The Top 10 Biggest Myths About Business Development
By Ashley Nicholson ..✧ ..December 6, 2022
In my career, I have heard countless myths about business development from various people in business. Here are the biggest I have heard—it’s time to set the record straight.
Truth: No, business development is a process and requires skills, growth, refinement, and training. There are traits that can help you, but it can be learned and must be refined in order to succeed. Plus, the market and your clients are always changing. So, learning cannot stop.
Truth: This is one of the biggest myths. The reality is that business development requires the best traits from extroverts and introverts. One of the most important traits from introverts is the ability to listen to clients and understand the context. This is of crucial importance for sales.
Truth: It’s great that he (or she!) likes working with people, but business development requires skill, experience, and training. Furthermore, you have to listen to your clients and stay abreast of the industry trends. You cannot learn it overnight, but you can grow and hone your skills.
Truth: Nothing could be farther from the truth. In Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One, he argues that “even though sales are everywhere, most people underrate its importance. Silicon Valley underrates it more than most.” The ability to sell is probably the most important skill in a business and should not be undervalued. If you do not have customers, you do not have a business.
Truth: I hear this one a lot, and frankly I do not even know how to counter it because this is an apples and oranges situation. The super short sales cycle of an automobile purchase transaction requires an entirely different skillset and technique than that for closing a multi-million-dollar, complex technology sale. Clients do not buy multi-million-dollar technology services or products impulsively and without thought.
Truth: Sales talent is scarce, and many members of the younger generation have no interest in sales and business development. Forbes even recently wrote an article on the crisis around emerging sales talent.
Truth: One of the biggest myths I hear. A product can be amazing but will not sell itself. A good product is necessary, but an amazing marketing and business development team is needed to communicate the true value and sell products. Peter Thiel also mentioned in his book that this was one of the biggest myths of Silicon Valley.
Truth: Marketing is a crucial part of creating brand awareness and creating demand. Ideally, a business development person needs to work in step with a strong marketing team.
Truth: No—business development takes years of experience and a good network of people. It is unrealistic and you are setting up a young person for failure thinking that they can read a book and instantly become an experienced business development professional. It may make sense to hire a less experienced person, but please invest in training and have realistic expectations.
Truth: Relationships are important in business development and this is true for government contracting, but people need training in business development to develop their core skills and business development requires a shift in mindset and being proactive.
