Business Development & New Opportunities
Business Development & New Opportunities
By: Ben Washburn
During our professional career path, conversation starters can begin with what’s new? and what’s next? types of questions that spark these conversations. Usually people want to be in the know, follow current events, the news and generally be interested in topics important to their inner circles of influence of trusted advisors and mentors.
Sometimes these coffee and lunch meetings can lead to new discussion points, new opportunities and develop into future business development potential.
I recommend reaching out to your network by staying in touch, setting meetings and appointments, writing, posting and sharing relevant articles, topics, news and blogs to keep people engaged.
Add value and find or discover ways to make peoples lives easier to navigate. Maybe you have a new app idea. Perhaps you have introductions to make that are mutually beneficial and you have the foresight and vision to make something happen for you while helping others as well.
You could be working closely on solving a major problem in your industry and with the correct marketing plan, introductions and communications, a new opportunity and business development strategy session can become your successful reality.
Introductions, calls, your network and referrals and how well you tell your story to others can be the difference maker so make a concentrated effort to network and ask for what you want or need.
People generally know how to help or who to refer you to so be urgent, aggressive and persistent but not too pushy in your outreach.
People want to buy but not always by being sold so ask the tougher questions and listen.
Listening to valuable feedback in business development efforts leads you on a discovery path and usually dictates the people on that path in an order based on need, relevance, referral and new opportunity which is why urgency is so vital and important when discussing new opportunities.
One does not want to move so fast that they approach burnout or lose the vision of a project or goal which leads to a blurred vision of a project or goal, however they need to be steadfast, efficient, driven, engaged, focused and knowledgeable over the phone, in written communications and while meeting in person.
During this discovery phase, it is also very important with new opportunities and business development that you communicate with your trusted advisors and mentors along the way.
Mentorship and mentors are going to help you stay focused and grounded and offer top shelf advice for future potential deal flow.
How to choose what mentors for what project or assignment and when becomes very challenging.
We all have our own personality, style, work ethic, values, class, know-how and manage our relationships both online and in-person.
Solving the challenges of mentorship, mentors and business mentoring is going to take business development efforts, urgency, networking and skill to uncover new opportunities to apply to the nine-year model of MMI and MentorMeInc.
Know-how, intellectual property, digital assets, screenshots and best utilizing the power of business mentoring has been built by mentors, experts and efforts based on mentorships.
Consulting and marketing plan development revenue have used the majority of MMI time over the years.
New opportunities, networking and business development efforts are leading MMI’s Founder, Ben Washburn on a path of new relationships and new opportunities so stay tuned, engaged and follow and subscribe to hear upcoming development news.
Ben Washburn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MMI – MentorMeInc.