How Dependencies Limit Your Business Development Efforts (and How to Overcome Them)
In over 25 years of working with professionals, a reoccurring theme that stalls most of their business development efforts is not of their own doing – it’s relying on dependencies.
So, for this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought I would do a whistle stop tour of what dependencies are in business development, and how you can overcome these.
What Is A Dependency?
If you’ve ever studied project management theory and techniques, you’ll know that a dependency refers to:
“a relationship between two tasks, activities or deliverables where one relies on the completion, initiation or progress of another.”
Simply, a dependency means something must happen before something else can happen.
Now, what on earth does this have to do with business development?
Well, let’s take a simple example:
How often have you heard a partner say to another partner they'll happily introduce them to their client and then do nothing about it for months on end? Bet it’s more times than you’ve had hot dinners! And that is called a 'dependency' – when one partner is reliant on another partner to do something.
3 Types of Dependencies
In essence there are three types of dependencies that are likely narrowing your growth trajectory and leaving your business development efforts exposed to disruption. These are:
People dependencies: The aforementioned reliance on others to assist you achieve your business development goals. They get busy, forget to introduce you to their contacts and you miss your business development goals. Your business development is not reliant on your efforts, but the efforts of others.
Systems dependencies: This is an all too common one in professional services, where you rely on an outdated CRM to provide you with answers! More often than not, the partners don’t trust the CRM or simply don’t want to share sensitive client information and so don’t update the CRM with staff movements, promotions etc. In no time at all, the CRM is virtually useless. If you then need to rely on that same CRM system to enable your business development goals, you have a problem.
Client dependencies: This is probably the most unrecognised one – where you need the client to actually do something for your business development goal to be achieved. An example here: your contact at the client isn’t the decision maker but promises to put you in touch with the decision maker. This never happens and you are reluctant to push the issue because you are afraid of upsetting the client. But, at the end of the day, your business development goal still isn’t being achieved!
The Hidden Cost of Dependencies
The hidden cost of dependencies can be summed up as:
Stalled momentum in your business development efforts
Reduced motivation to do business development
Lower engagement in the business development process
This is particularly prevalent with lateral hires. At the onset there is a lot of excitement around the onboarding of the lateral hire. The lateral hire is very excited because they have been promised the world. But that world is reliant on dependencies. And those who need to deliver don’t. In no time, the lateral hire is frustrated with the whole business development process and culture and starts looking around for a new home. And your firm has just had a very expensive lesson (although most firms don’t learn and just go through the loop time and time again!).
You Can Only Control What You Can Control
To break free of dependencies, you need to remember that you can only control what you can control. To achieve this, you need to:
Take control of the process – own it, don’t wait for others. Map your network of dependencies. List those people who are roadblocks and then either avoid them or find a way of working with them where you control the narrative, not them!
Take control of the relationships. Build the relationship independent of any dependency involvement.
Take control of the rhythm. Create consistent routines (monthly pursuit reviews, pipeline health checks, relationship audits). Routine equals habits. Habits result in success. Get back to boring to go forward.
Take control of the systems. Keep your business development skills, templates and client insights in shared systems, not in people’s heads.
Takeaway
Business development thrives on systems, not superheroes. When you identify and dismantle your dependencies, you free yourself from fragility and create a business development engine that is consistent, collective and compounding.
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