The most underrated skill for a business developer
Business development is one of the most exciting career paths that any professional can take.
The core concept behind this job is, at the same time, really easy but also really fuzzy: building new activities for your organization with the aim of generating value.
The amount of uncertainty that you will face is immense and if you’re not properly equipped it might be overwhelming.
In this article I share my experience as a business developer, how I break down problems and then propose solutions that become products solving concrete pain points for my clients.
Preparation first
A lot of people might tell you that to be a great business developer you need vision, strategic and critical thinking (watch out because these are different!), self-confidence.
Even agreeing that these attributes are part of your toolkit, I think that there is a skill that is widely underestimated when it comes to business development. I’m referring to writing.
Why writing?
In figurative terms, writing is the evolution of facts connected through creativity and intuition.
Our brains works through narrations. It means that, to fully understand a concept, you need to create a narration that covers all the aspects, all the details. Connections are the fuel that brings your reasoning to the next level. Only by writing down your idea as a text, you can be sure that you’re tackling all the requirements to be trustworthy.
These connections require a lot of personal work in elaborating data, verifying sources and re-arranging informations. If you embrace the challenge, you’re already making a first step to a higher internal return rate, either by having a better idea or by discarding the one you’re having and passing to the next one.
Avoid presentations
Making a sequence of words in a presentation isn’t writing. The requirement of making them graphically appealing and engaging, forces the author to cut out words, making bullet points.
By doing so, your organization runs two risks: 1. you might be caught in what I call the “Click-bait syndrome”, in other words finding appealing buzzwords that sound cool in a slide but don’t actually mean much; 2. being biased by dialectic ability, overlooking relevant topics. In both cases, the result might be either bad choices or missed opportunities.
If you don’t believe me, Jeff Bezos banned bullet-pointed presentations in Amazon during his tenure as CEO. Our brains are hardwired to be more attracted by stories, bullet points kill attention and don’t persuade as effectively as written stories.
The steps to be successful: how to write a brief
I normally start my business writing process by finding as much information as possible. I read books, blog posts, articles, press releases, watch YouTube videos, online courses, I speak with experts I already know or I try to network with experts who I never met before. The kind of knowledge I’m looking for is: market size, market potential, competitive arena, innovation trends.
Then, I start synthesizing, in maximum a sentence, the main concepts behind the business model I’m trying to develop and I write these sentences on cards. Being concise is the key as it helps me focus on what matters the most, seen from the perspective of launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
The sentences become the headliners of paragraphs in which I try to demonstrate my view. I normally use data, reports, regulations and business examples. The paragraph gets written in the back of the card.
Finally I put myself in the shoes of a target client, I take the cards and I try to arrange them in the order that gets more logical for the specific needs. The text starts to appear by itself but there is a last piece to be added.
The junctions between the cards must be done only by replying to the most difficult of the 5W: why. I repeat this question three times, just to make sure that I dig deep enough to be solid.
This process can be reiterated as I acquire more knowledge or if there is a modification in strategy.
Once I feel ready, I start presenting the work to my internal stakeholders, being sales, marketing, operations or finance departments. What I notice is that by preparing this brief, their level of commitment is higher as they understand the amount of work required. I’m not presenting myself anymore as a general colleague but as a business partner who puts the client at the heart of company’s success.
What do you think? Leave a comment and share your experiences!
