Her question was an excellent stimulant to thought. To rephrase it slightly, what she was actually trying to get at was: What’s the difference between a person in sales and a business development professional? The answer lies in what real professionals do and what they avoid.

Five Positive Things a Business Development Pro Does

1. Tells the truth. The first thing that sets the professionals apart is that they are honest not just with their clients but also with themselves. A business development pro knows when he or she should refer a client to another firm and does so. The professional knows a client will discover a lie sooner or later, and the resentment a lie creates voids any credibility the firm has accumulated previously.

In our society today, we seem to expect a lot of people to lie to us. Therefore, we are often suspicious of what people say. It is more important than ever to back up what you say with proof. Great anecdotes demonstrating how others have been helped, how your firm saved clients money, and how you made their lives more convenient and letters of commendation from those clients backing up what you say are perfect examples of ways to show you are sincere and honest in trying to help solve your clients’ problems.

A real pro also evaluates his or her own skills and talents honestly and works to improve them at every opportunity through professional meetings, training, and study.

2. Takes personal responsibility, especially for follow-up. Taking personal responsibility for your actions is what sets the grownups apart from the kids. The business development world is no different. If you break it, clean it up, and, if necessary, pay for it. If you suggest something to a client, follow through and make sure it works. If it doesn’t work, come up with an alternative solution that addresses the client’s dilemma and avoids the pitfall that derailed the last proposed solution.

When you make a mistake, admit it, propose a way to make up for the failure, and move forward. Ignoring your errors or feigning that you have not made a mistake, like ignoring the 800-lb. gorilla in the parlor, is the mark of a dysfunctional person. Trying to ignore or cover up mistakes turns off clients, as well as co-workers, in a heartbeat and can lead to even bigger disasters (just think about Watergate).

Always, always, always follow up on anything you recommend or refer. If you hand off a client’s problem to someone else in your company, assure yourself that the client is actually being helped rather than ignored. Don’t let clients wonder what happened to you.

3. Acts as a buying consultant. The renowned sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer has a great saying, “Everybody likes to buy, but nobody likes to be sold.” A business development professional should think about being positioned as a buying consultant for the client and focus on the client’s needs. You should be able to offer to prospective clients in a positive manner the objective information that helps them select your firm rather than trying to snow them with technical jargon and unprovable and exaggerated propositions.

A consultant tries to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the various options, focus on the potential solutions, and present an honest evaluation of the courses of action the client faces. Can you do that for your prospective clients? If you can, you will not only win their trust but also their business.

4. Stays abreast of the news. A professional is aware of what is going on in the industry and the world at large and how coming events may affect both. A salesperson just knows what is happening in their own company, and maybe not even that.

The constant drumbeat of technological change and new product offerings is a challenge to the professional trying to anticipate impacts on how we work and the possibilities for the future. To stay on top, read Engineering News-Record and your regional McGraw-Hill Construction magazine, like Texas Construction, along with your local city business journal. While you can do a lot of research on the web, reading the print editions of publications is the best way to get a comprehensive look at the news and advertisements, which are often of great interest, especially in following your competition.

5. Asks open-ended questions and really listen to the answers. An open-ended question is one that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no; it requires a thoughtful answer and usually provides more information than the questioner anticipated. For instance: “How do you folks determine the success of an office building program?” “What future projects are being considered by the County Health Authority now that the new clinics have been opened?” “Who are your largest clients?”

Business development professionals use open-ended questions to get a prospective client to open up and deliver the information they need to act as a consultant in meeting their clients’ needs.

Business development pros are excellent listeners and generally listen more than they talk. Learning everything you can about your clients is crucial, and if your mouth is open, you’re not learning.

Five Negative Things a Business Development Pro Doesn't Do

1. Is negative. It sounds obvious but avoiding negativity is probably the most important lesson a professional can learn. A positive mental attitude is a pro’s best asset in creating confidence and trust. If you think about the people you have encountered in business, you’ll realize no one likes being around negative people. It just drains too much of your energy.

Try as much as you can to take a positive, upbeat perspective on any scenario. Especially avoid speaking badly about your competition as this will just sound like sour grapes on your part. Remember: If they weren’t doing some things right and serving some clients well, they wouldn’t be surviving as a competitor.

2. Fails to follow-up. Letting things “fall through the cracks” is the hallmark of an unorganized and unprofessional person. While every one of us has been guilty of letting the immediate trump the important in our working lives and putting off making calls we know we should attend to right away, it’s still bad behavior, and a pro avoids it. Keep following up until you’re sure a resolution has been reached.

3. Takes a rejection personally. Too often the salesperson sees a prospect’s rejection as a personal slight and allows a turndown to negatively affect their opinion of the client, perhaps leading to public remarks they later regret. Sometimes, they will even allow a defeat to downgrade their own self-image. Both of these negative outcomes are destructive and foolish.

A pro recognizes the prospective client’s rejection is most often a way for the client to say, “Not now,” “Not in that way,” or “We thought the competition did a better job of aligning with our needs.” Don’t respond to rejection by blaming the client and ascribing negative motives to the client’s behavior. Many times an initial rejection will allow you to re-strategize and pay greater attention to what the client may not being saying directly to help you better understand how to respond to their situation.

While the disappointment of losing a coveted project can lead to a temporary loss of personal confidence, if you are convinced your firm provides superior solutions to clients’ needs, you will be able to find other prospects who will agree with you.

4. Forgets the client’s point of view. Too many salespeople have tunnel vision. They see the world bordered by their own self-imposed blinders and refuse to explore the only view of the world worth having: your clients’ outlook.

For example, while it may be more “efficient” from a designer’s viewpoint to centralize maintenance functions, the client with multi-million dollar production machinery sees huge losses from derailed production occurring during accidental shutdowns while repair crews and equipment are shuttled over from the other end of the plant. They want repair facilities and crews spread throughout their immense shop floor so any outages can be quickly evaluated and fixed with as little time and money lost as possible.

Your clients’ perspectives are also highly colored by THEIR customers’ view of the world. Learn more about how your clients tick by considering their industry and the imperatives of the people they depend on for a living: their customers.

As a pro, you have to inhabit your prospective clients’ minds and gauge their priorities and desires so you can provide solutions in harmony with the way your clients view the world.

5. Does not organize his/her sales tools. A pro has the self-discipline to keep all the basic organizational tools sharpened and ready to fulfill their functions. Your contact management data is up to date, your presentation materials are ready to be customized for the next presentation, the proposal graphics are honed to support your points, and your ever-expanding notebook of client letters is indexed by industry and topic. These are the basics. Each firm has its own special needs as well. Make sure you have your sales tools ready to work for your firm every day.

The professional also remembers the greatest sales tools you have in your arsenal are human: you and the talented professionals in your firm and the relationships of trust and support you have worked hard to forge so you can use their expertise to win more work.

What you do and what you avoid are key to what sort of representative you are for your firm. Discipline, organization, focus on the needs of others: All these qualities permeate the 10 points above and resonate with every other profession around today. To be a business development professional, act like one.

	About the Authors Richard Cilley, CPSM, is CEO of Transcendent Consultants (www.transcendentconsultants.com), and Tom Boogher, CPSM, is Executive Vice President of Professional Service Industries, Inc. (www.psiusa.com). Richard and Tom have a combined 50-plus years of experience in marketing and sales within the A/E/C industry.
	Hosted by SMPS' Business Development Institute, this column provides tips, best practices, and suggestions on how to excel at sales and client development. Remember that nothing happens in business until you make a sale! The Business Development Institute is a Specific Interest Group of SMPS with the goal to promote, inform, and educate the A/E/C industry on the importance of sales and the necessity for business development best practices.
	Your comments, feedback, suggestions and questions are encouraged. Please drop either editor an e-mail with any input. You can reach Tom Boogher at tom.boogher@psiusa.com or Richard Cilley at rcc@transcendentconsultants.com.