{"id":24872,"date":"2019-04-25T17:22:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T21:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smps.org\/?p=24872"},"modified":"2023-06-20T12:34:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T12:34:42","slug":"its-time-to-change-your-story-about-business-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smps.org\/2019\/04\/25\/its-time-to-change-your-story-about-business-development\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time To Change Your Story About Business Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-24876 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/MQL-TimeToChange-1280x570-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"570\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve witnessed many A\/E\/C and environmental consulting professionals and firms shroud the topic of business development in a level of mystery and complexity that\u2019s just not serving them well.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, when I conduct training, I ask people to share what comes to mind when I say the words \u201cbusiness development.\u201d Often what I hear is that business development is salesy and reserved for extroverted, outgoing people who like to play golf. In other words, many folks are telling themselves a lot of false stories about business development.<\/p>\n<p>So, in this article, we\u2019re examining what business development is\u2014and is not\u2014 and what it really takes to succeed at it. I truly believe that anyone can learn the skills and develop the mindsets needed to be great at business development. Here are a few stories that need to shift to make that happen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Honest curiosity, not sleazy small talk. <\/strong>Business development is not a cheesy, disingenuous process of passing out business cards or relentless cold calling. Yes, we have all met people like that, but the truth is, the people who are best at bringing in business are those who are comfortable being themselves and genuinely curious about everyone they meet. It\u2019s hard to make meaningful, lasting connections when you\u2019re trying to be someone that you\u2019re not. Instead, relax. Let go of the overly canned elevator speech and consider every conversation your opportunity to learn more about potential clients and their goals and challenges.<\/p>\n<p>To read more, download the <a href=\"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Its-Time-To-Change-Your-Story-About-BD_Marketer-April-2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment noopener wp-att-24874 noreferrer\">full article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This article, written by Rich Friedman, first appeared in the April 2019 issue of <em>Marketer<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I\u2019ve witnessed many A\/E\/C and environmental consulting professionals and firms shroud the topic of business development in a level of mystery and complexity that\u2019s just not serving them well. In fact, when I conduct training, I ask people to share what comes to mind when I say the words \u201cbusiness development.\u201d Often what I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-development","category-marketer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42653,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24872\/revisions\/42653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}