BD Top Trumps – Card #4: Creativity
When most people think of creativity in sales and business development, they picture campaigns, colours, and clever taglines. But creativity in sales & BD goes far deeper than that.
It’s in how you price.
How you structure a deal.
How you phrase your message.
How you navigate a negotiation.
And how you work with colleagues and customers to shape solutions.
This week’s Top Trumps card is all about Creativity; the practical kind that helps you win trust, win work, and stand out in a sea of sameness. Enjoy.
#1. Think differently, together – creative teams win work
The best BD & sales outcomes don’t come from solo brilliance; they come from collaboration.
When teams pull together people with different perspectives, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, creativity flows. That spark of “what if…?” becomes a practical way to get things done.
Great ideas often come from:
- A colleague in another team spotting a crossover opportunity
- Someone junior asking a question no one else thought to raise
- Borrowing an idea from another sector, and tweaking it for your customer’s world
And it’s not just internal. Some of the best results come when you co-create the solution with your customer. Bringing them into the process builds trust, shows respect, and makes the end result feel like a partnership, not a pitch.
Creativity isn’t showy. It’s shared.
#2. Create the offer, don’t just price it
Most pricing in professional services still follows the old playbook. Hourly rates. Time estimates. Line items. Yawn.
Creative BD pricing professionals go further. They shape offers that show they’ve really thought about the customer’s world, risk appetite, and outcomes.
Smart pricing might look like:
- Phased delivery – breaking big projects into decision points
- Outcome-based packages – e.g. “deal-ready in 60 days” instead of a list of tasks
- Risk-reward structures – tying part of your fee to results (and showing you have skin in the game)
Creativity in pricing doesn’t mean discounting. It means showing you understand what matters to your customer, and backing yourself to deliver.
#3. Make your first impression count
In sales, first impressions matter. A lot.
Creativity helps you stand out, cut through, and make people remember you. Not because you were flashy, but because you were thoughtful.
Try this:
- Reframe your service in human terms:
Don’t say: “We provide ESG advisory.”
Do say: “We help your board sleep at night knowing ESG risk is covered.” - Tailor your message to what the customer actually cares about:
Example: “I saw your COO’s interview about expansion into Asia—here’s a 2-minute briefing on regulatory pitfalls others have hit.” - Offer value immediately
A one-pager, a visual, or a simple checklist often lands better than a 40-slide deck. It says: “I’ve done the thinking, so you don’t have to.”
Creativity makes you relevant. And relevance wins work.
Next week: Card #5 – Empathy
The closer. The differentiator. The one that turns a conversation into a relationship. Don’t miss it.
P.S. Know someone who always finds the unexpected angle or brings a creative spark to tough BD conversations? Forward this to them; they’re probably already sketching a solution in their notebook.
We’re building a team of voice enabled AI assistants to support you with BD activities and allow you to spend more time being human. Interested? We’d love to chat.
