As individuals advance in their PR agency careers, they are often given new roles and responsibilities around business development. Senior account executives, account managers, account directors and vice presidents may all play a role in winning new business, whether it’s leading the development of the presentation, participating in a new business meeting, or assisting with research.
Having well-developed skills in business development can be very helpful to advancing one’s career. However, for some individuals these skills don’t come naturally. In this blog, I’ll share a few tips that may be helpful for individuals looking to develop skills in this area.
Adopt the right mindset
The first thing to remember is that your success in business development depends on creating a connection and goodwill with a prospective client and uncovering their needs. It’s about identifying how you (and your team) can add value and help the prospect achieve their top business objectives.
Many people make the mistake of overselling or trying to share how their expertise might be relevant, but this can backfire, especially if they haven’t done the proper due diligence. Business development is about connection and discovery, and it’s about service before self-interest.
Given this, you’ll want to prepare your list of questions to aid you in the discovery process. Often the prospective client has a limited amount of time, so you need to focus on the things that matter most, and you need to listen carefully to responses. Develop active listening skills, which often begin with learning how to paraphrase what your client has said for better understanding.
Asking the Right Questions
Depending on the prospective client and how well you know them, it may make sense to begin the discussion with a focus on gaining a sense of how your contacts are doing both professionally and personally. What are the projects they enjoy working on the most? What are they most proud of accomplishing in the past year? What are their top objectives for the coming year? Why are their objectives important, what’s at stake and what is keeping them up at night?
Again, it’s vital to pay close attention to the answers and listen for opportunities for mutual wins. Paraphrase what you’ve heard in a way that demonstrates understanding and empathy.
Once You’ve Identified a Win-Win
Share your initial idea and insert something like, “Given what you’ve said about…, would it be helpful if we developed a proposal to help you with… .”
At this stage, you’ll be in a terrific position to gain a sense of the prospect’s thoughts and whether they have budget to support the work. If your contacts do not have a budget, you’ll want to find out who does so you can begin to relationship-build with them.
Broadening Your Network
Finally, you’ll want to ask for introductions to others you should meet within the coming weeks. To do this you might ask if they would be willing to introduce you to others in your business unit who are well connected, have budget and frequently need help.
The goal here is to connect with formal leaders as well as their deputies or influencers. The deputies are individuals who can share insight into the decision maker and help you understand their goals, motivations, interest, schedules and workloads.
Putting This Into Action
In advance of discussions with prospective clients, it’s often helpful to develop a script or an outline of the points you want to cover and commit it to memory. You may also want to role-play with a third person who can observe and critique your messages.
Measuring Success
As you self-evaluate your business development skills, consider how you’ll measure your success. Some easy ways to know if your actions are effective might include gaining an opportunity to develop a proposal for work, securing introductions to other leaders or influencers in the organization, or coming up with a new idea that you can act on to secure work.
Ultimately, you want to connect with people to understand their objectives and problems, so you can discover ways to help them. As trusted advisors, PR professionals can help clients achieve important communication objectives while at the same time freeing up their time for more valuable, meaningful and scalable work.