It began with me starting my journey as a hydrogeologist investigating contaminated land and groundwater across London. My first field project involved running three drill rigs in the snow on a bleak windswept construction site. Talk about trial by fire (or ice). The work was fun, varied and as a newcomer to the workforce I was given quite a lot of autonomy.
Fast forward a few years, a few jobs, a huge mine site and a couple of countries later I found myself newly promoted as a Team Leader in a large multidisciplinary engineering consultancy. Not only was I running a team of water and ecology specialists but the expectation was that I start work winning as well.
My Ops Manager kept on asking, “Have you brought in a project with Rio Tinto yet?”
My answer was, “I’m working on it.” And I was.
All of my experience and training up to that point had been technical hydrogeology, project management and leadership. No sales, client relationship or business development assistance was forthcoming. I am not alone in this many of my colleagues in the environmental and engineering industries have experienced the same.
Where Do I Start?
I honestly didn’t know. I had a couple of contacts in one of the big mining companies and that was about it. Who should I be talking to? What should I talk to them about? Really I had no idea. It was terrifying.
Luckily for me, Jim, our team’s experienced principal, was keen to guide me in the right direction. Together, we planned and tackled business development inside and outside the company. We looked at our main customers and those we aspired to get on the books. I arranged meetings and Jim came with me to the first couple providing useful feedback.
Jim showed me the power of networking within the organisation. This turned out to be vital because our team often supported the outcomes of large projects won by other departments.
For a few weeks, I took colleagues in other business units out to coffee and explained what we did. Most of them didn’t know that we could offer our capability in-house. Building those internal relationships made a noticeable impact to our funnel of projects.
Jim and I also developed a rudimentary sales plan for communication with our customer base that kept us regularly talking to the right customers. It wasn’t just the two of us. We involved the whole team from the graduates up.
The First Win! Really Starting My Journey
Then I had my first win! It was a tiny piece of consulting work for a government department. Not even a rounding error on the company books. But I had found the lead, pursued the opportunity, written the proposal and won it. What a feeling!
I found myself really enjoying the work. Meeting potential clients, finding out their pain points and working out solutions for them was immensely satisfying.
From that point on I started evolving into roles with significant leadership (my other passion) and business development responsibility and never looked back.
Thank You Jim & Paying it Forward
I often think back to the help that Jim gave me as an inexperienced Team Leader and cannot be more grateful. I have taken that start and continued to hone my skills. But the gap experienced by technical specialists thrust into the business development is still present. Whether technical consultants, entrepreneurs or small business owners the transition from specialised professional to client facing business developer can be bewildering.
Which is why I developed the Triple A Framework and written Business Development Begins Here. I have developed the tools and advice that I wish I had been given access to early in my career. I’ve aimed to simplify the world of business development and provide a strong foundation for people to grow from. If I can help a handful of people make this transition quicker, allowing them to gain fast systematic results then this effort has been worth it.
What was your journey towards business development like? Or are you thinking about starting? Please let me know, get in touch or leave your thoughts in the comments below.