What would you say you do here?

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I've worked in business development for a few years now and I always get a quizzical stare when I tell a new friend about my job.

"So you develop business? What does that even mean, it's so vague!"

Too true...Monkey doesn't know either...
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Allow me to explain in that case.

I work in B2B (business to business) sales a.k.a . appointment setting. (cold calling if you want to be a negative nancy about it)

My job is to call other companies and find the right person to have my salesperson speak with about the problems my company can solve for them. Most people are so busy with their work that they often don't know that there might be a product or service out there that can really save them a lot of time and headache. (In exchange for money of course!)

Gotta problem?

I can solve it!

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Most of the time anyways...

I do this in three steps:

1. Identify the problem my product or service solves.
2. Identify which companies might have that problem.
3. Identify who in the company is responsible for fixing that problem.

Once I know these three things then I move on to prospecting to find the right people to call.

LinkedIn is a good place to start. I can see who is doing what at the company.

But by far the best way to figure out who the right person is to use one of these.

Photo by John-Paul Joseph Henry on Unsplash
Well, these are a little old, but you get the idea. I call the company and ask...

"Hi, who has this problem?"

And some people will help me out and guide me to the right person. After two or three emails and a few voicemails, I'll get an answer from my prospect and my job is done.

That's it really. If I have the right person and they have the problem that I originally thought they would then we're both in business. The prospect has one less headache and my company has more revenue to create answers to other problems that people have in business.

It's a pretty simple formula for success, but it does require organization and diligence to be successful at it. (I train people on the side to do this as well. You can find my coaching service here. https://simbi.com/clifton-hartsuff/business-development-training)

Thanks for reading!

(CH)