Business Development in a Web 2.0 World
I recently was engaged in a Skype conversation with my friend Aaron Brazell. Aaron recently left b5media where he was the Director of Technology, and has decided to change careers. Of all the things he could choose to do, Business Development happened to be on his list.
So, probably because I am the coolest person in the world (in addition to my status as the #1 douchebag in the world), I asked Aaron to try his hand at Business Development at Lijit Networks.
Its been fun over the past week or so talking to Aaron about publishers and Lijit, but more interestingly is the discussions we have had about business development.
So, back to the Skype conversation.
Aaron and I were discussing a plan of attack for a large publisher. One that neither of us had a warm introduction into. As the conversation continued, I began to explain to Aaron the difference between business development now and during the Great Dot Com Bubble of 2000.
In the “old days,” business development was more about strategic alliances, which was a silly way to say, “lets find a way to drive traffic to each other.” (Notice the word traffic. I didnt accidentally substitute that for the word revenue.)
Many companies owned a certain space and could demand many things for the access to their traffic or data. Business Development was really just sales with out the quota. It was all about traffic and eyeballs, and there was little to no focus on creating bi-directional relationships. As I just explained to another friend:
Business Development is about working with people who want to make your company better while you work to make their company better.
And that, in a nutshell, is the difference in todays world.
The world is smaller. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and the like make it easy to interact with people all times of day and builds a level of understanding and connection that is unprecedented.
So, what advice would I give a new business development guy? What advice did I give Aaron? Here are my three rules to being a fantastic Business Development guy:
- Be yourself. You are now intertwined with the brand of the company you are pitching. If you are fake, then the company will be seen as fake. Just be yourself.
- Do what you would do normally. If you are not a blogger. Dont blog. If you dont like twitter, dont tweet. Basically, chose the communication medium that best suits you.
- Look for connections. Not just between people, but between companies. Does it make sense for Lijit to work with hardware manufacturers? Probably not. So think of connections in three ways:
- Direct: These are people that you know directly or can be introduced directly. In this case, you are looking to directly pitch the person on your product or service.
- Indirect: These are tangential connections, where you want to pitch your product or service to someone because of the people that like, follow, respect the direct connection.
- Enhanced: Dont really have a better word for this, but its basically a connection where there may be no immediate business to pitch, but since the two companies are like minded and the product or service is complimentary, that a connection will enhance both companies.
The first type, Direct, is the most like sales. You have something you want someone else to use or pay for, so you explain the features and benefits, and you are off to the races. The second, Indirect, is very much like a Direct connection, but your target isnt the initial person, its the intial person’s fans and friends.
Both of those are necessary for the growth of a company. As long as one is open and honest about it and straight forward, there is nothing shady about the practice.
The third type, enhance, is the most difficult and esoteric for most people. People that are successful at Enhanced Connections usually dont work for commission. They usually arent great sales people. But, they see the potential in both their company, and the target company, and understand that together they are stronger than individually. And most importantly, they understand its about sharing and giving, not just taking.
I also often joke that my title is VP, Favors and Introductions. 99% of my job doing favors, giving introductions or asking for favors or introductions. To me, the only capital I possess is my reputation and the trust my friends have that I will introduce someone that is worthy and wont waste their time.
The key to being successful at this is understanding one simple thing:
To get, one must give, and trust that the gift is compelling enough to have the other give in return.
And that one sentence, is what Business Development in a Web 2.0 World is. Its not wineing and dining, or business trips, or even expense accounts. Its being in a state of constantly giving, making sure that you have given more daily than received. And, most importantly, if, at the end of the day, what you are giving away (whether it is time, connections, a product or service, or even just an ear to listen) is not worthy of the people you are giving it to, and not given freely, you will lose. Every time.
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This is exactly what I needed to read right now. Thank you.
You are welcome. I am assuming you are not on the toliet, since you probably exactly need to read something else there.
So… takeaways are… cold calling, blind pitching and addressing bloggers with Dear Site Owner. Right?
Do I get a raise now?
Nice post. I personally believe that Biz Dev today is more of a marketing function than a traditional sales function. As you point out, it's not just about closing $$ deals or meaningless glad-handing, and much more about building an interconnected eco-system of like-inclined groups (not necessarily like-minded, just similarly minded in some respects). The resulting uber-group should be greater than the sum of its parts.
The one word you implied but didn't explicitly state is integrity. The world is now so small that a lack of integrity will catch up with you awfully quickly. Your reputation as a biz dev person will travel quickly in all the circles that matter to you, for better or for worse.
P.s. Instead of “enhanced”, how about inter-related, ally, or alignance (yes, I made that last one up)…
Nick,
Its interesting. I began to write about integrity, but I figured at the end of the day, its so self evident that it doesnt need mention. After all, what other than one's reputation do you really own or control?
I like the idea of “inter-related.” Its really the concept that business development discussions have to be about “you” not “me.” If both parties are thinking about the other, then the deal can do nothing but benefit both parties.
Here is an example: When someone (a board member, a good friend, my CEO, anyone) presents me a publisher that they think should install Lijit, the first question I ask myself, is “why?” Why should that publisher give up valuable screen real estate for my widget? Does it make them a better publisher (either by demonstrating increased pageviews/revenue, or providing information or utility to uncover information about the publisher's readers), does it work with their look and feel (after all, our blogs and publications are reflections of us), or is it something that makes the publication itself better (better search, more content uncovered, more engaging).
And, if my reputation is that I dont ask a person to add the widget unless the three questions above are answered “yes!” then I am not selling anything, rather, I am just helping out a friend.
And, more than anything, I would rather help out a friend than hit some made up, random, bogus number that indicates that I am doing a good job.
After all, what really indicates whether I am doing a good job or not is if most people say “that micah, he may be a douchebag, but I do trust him.”
Micah – Great post. I really like this explanation of the role.
I work on a very small Biz Dev team at Collective Intellect (another local start-up. You running the Bolder Boulder tomorrow?) I'm also just of out my undergrad and don't have much to compare my current work against.
When people ask me details about my day, I stumble through a mediocre explanation along the lines of, “A little bit of sales, a little bit of strategy and planning. But more than half of my day is totally unstructured work – reading, learning, talking to contacts, etc.” Your description is much better.
Question – should the unstructured nature of my job at CI (no day is the same, wearing lots of hats, very little instruction as to what my responsibilities are) be attributed to working at a start-up or working in Biz Dev?? Do you think all biz dev jobs require as much creativity to be successful?
1st – the only thing that runs in my house is my mouth. I will be nowhere near the Bolder Boulder.
Your question is interesting. First off, sales and business development are two different things. Use the lijit widget on my sidebar, as there is a post I wrote, and my friend Eric Olson (used to do BD for feedburner) wrote about the difference.
Second, the answer is really a mix. Startups require every member to wear multiple hats. I think its why I like them. I wear the hat of a product manager, business development dude, evangelist, and many other things (some times appreciated, and some times not).
But at the end of the day here is the deal: You have a product or service that you want people to use, so 1) make sure its the best it can be; 2) it has inherent value to those using it; and 3) you believe in it. Sometimes to make that a reality, you have to do multiple things.
I also think that a fundamental difference between sales and business development is the internal measure of success. For sales its all about numbers; for business development its all about usage. Those lines are often blurred, which is why sales and business development get confused, but if you have a compensation plan that includes a variable component, and you find yourself motivated to achieve goals to make the commission/bonus/whatever you are a sales person.
Interesting post, giving things away for free seems to be a really integral part of this whole Web 2.0 thing.
Its not just giving things away free like tshirts or stickers (even though I do a ton of that). It giving 1) without expectation of a return; and 2) something of value that you give freely.
Well that explains the change in Aaron's bio ;) I was going to ask him about that, but instead, I should just learn to read! :)
This is a fabulous post. I don't know that I've ever though “yeah! I want to go into Biz Dev!” but you know, on a smaller scale, we are ALL in Biz Dev if we're in this Web 2.0 world. Because we are all needing to interact on these levels… even if it's just as people. Because you never know who might be doing what down the road and how that might flow into opportunities for everyone involved.
Great post again Micah – I really need to remember to get over here more often! :)
Thanks. Its an area I am highly motivated to be interested in and
excel in. I think I am doing a decent job, but I want to continue to
explore how to do it better…
I think you do a great job.
Certainly better than many self-proclaimed experts I've seen out there.
Amazing what a little attention to detail and a high IQ can do! ;)
I think you do a great job.
Certainly better than many self-proclaimed experts I've seen out there.
Amazing what a little attention to detail and a high IQ can do! ;)