I recently provided a two-hour market overview for a small contractor at their annual management offsite meeting. My session covered a lot of ground, including the roles of capture and business development. When we got to that point of the discussion, we threw in sales.
When they first posed the question about how I define BD, I jokingly said, “The person who costs $300,000 per year and has a big budget for a lot of meals…”
They laughed politely and indicated they had gone down that path, possible more than once, with tepid results.
Then we took a deeper dive.
Prior to COVID, BD had a reputation for lots of breakfasts and lunches, many events, classic networking. During COVID, that activity went away, driving BD and sales to LinkedIn, online meetings and webinars, and to that old device, the telephone.
Many venues were created for various job functions, including BD – venues like the IDEATION group (part of Government Marketing University) and the Capitol Business Development Association, both of which meet online, though CBDA now hosts live events as well.
