Business Development in 11 Words
Breaking down iPM Archetype #7 - The Business Developer.
Today’s Overview:
👋 Hey, Kyle here! Welcome to the seventh and final part of our series on the 7 archetypes of the Influential Project Manager. Today, we're diving into the "Business Developer" archetype.
If you’re not a subscriber yet, here are the first 6 posts in the series you missed:
iPM Archetype #1 - The Communicator - How To Be Well Understood by Everyone.
iPM Archetype #2 - The Enforcer - How to Drive a High-Performance Culture.
iPM Archetype #3 - The Builder - Nurture Your Passion for Building.
iPM Archetype #4 - The Leader - The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams
iPM Archetype #5 - The Attorney - The Art of Navigating Risk and Contracts.
Business Development in 11 Words
Filed under: Frameworks & Tools, Project Management
Think of the Business Developer like a farmer.
Instead of just tending to the crops that are already growing, the farmer is always looking for new seeds to plant and more land to cultivate.
They are curious about what else they can grow and eager to find new markets where they can sell their produce.
Similarly, a Business Developer in the AEC industry doesn't just focus on the task at hand. They’re thinking of the next project.
The Business Developer, both authentic and likable, focuses on new opportunities, building lasting relationships, understanding clients needs, and thinking of ways to expand and improve the project's long-term outcome.
Why Does a Project Manager Need to be a Business Developer?
Future projects are just as important as the current one.
In construction, every project is an opportunity — to innovate, expand, and make a mark. While guaranteeing the project's success is vital, it's also crucial to think about what's next.
While there may or may not be dedicated employees to the business development function, everyone who has a client-facing responsibility participates in business development.
As a project manager, nurturing client relationships and closing deals often falls to you and the leaders of your firm. Business development and marketing professionals assist, but those performing the work and managing projects are best positioned to build and maintain these relationships.
You play a pivotal role in driving business development. Every phone conversation, email, and meeting contributes to your firm's brand, drives future business opportunities, fulfills or discovers client expectations, and nurtures relationships.
Business Development is a key skill for influential project managers. It doesn’t just happen before the project starts; it occurs throughout the entire project lifecycle. The most influential project managers develop business for the next project while working on the current one.
The 11 Words of Business Development
I gathered myself and created a simple list of words that align with the chronological process of what I (and all you other business development leaders out there) do on a daily basis. These words are:
Identify
Engage
Listen
Understand
Respond
Inform
Pursue
Affirm
Win
Fortify
Cultivate
That’s it … the 11 words that best describe the entire business development process.
Now, let’s take them one at a time to clarify what they mean.
1. IDENTIFY
The first thing we all need to do is identify a prospective client and determine if they’re a good fit for your firm (and if they’ll eventually have interesting projects). No matter the client or owner organization, somebody must stand up and say “Hey, why aren’t we working with them?”
Hopefully, you’re part of the strategic planning process and there are champions created to establish optimum market share with each top client or preferred service market.
2. ENGAGE
Engage with prospective clients through trusted partners, events, or a phone call. Aim for a face-to-face meeting with a decision-maker or influencer.
Avoid sounding salesy; focus on building a meaningful, trust-based relationship.
3. LISTEN
Once you’re engaged and in front of your prospective client, you clearly want to organize the conversation around your phone call or whatever inspired them to set the meeting. It may sound cliché, but listening is your most important activity.
Make the client comfortable so they talk and share valuable information. Everything they share can and should be used in the future to develop the relationship.
4. UNDERSTAND
Just as important as being listened to, clients want and need to be understood.
From the first meeting and beyond, you need to make sure you fully understand their goals, interests, ideas, likes, and dislikes.
Use phrases like, “So what you’re saying is…” or “That’s interesting, tell me more about…” to clarify and build trust.
The better you understand them, the better you can do what comes next.
5. RESPOND
Whether it’s during your initial meetings or as part of a follow-up regimen, you must now start the effort of doing what you say you’re going to do.
For any information, introductions, or activities that you’ve offered, you must follow through exactly as you promised … if not better or faster than anticipated.
Responsiveness is crucial during both the courting stage and ongoing projects. It never goes away.
6. INFORM
The best business developers aspire to excel at informing. You want to have the reputation with your clients that you’re always looking for opportunities to enlighten them with industry trends, interesting events, or recent lessons learned.
You want to become their trusted advisor. That’s the ultimate position you want to gain with your clients and, again, it takes constant effort to prove your value and worth to them and their needs.
7. PURSUE
This step happens when the right project comes along with your prospective clients and you decide to go for it.
Hopefully, you’ve already completed your go/no-go process. Now it’s time to pursue the right projects with your prospective clients.
Business development, marketing, and the design or project management team must be fully inspired to win this project by:
Understanding all the client’s issues
Caring about the impact of the project to its users
Knowing qualifications only got you here, they won’t win the project.
Inspire clients to want to work with you, not just your resume.
8. AFFIRM
From the first paragraph of your proposal’s cover letter to the closing statement of your presentation, sprinkle as much of the intelligence you’ve gained from the client since your first meeting.
Now you can prove you’ve listened by acknowledging what you’ve learned they care about the most; affirming how you will help make their vision happen; then affirming why your people, culture, and process match so well with theirs.
9. WIN
This is the goal you’ve been looking for ever since you decided (a long time ago) that you wanted to work with a new client. If you’ve followed the previous steps conscientiously, you’ll likely get the results you’re striving for.
Effective business development leads to wins, not just sales. Focus on the client, project purpose, and users, not just your firm.
10. FORTIFY
Now you have a new client. The business development process is not over, not by a long shot.
Focus on earning client loyalty through regular feedback and performance reviews. Find a good spot during each project to find out how your team is performing in the eyes of the client. Don’t wait until after the project is complete, as that could be too late to fix a possible fractured relationship that was never shared.
Quick tip: It’s not what you do. It’s how and why you do it.
Focus your differentiating messages around your people and culture, as well as the lessons learned that only come from your specific experiences.
11. CULTIVATE
Engage, listen, understand, respond, and inform continuously. Don’t wait until the end of a project to ask for more work. If not, you might have to start from scratch with that client.
As you execute your projects, make sure you do everything you can to maintain our preferred status because believe me, many other firms are trying to take that position away from you.
Final Thoughts
Between and during every step we’ve discussed, there’s one key phrase or sentiment that must be shared consistently, and that’s “Thank you!”
Never stop saying it and never stop sharing your appreciation. Celebrate new project awards and view them as wins, not sales.
By embracing the Business Developer archetype, you make sure that the projects you manage today lead to more opportunities tomorrow.
Until next week,
Kyle Nitchen
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Hey @kyle, One word I would add is "Challenge." As in we need to be a challenging voice to untested assumptions, confirmation bias, and past experience. We need to bring a different viewpoint to known and unknown realities that yields confidence we can "get them there."
Really like this list of eleven words. I'm a Project Manager, so my mind instantly went to Stakeholder Management, which of course aligns often with Business Development & Customers. Nice, thought-provoking article. Cheers!