The Science of Business Development
How BD is viewed by most (R — L: Engineering, Product, BD). h/t Reddit
I originally wrote this in 2008. So a bit of an update.
Of all the roles inside of a company, Business Development seems to always be the one that is least understood.
“All you do is hang out.”
“It’s just sales.”
“The CEO should do all the Business Development.”
I wish it was that easy.
Over the years, I have spoken to many business development folks at many different companies of various sizes, and it’s clear that there is a real science to being an effective BD person, as well as running an effective BD organization. One of my favorite articles on was written by Holger Luedorf.
The vision of Business Development was shaped from early Web 1.0 days, where it was all about hanging out and creating straetgic alliances.
In the “old days,” business development was more about strategic alliances, which was a silly way to say, “lets find a way to drive traffic to each other.” (Notice the word traffic. I didn’t accidentally substitute that for the word revenue.) We were All About that Traffic, that Traffic … No Revenue.
Many companies owned a certain space and could demand many things for the access to their traffic or data. Business Development was really just sales without the quota. It was all about traffic and eyeballs, and there was little to no focus on creating bi-directional relationships. As I just explained to another friend:
Business Development is about working with people who want to make your company better while you work to make their company better.
And that, in a nutshell, is the difference in today’s world.
The world is smaller. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Snapchat and the like make it easy to interact with people all times of day and builds a level of understanding and connection that is unprecedented.
Here are my three rules to being fantastic at Business Development:
Be yourself. You are now intertwined with the brand of the company you are pitching. If you are fake, then the company will be seen as fake. Just be yourself.
Do what you would do normally. If you are not a blogger. Dont blog. If you don’t like twitter, dont tweet. Basically, chose the communication medium that best suits you.
Look for connections. Not just between people, but between companies. Think of connections in three ways:
Direct: These are people that you know directly or can be introduced directly. In this case, you are looking to (surprise!) directly pitch the person on your product or service.
Indirect: These are tangential connections, where you want to pitch your product or service to someone because of the people that like, follow, respect the direct connection.
Enhanced: I don’t have a better word for this, but its basically a connection where there may be no immediate business to pitch, but since the two companies are like minded and the product or service is complimentary, that a connection will enhance both companies.
The first type, Direct, is the most like sales. You have something you want someone else to use or pay for, so you explain the features and benefits, and you are off to the races.
The second, Indirect, is very much like a Direct connection, but your target isn’t the initial connection, but rather its the intial person’s fans and friends.
Both of those are necessary for the growth of a company. As long as one is open and honest about it there is nothing shady about the practice.
The third type, Enhance, is the most difficult and esoteric. People that are successful at Enhanced Connections usually don’t work for commission. They usually aren’t great sales people.
But, they see the potential in both their company, and the target company, and understand that together they are stronger than individually. And most importantly, they understand it is about sharing and giving, not just taking.
I also often joke that my title is VP, Favors and Introductions. 99% of my job doing favors, giving introductions or asking for favors or introductions. To me, the only capital I possess is my reputation and the trust my friends have that I will introduce someone that is worthy and won’t waste their time.
The key to being successful at Business Development is one simple thing:
To get, one must give, and trust that the gift is compelling enough to have the other give in return.
And that one sentence, is “new school” Business Development. Its not wining and dining, or business trips, or even expense accounts. Its being in a state of constantly giving, making sure that you have given more daily than received. And, most importantly, if, at the end of the day, what you are giving away (whether it is time, connections, a product or service, or even just an ear to listen) is not worthy of the people you are giving it to or given freely, you will lose. Every time.