Two Years Too Late…

Last week, I was working with a group of executives to develop their business development (sales) plan.  In preparation for this retreat, I had met with the President, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer , the Chief of Technical Operations (CoTO)and the Director of Marketing to understand what roles they each played in business development. Through my one-on-one meetings, I found that this team played a little bit better than the “Bad News Bears”—each playing not only their own position, but also someone else’s position.  How ironic, given that one of them actually coaches Pop Warner Football.

During our retreat, I gave each officer 3x5 cards with various business development tasks on each card and asked them to assign the lead role and responsibility to one of the five leaders.  They had 20 minutes to complete the assignment.  To their amazement, they argued intensely over roles and responsibilities of several key functions including client development at multiple levels within a client group. And, to much of their concern they realized they were each playing duplicate roles which not only created ineffective business development, it also appeared uncoordinated from the client’s point of view.

In the ensuing 45 minutes, we re-examined each function and assigned them to their correct leader.  Upon the completion of the exercise, my associate asked the team what they thought of the exercise.  The President smiled, put his head down and said, “it came about two years too late.”  The COO went on to say, “if we had just known our positions we could have been playing a better defensive game.”  “The good thing,” I told them, “is that it is never too late to learn the game we all call BD.”

Here's what you should think about: Do your leaders understand their roles in the BD? 

It’s never too late to improve your game.

Karen Compton

Industry Speaks