Talking with a colleague of mine today, the topic around keeping our sanity came up. Business development folks tend to be a little bit off anyway. I’ve written about this before here. This has only been heightened over the past few months. Budgets are non-existent to miniscule, people are working from home and harder to get a hold of (or it’s easier for them to hide, either way), and there seems to be an overall lull around the idea of innovation and growth with so much uncertainty.
What I’ve found, though, is that over this time I’ve been the most proud of some of the work my team has done. We’ve gone beyond just staying afloat. We’ve thrived in historically strong industries and even into new industries.
The key to this success and ability to stay proud and not just sane? We aren’t traditional sales people. We’re business development leads. We are people first and build relationships through the good times and the bad. We don’t set up calls to pitch. We set up calls to learn. We try to provide value because we genuinely care about these people we are trying to work with.
Pride comes from being genuinely passionate about what you are doing and who you surround yourself with. I’m glad I have that pride in my professional career.
Life Of A Traveling Salesman 