Mo explores the key business development mindset shifts that you need to make to become great at business development. Find out why business development skills are both learned and earned, how anyone can become great at business development, and how to stay motivated and driven to keep doing the work of building relationships the right way.

Business Development Mindset Is A Learnable Skill

Dr. Kay Anders Ericsson spent over 30 years studying high-end expertise and discovered that every complex skill is both learned and earned.
You can look at any expert and you would find decades of deliberate practice that got them to that level. No one is born with all the skills they need to be great at business development.
Business development is a learnable skill that anyone can build on.
If you take each individual lesson and apply them to your life, you will be successful.
If someone tries to tell you that business development skills are not learnable or only for natural born conversationalists, they’re wrong. They just haven’t seen the research.
If you want to be great at business development, break things down into bite- sized pieces. Break complex tasks down into individual pieces and practice each one as it comes.

Business Development Mindset Rule - You Don't Have To Be An Extrovert To Succeed

Adam Grant did a study on salespeople and put them on a spectrum of introversion to extroversion.
For most people they land right in the middle and end up being a mix of both introvert and extrovert, and most successful salespeople were exactly the same way. Ambiverts were the most successful at making sales, not extroverts like people assumed was the case.
Full-on extroverts might actually have some disadvantages when it comes to making a sale. Their desire to be around people all the time may prevent them from following up effectively or being direct with someone when they need to challenge them.
Extreme introverts likely just aren’t putting themselves around other people most of the time, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get energy from interacting with them or can’t be effective salespeople.
The magic in sales and business development happens at the middle of the curve, where you can connect with people in the moment and follow up thoughtfully later. Luckily for most people, that’s where they fall.
You don’t have to be extroverted to be successful at sales.
Great business developers have a wonderful mix of being around people, getting energy from the interactions, asking great questions, and giving great ideas. They can also go back to their quiet surroundings and find ways to follow up thoughtfully.

Becoming Great At Anything By Creating a Business Development Mindset

Every expertise, no matter the field, is both learned and earned.
You can become great at anything if you break it down into little pieces and practice each piece.
You may not become world-class or be able to play in the NBA, but you can certainly become very good at that particular skill, and the key is deliberate practice.
By breaking down the big skill into smaller micro-skills and deliberately practicing those individually, you build your overall skill set.
The second component of deliberate practice is having a mentor guide you along the path towards expertise.
When it comes to business development, what kinds of attractive content can you create to get your name out there? What valuable thing do you have to offer the world that you can get out there and expose others to your way of thinking?
Once you’ve got a system for generating content and attracting leads, it becomes a matter of turning those connections into one-to-one conversations.
This is where the Give to Get comes in. Start solving client problems in a small, bite-sized way, and it can open the door to bigger opportunities.
If you think you can’t do what someone else is doing, toss that out of your mind. Narrow what they do down to a specific skill that you can improve on and get to work.
Don't worry about how you stack up with others. It doesn't matter. Focus on your own skills, always getting a little bit better all the time.

Having a Business Development Mindset Means Knowing What Motivates a Buyer

When you’re being sold to, you almost want to run away. You can tell the salesperson has only their best interests in mind, not yours.
We are happy to buy when the reverse is true. When we’re learning and we feel like the other person is helping us discover the option that’s right for us, the experience is wonderful.
When we buy something, we’re important. We are being catered to and we’re learning in the process. It’s like having a birthday experience where you feel like the people you’re interacting with really care.
If you don’t like selling, you need to reframe your perspective. Instead of selling, think that you’re someone that creates wonderful buying experiences that make people feel good.
Flush the idea of selling and focus on the idea of creating a wonderful buying experience. That one mindset shift will change everything.
You are 100% in control of the buying experience. You’re helping people succeed, remember that. The more you do that, the more you will win and the more that people will talk about how great you are to their colleagues.

Start Crafting Your Business Development Mindset By Understanding Your Why

Business development can be hard. You’ve got to figure out a reason to persevere and keep adding value to your relationships, even when it feels like you’re not making much progress.
To discover your why, ask yourself the Five Whys? Go deeper into the core reasons you do what you do until you discover the truth.
Start with the question: “Why is getting great at Business Development important to me?” When you’ve got your answer, add a why to the beginning and ask why that thing is important.
Your fifth answer is where the rubber meets the road, and you discover what’s really driving you. Once you have it, write it down and put it somewhere that will remind you daily why you put in the work.
Avoid staying too superficial with your motivation and realize that your why might change over time, so it’s a good practice to repeat the exercise every few years or when you feel like you’re not as motivated as you used to be.

Mentioned in this Episode:

freakonomics.com/podcast/peak

faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Grant_PsychScience2013.pdf

bdhabits.com

The Snowball System by Mo Bunnell - amazon.com/Snowball-System-Business-Clients-Raving/dp/1610399609

BONUS: Permission to Speak with Samara Bay

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