Business Development Playbook

SCALE OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT RISK

Always remember it’s easier (and incurs less risk) when selling existing services to existing clients in existing geographies. The effort and risk increase to moderate when selling existing services to new clients, or new services to existing clients, or services in new geographies. The most challenging opportunities, as well as those with the most risk, are those where we’re selling new services to new clients in new geographies. The following chart illustrates this.

THERE ARE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF RISK INVOLVED WITH PURSUING NEW CLIENTS.

Figure 1.1. Business Development Risk

Develop Relationships Typically, you’ll want to develop relationships with clients that you can trust, and that can develop a trust in BL. • Add value and build trust • Personal connection (common affinity and liking one another) • Business value (strength of business impact) • BOTH are important • EITHER can come first • Trust Graph – the more our client trusts us, the more open they will be with us (see Figure 1.2).

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Business Development Playbook