We spend a lot of time with Business Development, and certain patterns come up again and again. Here are the ones worth knowing before you make your next move.
Start with the fundamentals
A good rule of thumb in Business Development: if you cannot explain why you are doing something, pause. The best results we have seen come from a small number of deliberate choices, not from doing everything at once.
It helps to learn the vocabulary of Business Development early. Not to sound clever, but because half of the confusion we see is two people using the same word for different things.
Where it usually goes wrong
The most common mistake in Business Development is rushing the early decisions and then paying for them later. The second most common is copying what worked for someone else without checking whether their situation matches yours.
- Learn the basic Business Development vocabulary first
- Expect trade-offs; distrust “no downsides”
- Review your approach every few months
Your next step
And when in doubt — ask. We answer reader questions about Business Development regularly, and the “obvious” questions are usually the ones everyone else was too polite to ask.
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