BizDev is a skill, not a personality

I hear the same thing at least one time at every firm I’ve worked with: “I’m not a salesperson.” I get it. The word “sales” carries baggage in professional services. It conjures up cold calls, aggressive closes and people who talk too much about themselves. Nobody went to school to become an accountant or an attorney or a consultant or an engineer or an architect or… thought, “I can’t wait to sell.” I’ve got a problem with sales being a bad word. But that’s a story for another day. BD (business development) in professional services has almost nothing in common with our perceptions of what sales is. When I ask professionals to describe their best client relationships—the ones they’re proudest of—they talk about trust. They talk about being a sounding board. They talk about knowing what’s going on in a client’s business before the client brings it up. They talk about being the first call when something changes. That’s business development. Being a trusted advisor who asks great questions, listens well, follows up and stays intentionally in front of the people who matter is the skill to develop. You don’t need a different personality. You need a plan and the willingness to be consistent. Willingness. This is the difference between those that think about BD and those who do BD. And it’s the part that most firms get wrong. They treat BD like a talent. They look at the partner who brings in the most work and think, “We need more people like that.” But when you dig into what that partner actually does, it’s rarely magic. They call their clients. They stay in touch with their referral sources. They know who they’re looking for. They ask good questions. They follow up. They create action by generating conversations that matter with the right people. Those are skills. And every one is learnable.

The challenge isn’t ability. It’s the environment, the culture. Some professionals get some version of BD training at some point in their career. They attend a session, take notes, get motivated and walk back into the same office with the same workload and the same expectations. Nothing changes because nothing around them changes. There’s no plan. No accountability. No coaching. That’s why training alone doesn’t work. People need more than knowledge. They need a structure that supports the behavior. Clear expectations. Regular checkins. Someone to talk through a challenging situation with. Examples of what success looks like so they’re not guessing. When firms pair training with that kind of support, people improve. They build confidence. They take action. They see results: a proactive phone call to a client actually leads to a real conversation or a simple follow-up email after coffee turns into an introduction. Eventually, the mindset starts to shift on its own. I’ve watched professionals who swore they weren’t “BD people” become some of the most effective relationship builders in their firms. Not because they changed who they are. Because they learned a skill set and had someone in their corner helping them practice it. During the course of these articles, we’ve covered the fundamentals. Call your clients. Develop your referral sources. Get clear on who you’re looking for. Have better conversations. Follow up with intention. None of that requires charisma. None of it requires a big personality. It requires clarity, consistency and a genuine interest in the people you work with. Most professionals should care about their clients. They want to be helpful. They want to deepen relationships. This is the foundation of great business development, showing you care. BD is simple. But it is a skill, so not always easy. And like any skill, it gets better with practice and repetitions. The professionals who embrace that idea, who stop waiting to become “a BD person” and just start doing the small things that move relationships forward, are the ones who get there faster. And honestly, they’re already closer than they think.