People often make the same mistakes when they first start doing business development. They often do it because they do not know any better, and some never learn. It does not matter how successful you are. If you are not willing to look at yourself and your work critically, you will never improve. The following are some common mistakes people make in business development.
Not Having a Business Development Plan in Place Before You Begin
According to Kevin Cohee, it is pretty hard to get there without knowing where you are going. Work on your business development plan by understanding the client’s needs and benefits from working with you. The best way to do this is to ask good questions that elicit information. Do not be afraid to share your thoughts about what you have gathered from the client. However, avoid pushing those thoughts onto them. The plan should help you understand what you need to do to make money. It enables you to meet the client’s needs and where you want your business development process to go in the future.
Not Trimming Out Unqualified Prospects
There is no bigger waste of time than pursuing leads that are not qualified. Lead generation is always top of mind with entrepreneurs. However, if you spend too much time on the wrong leads, no one will be more unhappy than you. Consider looking for new ways to make the qualifying process more efficient. If you feel like you are wasting too much time following up with unqualified leads, the problem is not the leads themselves but your approach to qualifying them.
Not Having a Well-Defined Process for Cold Outreach
Cold outreach is more of an art form than a science. It is tough to get into the mass appeal mentality when you know real people have actual jobs and lives on the other end. In an ideal world, you would build a relationship with prospects before ever reaching out. When cold outreach, the main thing to remember is to make the other person feel special. You can do this by saving your most compelling messages for them and making sure they want to talk to you.
Not Having a Client-Centric Business Development Process
When most people think about business development, they focus on how it affects their company and forget their needs and goals. You should create a sales or business development process that serves the client’s needs. This might mean your initial focus is on relationship building. Only once you have established a rapport do you start discussing product specifics. If your team is trying to figure out better ways to serve clients, ask them questions about their goals and how they could help meet them.
Business development is developing business relationships and closing sales for a product or service while increasing brand awareness through marketing and event management. People in business development can sometimes get frustrated when they do not see the return on their time and efforts. That, combined with a lot of work to be done, can lead people to make mistakes while marketing themselves and their company.
