A client told me yesterday that his team isn’t generating enough new work.
I asked him a simple question. What do your people actually do to find it?
The answer told me everything. They wait for tenders to come in, then they respond.
That is not business development. That is order-taking with extra steps.
The tender is the finish line, not the start
By the time a tender lands in your inbox, the real work is already done. A competitor has spent months in the room. They’ve built the relationship, shaped the brief, earned the trust. The document you’re filling out is a formality dressed up as an opportunity.
You didn’t lose that deal on price. You lost it before you knew it existed.
The businesses that win consistently aren’t better at responding. They’re already there. In front of the client, long before there’s anything to buy.
Sales is proximity, and proximity is measurable
Here is the shift. Stop thinking of sales as a response and start thinking of it as proximity.
Two questions run the whole thing.
Who is your ideal client?
And how often are you actually in front of them?
That second question is where most businesses fall down, and it’s the one you can manage. Give your sales and business development people a single KPI: a minimum number of real conversations with your ideal client every week. Not emails sent. Not activity logged. Real calls, real conversations, with the right people.
Get the volume right and the quality right, and revenue follows. Not this week. But it follows, every time.
How I run it in my own business
The client asked me how this works in my world. Same principle. My clients don’t get me in one big hit. They get a rhythm.
One to four one-on-one hours a month, depending on the programme.
Weekly office hours, where they dial in with other CEOs, ask the specific question in front of them, and get guided by me and the room.
A monthly 90-minute teaching session and Q&A, in the room with me and other founders.
Quarterly planning, four hours, where we build the plan for the next 90 days together.
And two 2-day client retreats a year, where they work on their business alongside other CEOs wrestling the same growth problems they are.
And it isn’t only proximity to me. It’s proximity to a room of other CEOs dealing with the same growth issues they are.
None of that is one big touch. It’s many small ones, on a rhythm. That’s what keeps me close, and close is what makes the work land.
My marketing runs the same way
The email that goes out every week. The posts through the week. The videos that teach and add value. All of it is one thing. Proximity.
Being there. Staying close. So when you’re ready to move, I’m already in the room.
That’s the lesson for your business too. Stop waiting for the tender. Build the rhythm that puts you in front of your ideal client before the buying decision is made.
Want to hear how it’s done before the first call? My interview with Lucy Bingle on building Australia’s leading LinkedIn agency is about the B2B content and thought leadership that build trust long before a prospect is ready to buy.
Want to find where your proximity is leaking? Book a Strategy Session and we will map it together.
