Is Eddie Australia's best Business Developer?

If you want to become better at Business Development (B D) you could do a lot worse than to spend a few nights watching Eddie and Peggy run their show at Noodle Boy, a 40 seat Noodle bar in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra. I have been eating their tasty dishes, on and off for the past 15 years.

I popped into Noodle Boy last week to pick up some take away and I noticed that as usual, the place was full and there was a queue waiting for tables. The new restaurant next door was almost empty. Why was one restaurant so busy and the other one so quiet?

At Noodle Boy, there are no gimmicks, no fancy slogans, and no pictures on the wall of people rowing together with the word team underneath. I’d be surprised if they have any more than a 1 page Business Plan.

When you look at any high performing Business Developer, and Eddie is a grand master at B D, what you can quickly observe are their current results. In most cases these results are based on a lot of hard work, over many years. They don’t just happen.

Noodle Boy has been running for 15 years. Night after night, week after week, month after month and year after year. I imagine that they have had to deal with many highs and lows along the way. Annoying customers, increasing rents, unmotivated staff, bad weather, changes to parking laws out the front of the restaurant, increased competition, the growth of the internet. They would have seen many new restaurants pop up nearby promising to be the next best thing. Most of them are gone within 2 years.

I was wondering as I ate my noodles last week why does Noodle Boy keep on going? What is their magic formula?

The 3 basic ingredients

The three obvious facts are:

1. The right price
2. Quality products and
3. Consistently good service

That formula seems simple. Surely everyone can follow that. Interestingly enough most businesses don’t. They are normally missing one of those basic ingredients.

The 2 very special ingredients

I believe that there are 2 very special ingredients which drive the Noodle Boy’s ongoing success. These two are so closely related they are like a brother and sister.

1. Resilience
2. Focus

Show me a person who has these traits and I’ll show you someone who will be successful at Business Development.  They will always find a way, no matter what to make it work. They won’t make excuses about the market, the Aussie $, the weather, the budget, the internet, the competition. They won’t spend half of their working hours each week looking at other ideas or opportunities. They know in their heart to succeed that they need to knuckle down and stick with it.

When you recruit for Business Developers you can assess many traits. Focus and Resilience are not always so easy to assess. If someone has evidence of these in the past and has a strong desire to succeed, I’d say that you have found the right candidate for the role. If someone in your B D team doesn’t have these traits, I’d be very surprised if they are going to become successful. More than likely they’ll be gone before you know it.

Eddie could possibly be the best Business Developer in Australia. His ability to keep going, no matter what is thrown at him must put him in the upper echelon.

Pop in one night if you get the chance. Eddie will be there. He always is. He’ll have his little hat on and will greet you with a smile. His team will serve you good food, promptly at a fair price.

When you see how busy it is remember you are seeing the sum of 15 years of resilience and focus. You simply don’t become great at B D overnight.

The NRG message is this. Without resilience and laser like focus you have zero chance of being successful in the long run at Business Development.

Posted in Leadership; Tagged Sales, Leadership; Posted 27 May 2014 by Steve Herzberg