The role of a business development professional is more involved than most people appreciate. I’ve met and talked with many successful business developers over the years, and I’ve come to see that they share a number of common characteristics. I have distilled these in to eight attributes that I believe are essential to becoming, what I call, a Growth Driven Business Developer (GDBD).
Attributes of a Strong Business Development Manager
Grit. A disciplined determination to succeed. Daily systematic use of the tools provided in this book, and the willpower to keep sight and maintain pursuit of priority customers and opportunities.
Empathy. The ability to empathise with others and consider things from their perspective. A real understanding of the problems your customers and stakeholders face, can help with your ability to frame your offering appropriately.
Resilience. In the never-ending attempt to gain new customers, you must develop a thick skin and be able to accept rejection. Customers may not always have the time, or inclination, to meet or take your call. You can’t let this get you down. Some customers are not yet ready for your offering. Make an action to loop back to them at a future date and move on to finding the next customer who is ready for your offering.
Industry and product knowledge. For customers to trust your solutions, you must have a comprehensive knowledge of your industry and the products or services that your company offers, as well as a broad understanding of the niche in which your company offering sits. Becoming a specialist in that niche will have customers seeking you out for solutions.
Problem solver. Customers are looking to buy your product or service because they have a problem that needs solving. Looking for customer problems that your company offering can solve, and helping your customers find ways to overcome them, is a critical part of winning trust and gaining credibility.
Commercial sensitivity. A GDBD with no commercial sensitivity is a dangerous entity. An understanding of the underlying financial situation of your company offering is critical. How much profit is made per unit and what are the ramifications of dropping the price. It is easy to achieve sales targets if you drop your fee lower than every other competitor. It is also easy to destroy a company if you sell your products or services at a price point where the company loses money.
Paranoid progress tracker. How can you know you are successful if you do not measure success? A GDBD must measure leading (opportunities) and lagging (revenue) indicators and be actively pushing to keep both above the line. These indicators are discussed in more detail later in the book.
Proactive networker. Keeping your company offering in people’s minds requires proactive networking across a variety of customer contacts, internal, and external stakeholders. To really succeed, the networking needs to be systematic to prevent important contacts being missed. There is no requirement to be an extrovert, but you must be comfortable meeting people, engaging them with pertinent questions and most importantly, listening.
Call to Action
My call to action for you is to reflect on these attributes. Are there areas to work on? Are there any attributes that I have missed. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Next week we’ll be talking about the Technobabble Trap and how to avoid it.
For more information on my definition of business development see my previous post here.