Atomic BD Habits week three:
make it easy
By week three of January, something very predictable happens.
The enthusiasm fades. Diaries refill. Customers reappear. And the BD and sales habits we confidently committed to in early January start to wobble.
This is exactly the point Atomic Habits by James Clear is making. Habits don’t fail because we stop caring. They fail because they’re too hard to start on a normal, busy, slightly knackered day.
This week is about making BD easy enough to survive real life. Enjoy.
#1. Big BD intentions vs atomic BD habits
Most professionals don’t set bad habits. They just set habits that are far too fragile.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
The usual BD habits | Atomic BD habits |
“Spend an hour on BD each week” | “Send one follow-up email” |
“Write a proper LinkedIn post” | “Comment once on someone else’s post” |
“Catch up with my whole network” | “Check in with one person” |
“Review all my contacts” | “Nudge one pitch” |
“Do BD when things calm down” | “Do one small thing today” |
The left-hand column requires time, energy and the right conditions. The right-hand column just requires you to start. If a habit survives a bad week, it’s a good habit.
Action this week:
Take one BD habit you’ve set for yourself and shrink it until it feels almost laughably easy.
#2. Decide what “done” looks like before you begin
“Work on BD” is not a task. It’s a vague ambition your brain will happily postpone. Atomic habits stick when success is clearly defined in advance.
Good examples of “done”:
- “Send one follow-up email”
- “Comment once on LinkedIn”
- “Ask one client one question”
- “Nudge one pitch”
Bad examples:
- “Make progress”
- “Do some BD”
- “Be more commercial”
If your brain has to decide whether something counts as success, it usually decides not to bother.
Action this week:
Rewrite one vague BD task so that a tired version of you would know instantly when it’s finished.
#3. Remove friction instead of adding effort
When BD doesn’t happen, the instinct is to try harder. Atomic habits work because they do the opposite. They remove obstacles. One of the simplest examples: reduce choice.
Instead of trying to remember who to contact, decide in advance.
For example:
- Write down your top 5 or 10 key contacts on a Post-it note
- Stick it to the side of your screen
- Those are the only people you worry about checking in with
No searching. No scrolling. No overthinking. Just pick one and act.
Other friction removers:
- Save simple email templates you can tweak quickly
- Draft the next follow-up the moment a pitch goes in
- Keep articles you regularly share bookmarked
None of this is glamorous. All of it works.
Action this week:
Remove one small obstacle that makes BD harder than it needs to be.
Next week
Why missing once doesn’t matter, why missing twice does, and how to build BD habits that survive holidays, deadlines and the odd bad week.
No intensity.
No heroics.
Just making BD easy enough to keep going when January turns into February.
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.
