The Secret Sauce to Business Development

NOTE: This blog kicks off content focused on Business Development in the B2B, technical service environment. Stay tuned for more on the topic throughout the month of March…

Did I get your attention? Good.

 Don’t let anyone mislead you. There is no secret sauce to being successful in business development. Let’s debunk the old misconceptions and erroneous stories from the past:

 No one personality type is better at it than another — not even Mr. or Ms. WOO.

• Nope; the life of the party and “Good Time Charley” doesn’t necessarily make the best BD person. In fact, studies have shown that they may actually be poorer at the listening skills critical to it. That’s because they’re too involved with telling their own stories and in their own head/world that they may miss the clues and insight that clients provide us for deep relationship development and follow through.

There is no magical formula, such as dialing for dollars.

• At one time, it was thought that you have to place X number of calls to garner X number of meetings to drive X number of sales.
• The way that success is more accurately derived through the numbers is that you have to put yourself out there in the marketplace repeatedly to expand your network and only then drive sales. While having a comprehensive and strategic internet and social media presence warrants attention, rarely will a new client hire someone they’ve never met nor trust.

They have upcoming work; we have a track record of exceedingly performing that kind of work. Why wouldn’t we want to add this client to our BD target list?

• Not all business is procured in the same manner. Public opportunities are selected completely differently than private ones, and there are even nuances in the variations of purchasing rules from one organization to another. The individuals within those organizations are yet added distinctions. By identifying these variations, you tailor your sales approach specific to your audience and their procurement policies/requirements. The only way to do that is to go deep in your research and understanding of what drives decisions in that organization and only then can you make a determination about if you are the right fit to even call on this client. Another important reason to do so is to ensure shared integrity, ethics and moral standards, as well as an underlying respect for your business and its ability to be profitable. Without a symbiotic relationship on all levels, then any chance of a successful relationship is compromised before it even begins.
• Defining and implementing a comprehensive Go/No Go Process is crucial. Just as you don’t have an infinite number of operations personnel to deliver work, you don’t have unlimited number of business development resources to target all client accounts. Strategic alignment and honest, open communications between executive leadership, operations and business development is key to leveraging the highest and best use of your BD time, energy and efforts to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

So what is it, then? What talents, characteristics, strengths, etc. make one person good at business development and others struggle?

Looking back on a 25+ year career in various business development, sales, marketing and public relations roles, these are my observations:

1. True business development success in a technical, service sales environment is quite personal. It’s about Identifying, Honing and Articulating the value that you and/or your company offers. If you can’t position yourself by inspiring trust, credibility, reliability, etc. in your relationships, then you will struggle to sell anything.

2. If there was anything that closely resembles Secret Sauce, it would take the form of Follow Through. I sometimes ponder about how many lost opportunities exist in the business world simply because someone didn’t follow through. Remember, clients are always watching. If you aren’t responsive on the small things, then how will they be able to trust you with the larger ones?

3. Curiosity takes all forms. To me, it means walking through a door, being open to whomever you meet and being interested in following the breadcrumbs of a conversation. Sometimes leveraging your curiosity leads to nowhere. But man, when the stars align and you find a new clue or connect with someone you’ve been trying to reach, then that’s when it’s all worth it.

4. Business Development is a marathon, not a sprint. Tenacity is vital if you are going to survive. As acclaimed Hollywood Producer Brian Grazer states in his book A Curious Mind, “…if you write code in Silicon Valley or if you design cars in Detroit, if you manage hedge funds in Lower Manhattan, you have to learn to beat the ‘no’.” It doesn’t mean that there won’t be disappointments; it just means that you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on to conquer another day.

I will break this information down further in subsequent blogs throughout March. However if you’d like to discuss BD Strategy and/or Implementation in your organization, please contact me at [email protected].