Sounds simple! However, it really isn’t and it takes a certain skillset to do it well.

Having been in agency business development for 40 years, we know prospects are far more interested in talking about themselves and their challenges. The interest in any particular agency is gleaned through intelligent questioning and genuinely being curious and interested. Being able to do that well is the art of new business.

Modern outbound new business prospecting is often based on data and increasingly sophisticated AI and automation. But there’s a danger in all that data…

We start believing we already know the answer.

You MUST be bored of receiving emails and messages from companies who have decided you are a valid prospect even though you aren’t, what your challenges are and what message is important to you. Then you get that email again………………… and again!! It’s impersonal, tedious, annoying and gets deleted immediately.

But what if that company approaching you for your business were simply more curious?

That’s where good phone-based new business is so powerful. A good new business conversation can uncover things an email or LinkedIn message simply can’t.

Agency new business isn’t just about generating leads. Done properly, the phone becomes part of an agency’s market intelligence.

Every conversation tells you something.

You begin to understand what prospects are worrying about. Which propositions resonate. Which don’t. How people describe their challenges. Where budgets are moving. Why agencies are being appointed. Why they’re being replaced. And where future opportunities might emerge.

That intelligence feeds back into the entire new business programme. There is still enormous value in one real human being genuinely curious about another real human’s business.

Conversations can change direction. People explain things you didn’t think to ask. You hear hesitation, enthusiasm, frustration and uncertainty. You discover that the problem you thought they had isn’t the problem at all.

And you can discover there’s no opportunity — which is incredibly valuable too.

In business, we can make the same mistake every time we assume we already know what a prospect thinks, needs or wants.

Sometimes, the best piece of sales technology is still two people having an actual conversation.

Perhaps that’s the lesson agency new business teams should take from Ted Lasso.

Don’t just prospect. Ask questions.

Don’t assume. Be curious.

And every now and then, pick up the phone.