Creating a Blueprint for BD Training: BD Skills and Super Skills
- Client Talk
- Mar 10
- 4 min read
Updated: May 6
"Can you teach the professionals in my firm Business Development?" It’s a question we hear time and time again, and the answer is a resounding yes! But what does that actually mean in practice? In this second article of our three-part series outlining our BD Blueprint, we delve into the essential skills professionals need to master in order to truly excel at Business Development. We’ll explore the outer pillars of our BD Blueprint: the Core BD Skills and the BD Super Skills that effective training must cultivate.
The outer pillars of our Business Development Training Blueprint
The first article in this series set out our Stakeholder Square. This article looks at the pillars of our Blueprint: Business Development Core Skills and Business Development Super Skills. You will notice that our focus is not just on the skills, but on the behaviours that are needed too. Historically there has been a focus on skills over behaviours when it comes to BD training. However, by flipping this around, we unpick what is really going on. People might know what to do (the skill) but sometimes problems cannot be solved by simply increasing skills. Think of that partner that knows how to draw up a killer presentation, the reason they don't is not skills based. By focusing on the critical behaviours needed for professionals to do business development, change happens.
Not sure whether it's a skill or a behaviour? You can strip this right back and ask, what do professionals do when they are establishing and nurturing relationships? You can then dig deeper and ask, are these things that anyone can do, or do they require specific knowledge or training?
Business Development Core Skills
The left-hand pillar of our blueprint sets out the Core Business Development skills professionals need. These are core skills that can be developed, and they are key for professionals who want to be successful at business development. However, it isn’t the case that every professional has to be good at everything. Some might be, others might not. When thinking about business development training, the important thing is to make sure that every individual knows where they excel and where they might not excel YET, so that they can start to fill in the gaps (or decide where to focus).
There are numerous activities that people engage in when they “do business development”. These ‘middle of funnel’ activities all have the purpose of creating and nurturing relationships. They are activities that often come to mind when people think about business development: networking; having 1:1 conversations with key stakeholders; sharing thought leadership; speaking at events; or engaging with contacts via social media. There are many more.
When you strip some of these activities, you can see that they can be traced back to 5 core skills. The reality is that many of your professionals will be using these skills in different ways already. By helping them to see this, you build confidence in their ability to use them for business development.
Core Skill | Needed For: | Behaviours |
Presenting | Webinars, conferences, podcasts, pitch presentations, speaking to client teams, stakeholder training | Speaking clearly, maintaining eye contact, handling questions with composure, being aware of the audience, encouraging interaction, noticing, link technical knowledge with business outcomes, and use client-focused language |
Writing | Social media, articles, pitches, communication with clients, Thought Leadership, Directories | Clear messages, avoid jargon, tailor content to audience, focus on client need, highlight take-aways, tone matches medium, use storytelling, share unique insights, results-driven, and personalise |
Communicating | Networking | Proactive and start conversations, show genuine interest, actively listen, demonstrate knowledge of what is relevant to the other person, clear way of introducing themselves, keep in touch and connect people with others to add value |
Being Strategic | Planning BD, Pitching, KAM | Set clear goals, identify targets and priority clients, plan efforts in advance, anticipate client needs, use client feedback to shape offerings |
Problem-Solving | Selling, CX, Pitching, Value Proposition, Commerciality | Actively listen, ask insightful questions, customise solutions, define the issues in a way that resonates, show how they create value, articulate solutions in a clear and persuasive way, make interactions seamless, remove friction, ensure clients feel heard and seen, and build trust |
Super Skills: key to the overriding objective of establishing and nurturing relationships
When we take a look at the traditional sales funnel, we can see that business development is all about the middle of the funnel. It is about building trust and establishing and nurturing relationships.
We often come back to the trust equation, and what it means to be a trusted advisor. Credibility and reliability can easily be achieved through thoughtful action. Intimacy is harder to establish, but can be a key differentiator and it can also be achieved through thoughtful action. As we know, self-orientation can also break much of what BD tries to build. It is why the B in our ABC is so important!
So what key skills sit behind the trust equation and what does it take to be a Trusted Advisor? Self-awareness is fundamental. This in turn leads to emotional intelligence, which in turn helps build relationships. How do you build self-awareness and EQ? Coaching is a great way to do this! It is why so much of what we do uses coaching as a foundation. Business Development training shouldn’t be about telling professionals what to do; they will likely end up not doing it! It is about being curious and asking powerful questions to create those light bulb moments which will help professionals want to do business development.
The other skill that underpins so much of what is needed to establish relationships, is active listening. This helps with building rapport, influence, and even with the knottier side of business development; managing conflict and dealing with difficult clients and stakeholders. Active listening underpins much of what we do. Active listening sounds easy and achievable. It can be both of those things but it too requires a high level of EQ.
Super Skill | Needed For: |
Active Listening | Building rapport, Influence, Conflict Management, Adapting |
Emotional Intelligence | Building Relationships, Building Trust, Effective Communication and persuasion, Handling Rejection, Team collaboration |