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Business development requires bravery.

Who’s not afraid to stand up and reach out?

It’s tough staying objective. Especially when it comes to your own business. It’s much easier to let the Vision go fuzzy and accept the deceiving, but compelling, comfort of the status quo. This form of comfort is a disease and it is never good for a business that wants to grow. Among many of the problems, comfort sustains an atmosphere that is suffocating to your business development team and, therein, inhibits your company’s chances of growing toward, let’s just say, a more preferable future. Lead your company back to health with objectivity and courageous behavior. Engender bravery into your business development efforts.

If you’re not proactively trying to resist, your perspective gradually turns inward. The comfort blinders slip down until, eventually, you lose complete touch with your customers’ viewpoint. Remember him?  Instead of stepping up and reaching out to exceed their expectations, you’re stuck mired in office politics, arrogance and safe, wishful thinking.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great suggests, the most enduring and successful businesses proactively preserve—and never change—their visionary core values and purpose. But they distinguish that rigor from their operating practices—including business development—which, conversely, should be changing constantly (in response to a changing world).

Poking at business development

“Many organizations have a bizdev team. Not quite marketing, not quite sales, these are the folks responsible for the new deals, partnerships, and transformative ideas. It’s the bizdev team that finds a new toy for McDonalds’ kid’s meals, or a new way to use shelf space at Starbucks.

The bizdev team has no fixed agenda, no easy way to decide what’s next. The bizdev team is in charge of starting things.

Most organizations need this capability, but few have it. Those that do are often world-class bad at it, because no one on the team has the posture of initiation. Everyone is afraid to poke too hard, afraid to reach out, stand up or create the new.”*

Here’s your takeaway: fear only comfort. What the world (and your business) needs are brave souls who know “change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.”

Here’s my advice if you’re part of your company’s bizdev team: stop doing what everybody expects and stop delivering what they already accept. You may move people out of the comfort zone before leadership wakes up.

HIT Solutions believes the more your business keeps up with important trends, the more you will improve your product, and improve your bottom line.

Leave me your comments below; share your thoughts.

 

*From Poke the Box by Seth Godin

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