The BD Dark Arts
There are the things we teach in BD training. And then there are the things you learn after a few years in the trenches. The slightly unspoken tactics. The practical shortcuts. The things nobody puts on the slide deck but everybody eventually figures out.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to share a few of these. I’ve also asked some old colleagues for theirs, so we’ll see what comes back.
Let’s start with three that have served us well at LINAR over the years. Enjoy.
#1. Make them think it’s their idea
Early in my career this used to drive me mad. You’d have what you thought was a genuinely good idea. A campaign. A client event. A new way to approach a sector.
You’d present it.
And the response from the room would be a forensic dismantling of every possible reason why it wouldn’t work.
After a while you realise something important about many professionals. Their instinct is to test ideas by trying to break them. They are trained to find the risk, the flaw, the weak spot.
So instead of presenting the idea, you plant the idea. You start the conversation.
“Could we approach it this way?”
“What do you think about doing something around X?”
“I wonder if there’s an angle here.”
Then you leave it alone.
A meeting or two later, someone will say:
“I’ve got an idea… what if we did this?”
Which, mysteriously, sounds remarkably familiar.
At that point your job is very simple.
“That’s brilliant. We should definitely do that.”
Job done.
#2. Cosy up to the secretaries and EAs
If you work in BD or sales in professional services, here is a simple truth. The EA runs the place. A good EA or secretary is the gatekeeper to a very busy professional’s life. They control diaries, priorities, access and timing.
Which means they can either open doors for you… or quietly make your life extremely difficult.
The smart move is to build proper relationships with them early.
Be polite. Be respectful. Remember their names. Thank them when they help you.
When they know you and trust you, magic happens.
You suddenly find the partner you need ten minutes before a meeting. Your email gets nudged to the top of the pile. You get the quiet heads-up about diary space.
Treat them well and they become one of the most valuable allies you have.
Ignore them and you’ll spend a lot of time waiting outside closed doors.
#3. Involve marketing early
This one still happens all the time.
A BD team or partner spends weeks developing an idea. They work out the angle. Build the proposition. Decide what they want to say. Then, right at the end, they throw it over the fence to marketing.
“Can you help us promote this?”
At that point marketing are being asked to decorate a cake that’s already been baked.
The better approach is much simpler. Bring marketing in early.
These people are specialists in getting messages into the market. They understand channels, timing, positioning and what actually cuts through.
If they’re involved at the start, they can shape the idea with you.
They’ll spot angles you haven’t considered.
They’ll know how the message should travel.
And they’ll make sure the thing actually reaches the people you want to reach.
In BD and sales, awareness and engagement are everything.
Marketing are the engine room for both.
Use them early.
Chat to Tina by voice, when you’re between meetings, on the commute to/from work, or heading into something you’d rather avoid.
Final thought
That’s three BD dark arts for this week.
Next week we’ll add a few more from the trenches.
Because the reality is this: BD isn’t just about strategy.
Sometimes it’s about knowing how things actually get done.
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.
