Quick Tip: Business Development Requires Intentionality

The first step to effective prospecting is to become intentional. You should have an endgame in mind.
Every action you take should be for a reason. If you’re joining a professional association, why? If you are writing an article to publish on LinkedIn or in your trade journal, what happens after you post it? You might respond that you’re publishing the article to establish yourself as an authority on a topic. Okay, but to whom, specifically, do you wish to demonstrate your competency, and why them?

If you’re inviting a business associate to lunch, of what benefit do you intend to be to her or him other than as a source of food? What problem do you intend to help her or him solve? How do they fit into your professional agenda? The lunch needn’t result in immediate financial gain, but it does need to advance your relationship toward some desired end. Why is it important to have an endgame? Because we get what we intend. If you intend to “keep in touch” then that’s all that relationship ever will be, a source of polite conversation. 

By comparison, if you invite someone to lunch because they work at a company that fits your client profile and you want them to get comfortable enough with you to introduce you to the person who controls the legal budget at their company, you will go into that luncheon with that intention in mind. Your conversation will include information that your lunch guest needs about you to give her or him the necessary comfort level to make the introduction. They will leave impressed with the manner in which you handled the lunch meeting. Then, you’re one step closer to getting that introduction. Don’t worry, you’ll still have a fun afternoon—not laugh-out-loud fun like that time in Vegas, but an appropriate amount of fun for a work outing.