Hands up if you wasted a business development opportunity last week.

(Counting) one, two three, four, five.....that's about 50% of you. Or at least it is in my experience.

I recently posted an article regarding getting a second meeting. I talked about the types of questions you need to ask to get past the wasteful ‘it was nice to meet you, we should do this again sometime’ close and uncover a viable reason for both parties to meet again soon and meaningfully progress the conversation.

But what about if that’s not the right outcome? What if the client or prospect is too polite to tell you they use someone else? What if they want to use you for free advice because they don’t have budget? What if the person you’re meeting doesn’t have any control over the choice of providers? Getting to an early ‘no’ can be nearly as valuable as getting to ‘yes,’ and is way ahead of ‘we ought to do this again…’!

Too many professionals, who charge hundreds of dollars an hour for top-quality advice, give their time away for free over a coffee. And I don’t mean answering a question or two. Occasionally that is the small piece of credentialising you might need to do to convince a client to use you.

No. I mean giving your time away by being there in the first place! What sort of pre-qualification process do you go through to justify the investment of YOUR time with THAT prospect in THAT meeting? Here’s some possible ‘hurdle’ questions:

Have you reviewed their business (from the outside) and evaluated that your service or style would suit them? In other words, have they got a capability or capacity constraint in your area of expertise?
Does the prospect have some similarity with a client of yours, or likely to have a problem that a client of yours has had?
Does the prospective client seem open to new approaches?
Is their business currently changing? Look for new hires, management changes, press releases, suggesting a desire to change or modify direction.
How does your perceived opportunity, match up against the investment on your part, i.e., $x/hr, by say 2 hours (just getting there, having the meeting, and getting back)?

If the investment seems worth it, then go right ahead - have the meeting and make it a good one. But if you have your doubts, bring your best self to the table at meeting number 1 and ask, very politely, and with sincerity, the tough questions.

[First published on LinkedIn in March 16 under the title ' Hands up if you wasted a BD opportunity last week']