Demonstrate value. Money doesn't grow on trees.

So the brilliant Seth is thinking about bizdev and we find out, same day, an old friend has written a book on bizdev in the IT world. Except his book isn't about selling to the CIO, he says, it's about partnering. We eat steak, catch up, go home and wince. Probably 'nother typical biz text. We said we would read it, so dammit we try to. And then magically ... we keep turning pages. This is good.

If your organization serves other businesses or if you manage vendors, check the book out. It's filled with tips and templates from bigwigs at Tyson, Accenture, PwC, First Data, Time Inc., and government for business negotiations, service, feedback, and getting results out of your relationship. Consider the impact of your proposed solution on the larger enterprise. Show up with an ROI forecast, not PowerPoint. Avoid arrogance. Look beyond your objectives to what the client wants in 5-7 years. Put skin in the game. Never allow communications to drop off (as often happens after the contract is signed). Don't rotate in people and expect the client to train them. Measure your results. And don't just push communication; learn to let people pull from you, by setting yourself up -- via conferences, speeches, blogs -- as someone with the right attitude, knowledge and ability to help.

Wow -- hits a nerve, don't it? How many of us have screwed all of this up?

As one IT chief puts it:

"So many inbound or 'push' marketing activities are too vague, untargeted, impersonal, and ultimately irrelevant... CIOs just tune them out. They're under intense pressure from their organizations to grow the business. They don't have time to return 99 percent of the cold calls they get."

If you want people to listen, show some empathy and give them something helpful to listen to. Nice work, Mike.