How Do You Increase the Success of Your Business Development Efforts?

Manage business development as an ongoing project. How do you manage BD as an ongoing project?

Write it down. Document your plans and your network. Preferably in some form of a pipeline that includes:

🙋‍♀️ Who you are trying to cultivate a relationship with.

📲 Their contact information: title, company, email, phone, city (for easy reference).

👥 How you met them and/or the last time you connected with them and when (you’ll be surprised how fast time flies).

➡️ How you are going to advance the opportunity and when (i.e. your next touch point: you are planning to invite them to an event or you plan to follow up on your last conversation on July 9).

📆 Then, put a tickler on your calendar to check in with your pipeline at a frequency that seems reasonable to you, but often enough where you'll see progress (weekly for 15 minutes is a great starting point).

Originally posted on LinkedIn. For timely tips, follow Rebecca Edwards Hnatowski on LinkedIn.