The last article with the same title proved there's a bit of an appetite for this, so here's a handful more BD tips to end your week on an upbeat note.

So you’re trying to finish the week on a high. Here’s some end-of-the-week BD tips to do that, and to set you up just right for next week too.

The all time easiest way to win work has been for someone else to give it to you....willingly, frequently and happily. And I'm not only talking about repeat clients here. I'm thinking of internal referrers.

If you compete on price alone, you will lose customers. That's irrefutable. Here's a story about how NOT to handle the price inquiry, and what you could do to BE BETTER PREPARED.

Some thought-provoking do’s and don’ts about how to value the BD and Marketing people when contemplating a merger or integrating post-merger.

What are the best questions to ask a client or prospective client that can lead to client intimacy? What questions gradually deepen the mutual understanding between relative strangers in a business context? What questions make you think more deeply and share more fully? What takes the conversation from a chat about the weekend's sporting or family pursuits, to a genuine exchange about business-related important matters?

Being 'liked' is not anywhere near the same as being 'valued'. Not in the same universe, actually. On a very personal level, think about how many people in your life 'like' you, versus the number that truly 'value' you. It's inner circle stuff, right? In your personal life knowing who values you gives you deep roots, doesn't it?

So if you are a card-carrying professional, if a choice was to be made, which would you rather be - liked or valued? And how do you make it so?

I have previously spoken about the most common concern raised in my training and coaching over the years – how to ask for the business. The second most common concern I hear is ‘how do I go from being a friend to being a provider?’  I colloquially call this turning caffeine into cash. And I don’t mean that in a cynical, one-way, sense. I think it goes both ways.  How do the two people at the coffee meeting make sense of their needs in order to derive a fee for the provider, and a commercial, profit generating/risk mitigating outcome for the client?

Many professionals seem to get caught in the trap of an endless series of ‘rapport building’ over coffee without getting to the real underlying reason people are at work – to provide a service to meet a need. 

What should you do to make a difference, to improve your success rates? Here’s my top five tips…

Sometimes, looking to the best for inspiration can be a trap.  The key is to be able to articulate what strengths you have that match a client's needs.  

Have you recently changed a habit? We all have them – good and bad ones.  To encourage people to improve their business development outcomes, I’m often asking people to self-assess the good and the bad habits they currently have.  Take a piece of paper out now and take two minutes to list them, if you are that way inclined.

If you really, honestly, clearly reviewed what habits you have that either help or hinder your success when it comes to keeping your pipeline flowing, what would they be? 

Recently I suggested you set up meetings in the New Year with your key clients.  I suggested investing up to 2-3 hours with each one.  Now, given most professionals are on a time writing KPI of some sort – is it worth it?

The short answer is almost always, yes. 

What's the inherent value of a performance review (also sometimes called 'client listening') in the professions? They provide an opportunity to seek feedback on both underperformance and what has worked in order to rectify standards and/or replicate standards. However people often stop there. The single biggest flaw is that they often only measure PAST performance.

Hands up if you wasted a business development opportunity last week.

(Counting) one, two three, four, five.....that's about 50% of you. Or at least it is in my experience.

I recently posted an article regarding getting a second meeting.  I talked about the types of questions you need to ask to get past the wasteful ‘it was nice to meet you, we should do this again sometime’ close and uncover a viable reason for both parties to meet again soon and meaningfully progress the conversation. 

How many ‘first’ meetings have you had? You know the ones.  Meetings secured with prospects or new contacts that are the result of either good networking or good intentions on your part.  Now, have you ever contemplated the ‘ratio’ of first meetings to second meetings?

Far too much time and money is wasted on first meetings that don’t turn into something concrete – either a clear understanding there is nothing realistically to pursue, or that there is a clear understanding that a second meeting would be justified on the basis that matters were raised worthy of a follow up conversation.

In an environment of increasingly sophisticated clients and increasingly demanding internal expectations, here are five practical BD actions I think you should do after your performance review.

An engineering client of mine has a safety briefing (called a ‘safety moment) at the start of every meeting, regardless of the meeting's actual agenda. They take 2-3 minutes each meeting to discuss something they’d learned on a job recently, or highlight an incident they’d heard about elsewhere, or pose a quick hypothetical safety incident and ask for solutions.  It is a cornerstone habit around which their business runs, and for very good reason.  It reduces accidents, creates a culture of openness, increases awareness and trains everyone from the ground up about the expectations of management and employees to adhere to, and importantly, to improve safety standards.