More often than
not in Business
Development, the relationships that get off to a good start, where
bonding,
trust, respect and the rules of working together are established, lead
to long
term multi-year beneficial Business Development relationships. Business
relationships that start without clearly establishing the rules often
develop
into challenging situations that tend to have an underlying degree of
uncertainty
or lack of anchor. They seldom blossom into the type of long-term
relationships
that can benefit both organizations.
Our experience
coaching professionals
in their Business Development relationships indicates that if the
relationship
starts well, the work, effort, and resources invested in it will almost
always
yield a positive return. This is true whether executing a single
Business
Development process or looking at a long-term relationship. Situations
that
start off on the wrong foot, awkwardly and incompletely, inevitably get
worse
over time. At best, the additional effort invested in these marginal
relationships seldom return more than average results. Take any
situation you
encounter and scale it on a level of 0 to 10. If a situation starts at
a level
6 or above, it can turn out to be outstanding if worked hard. When a
relationship starts at a 2, 3 or 4, the best result you will ever get
with a
considerable amount of effort is a 6, 7 or 8.
Good
matters indeed get better, bad matters inevitably get worse.
