In today’s fiercely competitive market, are you leaving millions of dollars in potential revenue on the table? The hidden culprit is an undertrained delivery team that cannot maximize customer relationships.

As a growth leader, you’ve probably invested in top talent and competitive solutions. But you might be missing out on your most potent growth multiplier – transforming your delivery team into growth partners able to identify new opportunities and grow current programs.

Think about it: Who better to drive organic revenue growth than the team continuously interacting with customers, solving daily challenges, hearing customers’ frustrations, and gathering critical intelligence about their evolving needs? Successful leaders recognize the make-or-break impact delivery teams have on recompetes and growing existing contracts.

However, without the essential baseline Business Development (BD) skills, this invaluable resource remains untapped. Imagine losing a must-win recompete because your delivery team was unaware of the customer’s aversion to your PM’s abrasive communication style! It’s a painful oversight, often neglected during the discovery phase. Ouch!

The real differentiator is often trust. How often have you chosen a company not just because they had the right skills but because you trusted the people you were working with? According to a Gartner study, 75% of buyers prioritize trust in choosing new partners. Similarly, government procurement officials often highlight effective communication and a collaborative spirit as decisive factors in their vendor selection, according to the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing. That’s why having technical competence isn’t enough anymore.

In business, relationships reign supreme. Buyers crave a seamless experience from partners who take the time to really know them and their needs. This transcends transactions – it’s about forging an authentic connection. Your delivery rock stars are perfectly positioned to make this a reality, provided they receive the necessary BD training.

Your Delivery Team: The Cornerstone of Customer Relationships

The pathway to success is not just through showcasing technical expertise or innovative solutions. It’s about leveraging the often-underestimated power of your delivery team to build and maintain winning relationships with your customers. This strategic emphasis on trust and communication can set your company apart, ensuring a deeper connection with your customers and significantly impacting your growth trajectory.

By cultivating a growth mindset and emotional intelligence (EQ) capabilities within your delivery personnel, you’re not just improving project delivery – you’re shaping a cohort able to uncover new opportunities and develop winning relationships. The question then becomes: how do you unlock this hidden potential and transform your delivery team into strategic growth partners?

Below are some areas to focus on as you get started:

1. Elevating People Skills: Building Trust Beyond Technical Expertise

Your Project Managers (PMs) and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are the backbone of your delivery team, pivotal in securing recompetes and ensuring excellent customer satisfaction(CPARs). While technical prowess is undoubtedly crucial, the ability to communicate effectively and demonstrate emotional intelligence (EQ) is equally indispensable.

Yet, the significance of interpersonal skills often gets overlooked. Harvard Business Review’s survey underscores this, revealing that 85% of job success stems from well-developed soft skills. This emphasizes the necessity of nurturing a well-rounded skill set within your delivery team.

Investing in communication and interpersonal skills training for your PMs and SMEs is paramount. Remember, in business, people buy from those they like and trust. By enhancing these critical skills, you’re not just investing in your team; you’re investing in the foundation of enduring customer relationships. As Bain & Company’s study suggests, 80% of your future business hinges on nurturing existing customer connections.

2. Unveiling Opportunities: Beyond Project Execution to Value Delivery

While PMs and SMEs excel in managing cost, schedule, and quality, a gap exists in their ability to identify and capitalize on emerging opportunities. This gap represents a missed chance for expansion and innovation within your organization. McKinsey & company’s research underscores this, revealing that companies proactively identifying opportunities witness 20% higher growth rates than their reactive counterparts.

Regrettably, not all delivery team members prioritize opportunity identification, often viewing it as somebody else’s responsibility. Yet, they serve as frontline intelligence nodes, gathering vital insights into customers’ evolving challenges and needs. By investing in comprehensive training programs, organizations can equip their teams with the skills to ask insightful questions, uncovering customers’ broader needs and challenges.

3. Inconsistent Growth Strategy and Lexicon:

A growth strategy is only as effective as its implementation. Yet, many organizations struggle with inconsistent execution due to disparate skill levels, inconsistent lexicon, and communication breakdowns within the delivery team.

Standardizing processes and adopting a unified approach to strategy execution can mitigate these challenges and ensure alignment with broader business objectives. A study by the Project Management Institute found that companies with standardized project management practices are 28 times more likely to complete projects on time, within budget, and achieve project goals. By establishing a common language, method, and playbook for execution, organizations can enhance efficiency and accelerate growth.

4. Breaking Down Silos: Collaboration is Key

Effective collaboration is the cornerstone of success in today’s interconnected business landscape. However, many delivery team members struggle to communicate effectively and collaborate seamlessly with colleagues across different departments. This siloed approach stifles innovation and impedes progress.

A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that companies promoting a collaborative culture experience a 35% increase in overall performance. Organizations can unlock untapped potential and drive exponential growth by fostering a culture of collaboration and providing tools and training to facilitate cross-functional teamwork.

Encourage delivery teams to share insights from customer interactions, uncovering potential opportunities for upselling or cross-selling. Integrate delivery team members into the sales cycle, leveraging their expertise to showcase your capabilities to potential customers during the critical pre-sale phase. This fosters trust, strengthens relationships, and ultimately leads to more wins.

5. Make Growth Central to Evaluation

What gets measured improves. Ensure growth-oriented metrics like customer satisfaction, opportunity identification, and revenue expansion from existing accounts carry equal weight to traditional project KPIs in performance evaluations. Incentivize delivery teams to be continual opportunists, making growth consciousness central to their role.

Call to Action: Equip Your Team for Success with BD Essentials Training

Technical competency is the cost of entry, but without character and communication – earning customer trust will be elusive, and trust, as we now know, is the path to sustained growth.

By improving your delivery team’s communication and EQ skills, you’re not just investing in better project execution; you’re investing in building a team of trusted advisors who are an unstoppable force multiplier for growth.

They become your secret weapon, the ones who cultivate trust, gather invaluable customer intelligence, and develop customer relationships that last a lifetime. In doing so, they will ultimately drive long-term sustainable success for your organization.

The advantage is there for the taking. The question is: are you ready to unleash this hidden growth engine?

Here’s How to Get Started: Unleash the Power of Your Delivery Team with BD Essentials Training

Empowering your entire organization, from delivery teams to leadership, with foundational BD skills is essential. But where do you begin? Here’s where BD Essentials Training comes in – equip your team with the baseline skills to forge winning relationships and foster a growth mindset, unlocking the hidden potential within your delivery team and transforming them into strategic growth partners.

What is BD Essentials Training?

BD Essentials Training is a self-paced video series designed to be short, easy to consume, and effortless to implement. With our program, you’ll gain access to all the tools and templates needed to excel in BD, empowering your team to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the industry, our training equips you with the essential skills to confidently navigate complex customer interactions.

Why Does BD Essentials Work?

At Hi-Q Group, we believe in the power of transferable communication skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) across all roles within your organization. Here’s how it benefits your team:

• Communication Mastery: Hone active listening skills, build empathy, and learn to communicate clearly and concisely with emotional intelligence. This will ensure that everyone on your team can foster customer trust and rapport.
• People Skills Powerhouse: Develop the interpersonal communication skills to navigate complex conversations and build winning relationships with customers, stakeholders, and colleagues.
• Growth Mindset for Growth Results: Cultivate a growth mindset within your team, encouraging continuous learning and adaptation – an essential ingredient for identifying and capitalizing on new opportunities.
• Unified Lexicon, Unified Goals: BD Essentials establishes a common language and framework for project execution and communication. This fosters collaboration across teams, ensuring everyone works seamlessly towards shared success.

By mastering these foundational skills, your entire team will be better equipped to uncover customer needs, identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and collaborate effectively with BD and capture teams.

The Window of Opportunity Is Closing

Your untrained delivery team risks your revenue and recompetes while your competitors invest in strengthening their customer relationships. Don’t let this potential growth engine remain untapped. Equip your team with the skills needed to develop winning relationships. After all, a Bain study revealed that increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25-95%.

The path to sustainable revenue growth is clear. Click this link to learn more about the HI-Q Group’s BD Essentials Training today or schedule a time to discuss how this and other Hi-Q Training programs can benefit your organization.

Isn’t it time you unleashed the growth potential hiding in plain sight?