By nature, technical professionals are driven to
solve problems. So, it's not surprising that many Business
Development professionals focus their efforts on uncovering
technical problems. Technical problems are, however, typically just
intellectual concerns unless they are converted to more basic and
first person personal pain
situations.
To be most effective, you must translate these technical problems
into how they affect the business, how they affect the financials,
and more critically, how the situations distress the individuals
involved. Unless these second and third degree situations are
addressed in your discussions, the purely technical issues you've
uncovered have limited value.
Business
Development professionals know and understand the technical
solutions and capabilities their products and services provide from
a technical solution perspective. Translating these technical
features and benefits into "first-person personal pain" as they
relate to people, business and money problems and learning how to
focus on those issues are key to success in Business Development.
The Four
Cornerstones of Business Development competency are
Technical, Business, Money
and People Knowledge. Knowledge alone is of limited value
without the ability to apply that knowledge. Our challenge as
Business Development professionals is to understand what problems we
solve from the prospect's perspective, and how those problems affect
them in other than purely technical ways.
