Whilst recruiting finance roles is not my passion and I haven’t worked in a “sales” role since then, I have deployed the fundamentals I learned about Business Development and Sales in every role I have undertaken.

I often say everyone in business could do with a crash course in recruitment to hard wire their sales behaviours and to build their resilience.

I now follow these three very practical approaches in my business:

“Ten Before Ten” - making ten sales calls before 10am.

prep-calls.jpg Preparing for calls and prioritising your clients early in the day

Whilst your project may not require sales calls, or ten cold calls daily, making your client connections the priority at the start of your day is a great habit to embrace.

Not only does it make your clients feel prioritised, if you find the selling aspect of your project or role challenging, or you have any customer issues to address, dealing with it first thing means it is not hanging over you.

Structured Business Development Calls - preparing for your sales conversations.

advice.jpg What does good look like for both of you in advance

Understanding both the context and the business needs in advance of your client conversations will vastly improve these discussions.

Make sure you have a clear purpose for your interactions. Also understand what needs are you meeting for your customers or clients and what are your needs or desired outcomes.

Define what you think good looks like for both of you in advance of initiating the connection.

Who Are The Decision Makers - ensuring you are engaging with the right person at the right decision making level.

decisions.jpg Know the decision makers and understand their needs

When developing a project, or business idea, critical to your success is to onboard and engage the key decision makers and stakeholders who can approve or move your project forward.

Firstly, you need to identify who these people are and secondly, you need to tailor your business message effectively to your audience.

Building a discipline around business development will not only result in more quality stakeholder and client relationships, it will also help develop a pipeline of quality opportunities into the future, regardless of whether you work in “sales” or not.