3 Effective Traits of All Good BD People
This is a 6 part series on Effective Techniques in Pitching for BD & Sales. Read the other parts here:
1). I want to be a founder but:
2). 50,000 ft., 500 ft. rule
3). It’s not Product-Market fit, it’s PMT(e)
4). 8 Rules for Founders Who Pitch
5). 3 Effective Traits of All Good BD People
6). The Difference Between BD & Sales
Recently, I was asked to describe what makes a good BD (business development) person, and I struggled with the answer. Struggled, not because I couldn’t think of anything, but struggled because I thought of too many things: intelligent, personable, smart, strong research skills, etc. So, I challenged myself to come up with three fundamental traits, and then googled what other experts named as their fundamental traits. Most people had a consensus of characteristics, perhaps just in different order and weight. Here are mine:
Strong EQ
You see many BD experts talk about EQ, which means “emotional intelligence”. It’s defined in this great HubSpot blog as “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action."
To me, it means the ability to win the trust and friendship of potential partners. You will win more BD deals if the opposite side trusts you or befriends you. Notice that I’m intentionally separating trust and friendship there. Trust means that you should do what you say you will do. If you say you’ll follow up on something within a certain time, you need to do that. Trust equals accountability and it’s incredibly important for your partner to trust you. (In another blog post, I’ll outline how trust & accountability flows both ways and how to use that in a BD relationship). Friendship is different from trust because it means there’s likability involved. Friendship can get you that last mile to win a deal. But, keep in mind that most often trust will win more deals. You can work with someone you trust but don’t like. You can get burned by someone you like, but don’t trust.
Curiosity
A second important trait for effective BD people is curiosity. Business development is the task of opening new channels of revenue that weren’t there before. In exploring and creatively thinking about new things, it’s important that a BD person be curious. She should present new ideas, pitch and communicate well, and be a good listener. All these qualities I would join together to reflect someone who is intrinsically curious. This is one reason why you see great business development executives transition seamlessly from one industry to the next. Since they are typically not building the product/service itself, they don’t need to have as much technical knowledge. What they need to have is a curiosity to ask the right questions, find the pain/value points, and *aha* gain the trust of the potential partner. Often, a good BD person will learn about the product, customers, and market as they are working together with the potential partner.
I really can’t stress enough how crucial curiosity is. While there are other, more technical skills for BD (agenda setting, negotiating, research), curiosity is a softer skill that can make one BD person or partner stand out from the rest.
Killer Closing Skills
The third and final skill I would choose as essential for BD is the ability to close. This doesn’t mean just getting a contract signed. That’s sales. Closing as an effective BD person means knowing when to ask for the deal, how much to ask for, maximizing the potential for your side (it is negotiating after all) in the short and long run while building value for the other. As I outlined in another post, there is a difference between BD and Sales. In sales, I may discount way down or load up features just to get you to close (and/or, get that close on my month-end, quarter-end tallies). But in business development, I have to really consider: Is this the right time to push for an agreement? Should we explore a little bit more? If it is the right time, then flip a switch and negotiate for the best/maximum value for your side while having your partner feel like they got the most value from theirs. An average BD person walks away from a deal that will take their company years to make money from. An exceptional BD person can walk away from the same deal creating value and revenue in a much shorter time for both companies involved.
What do you think about those 3 traits? Are they be most important for you? Or would you choose different ones? Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts in the comments below.
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[Thank you / 謝謝 Sophia Liao 的中文翻譯!]
所有優質BD人才擁有的三個關鍵特質
我最近常被問到:『擁有什麼樣的特質，會使得一個人成為優質的BD人？』而我為此答案琢磨許久⋯⋯。
為此琢磨許久，並非我腦中沒有任何答案，而是因為我想到有太多要素，是造就一個優質BD所需要考量的。例如：機靈的、討人喜歡的、聰明的、深厚的調查功力等。
所以，我努力讓自己想出三項基本特質，並上網蒐集有哪些要素，是其他專家認為BD應具備的標配。大部份的專家對於BD要具備的幾項人格特質是有共識的，只是各自在排序和影響程度的認知上不同而已。
高EQ
許多頂尖的BD都在談論EQ，也就是『情商』。在美國知名的集客式行銷Saas服務銷售平台部落格 HubSpot blog中就提到 ”這是一種社交智商的形式 — 牽涉到了個人能夠監測自己和他人感受、情緒，並能分辨之，進而使用這項資訊去引導他人的思想和行為的能力。”
對我而言，這代表著贏得潛在合作對象的信任和能力。你/妳會因為對方的信任、或因為和你/妳交情好而拿下更多的BD 合作案。
眼睛雪亮的讀者應該有發現，我刻意將信任和友誼分開來講。信任代表你/妳應當做到所說出會做的事情。如果你/妳說了會在特定時間追蹤進度，那就需要做到，信任等同於責任、而且對於要讓合作夥伴信任你/妳是極度重要的。
在另一篇文章中，我會闡述要如何將信任和責任感是如何運作，以及要怎麼運用在BD合作關係當中。
友誼，和信任不一樣的地方在於有「是否討人喜歡」的成分在裡面，而友誼會是你/妳拿下合作的決勝關鍵。但是要記得，「信任」才能讓你/妳贏得更多合作機會。你/妳可以和某個你信任但不覺得對方討喜的人共事；而你/妳也可能因為和你喜歡卻不信任的人合作而受創。
好奇心
第二個屬於優質BD人的重要特質是「好奇心」。商務開發是需要開發出能讓公司獲利，卻是從未有過& 嶄新渠道的一項任務。
在面對新事物時，一個BD人若能保持好奇心，去探索和有創意地思考是很重要的。他/她應該要能夠傳遞出新的想法、善於推銷和溝通，並且是一個好的聆聽者。
總括這些好的人格特質，我會說這個人具備著與生俱來的好奇心。
這就是頂尖的BD高階人才得以由原產業完美地轉職到下一個產業，其中的一個原因。
因為他們基本上不需要建置產品或服務，所以不需要擁有那麼多技術性知識，他們只要帶著好奇心去問「對的問題」，去找出痛點及價值，而這樣的「啊哈」（意指靈機一動，找到解答的時刻）可以獲得潛在合作對象的信任。
通常一個好的BD人，在與潛在合作夥伴共事時，要去學習他們的學習產品、顧客、市場，所以「好奇心」是我不斷強調很重要的特質。
殺手級的成交技能
第三點，也是最後一點，BD必備的能力是「成交」。這不是指把約簽完就完事了。
作為一個成功的BD人，他/她會知道「什麼時候提出合作」、「要開出什麼條件」，在長期及短期都在「為雙方創造價值」的基準點上，為己方發揮出最大的潛力（這就是談判了）。
就像我在其他文章中闡述的，BD和Sales是不同的角色。就像我在另一篇文章 there is a difference between BD and Sales 中提到的，若為Sales，我可能會用打折或增加產品賣點去成交客戶（去達到每月、季度的業績）；但在BD的角色中，我要去認真思考：「這是去push合作的好時機嗎？」、「我們應該要再觀察一下嗎？」
如果這是一個好時機，就立刻扭轉態度，與對方進行談判，為己方爭取最大的價值，也讓對方感受到他們是獲得最大價值的。
一個「還可以」的BD，不做會花好幾年時間才能成交，並讓公司賺到錢的案子。
一個「頂尖的」BD，同樣一個案子，則是能在短非常多的時間內，為參與其中的雙方公司創造價值和收益，把合作案拿下！
你/妳對這三個特質有什麼想法？它們對你/妳而言是否最重要呢？或者你/妳會選擇其他的答案？
我很樂意聽聽大家的看法，一起在留言區交流討論吧！
