Wrapping your head around biz dev

A way to reframe business development and a bunch of business development questions to ask yourself

When it comes to business development, I believe:

Finding leads is not a passive business. You have to have a little fire in your belly

There is no magical oasis where you can effortlessly sign up and instantly find all the work you need

Hating the cheesy marketing and sales techniques is an advantage because you won’t sell like a cliche. Just don’t throw the baby with the bath water and decide cheesy is the only version available

If you’re expecting one business development technique to rule them all, you’re probably going to be disappointed

You can learn from someone else’s sales approach, but you can rarely copy it. Developing your own style of business development helps you and your potential customers accept what you sell

People buy the most when they are in their most vulnerable states. You can choose to respect that or exploit that. But you can’t sit in the middle

Nobody buys a list of ingredients. Telling customers what you can do doesn’t feed their imagination. It’s way more personal than that

You’re selling hope. Outlining the problem isn’t enough, you have to have a solution, too. But more than that, you’re selling the idea that buying from you means there will be an improvement or change in fortune

When you make it all about you, you leave no room for the customer. Good business development means centring on the customer, not yourself (unless the customer just wants to buy your lifestyle, then have at it)

It also means asking yourself the right business development questions:

1. Beyond getting paid for it, why else do you wake up every morning and work?

2. How do you want to improve someone’s day, life, experience, or outcome with what you offer?

3. What does a dream outcome for your client look like?

4. What frustrations are you alleviating for your clients?

5. On a scale of 1 to 10 (where ten is super painful and 1 is they don’t even notice), exactly how much pain is your potential client in without your product or service? Or more simply, what’s keeping them up at night?

6. How is what you offer better than the workarounds they are using at the moment? (e.g. Excel over buying your accounting software, or paying vet bills for arthritis management over hydrotherapy)

7. Where do these clients get their recommendations, answers, and information?

8. What are the objections your clients need to overcome to book you?

9. Are you creating content that speaks to these clients about why you do what you do, how it improves their life, what outcomes they get, the frustrations you alleviate, the pain you solve, the ways you make life easier, and helps overcome those objections?

10. Are you sure?