Welcome to episode 217 of the Business Development Podcast.

And today we're talking all about the skills to pay the bills.

We're talking five mandatory skills to improve your BD in 2025 and beyond.

This is an awesome episode for people looking to level up their business development game.

Stick with us, you're not going to want to miss this episode.

The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more.

This is the Business Development Podcast, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and broadcasting to the world.

You'll get expert business development advice, tips and experiences and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs and business development reps.

You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by Capital Business Development, CapitalBD CA.

Let's do it.

Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Hello.

Welcome to episode 217 of the Business Development Podcast.

Today we're chatting all about what are the primary skills that you need to execute business development effectively in 2025 and beyond and what are some additional secondary skills that, if learned, can give you a major advantage in business development as we move forward.

We try to do this particular show every single year because honestly, things are changing so rapidly that you almost have to do one every year to add some additional skills which we're going to talk all about today.

As business owners, founders, executives and business developers, we are being asked to do more than we have ever had to before to develop our businesses, our people and ourselves.

The business landscape is changing and so we must continue to grow and upgrade our skills on an annual basis.

Our ability to connect authentically in an ever changing digital world takes continuous thought, trial, effort and dedication to make sure that we are able to continue to build interest that leads to meetings, opportunities, relationships and repeat business over time.

We're going to start today, guys, with primary skills And I've outlined five primary skills that we absolutely, absolutely must master in 2025 and beyond to be able to execute business development as effectively as humanly possible.

I think some are going to be pretty obvious to you and we're going to spend a little bit of time on them.

Some maybe not so obvious, but you know, at the end of the day, guys, skills are skills and every single one of them can be worked on, can be improved, can be mastered.

It's funny, when I look back at the very beginning, you only made Phone calls and sent emails.

It was improper to text your client.

It was improper to be utilizing social media to get in touch with them or to build your brand.

Frankly, we didn't even understand how to utilize social media way back in 2012.

You know, like, things have changed so drastically that if I continue to do business development the way we did in 2012, I would be extremely, extremely ineffective today.

Right?

CRMs, we used to just have tables full of business cards, right?

Like, things have changed.

A Rolodex.

If any of you even remember what a Rolodex was, I had two of them going.

The world has changed.

Business development has changed.

The task, the job has stayed the same, but the tools that we utilize to execute that job change all the time, right?

So we have to make sure that we are constantly, constantly looking for how can we develop our skills, how can we utilize things that now exist, that maybe didn't exist then to make us more effective?

Question everything, guys.

At the end of the day, always ask yourself, is there a tool?

Is there a way that I could be doing this better?

Is there something that I could add to my process or remove from my process that could make me more effective?

Today, we have to be consistently challenging ourselves to level up, take advantage of the tools available, and be willing to let go of the tools that are not helping us achieve our goals.

Okay, so I'm excited to chat with you about this today.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

I'm sure there's lots of things that I could have gotten into.

But I'm going to do my best to give you the top five skills that I think will make a massive, massive impact for you and your business in 2025, if you can even improve them by 10 to 15%.

So let's get into it.

The first category that I want to talk about today is your communication skills.

Okay?

And number one in communication skills, you guessed it, are your phone skills.

Okay?

We have to, have to, have to continue to get better at utilizing our phones to make connections.

Let me tell you, you know, I send a lot of emails in a week.

I leave a ton of voicemails in a week.

But if I can get somebody on the phone, nine times out of 10, I can get them to that meeting.

And you would be surprised how effective a phone is if you can just get the person on the other side of the line.

And yes, I have a lot of practice in this area.

But.

But whether you're new or whether you've been at business development for many, many years, a phone is still going to be your most valuable tool.

Your voice is the most powerful asset you have at your disposal as a business developer.

Mark my words.

More powerful than your social media, more powerful than your emails, more powerful than your texts.

Okay?

It is incredible what you can do with your voice if you choose to use it.

And I know, I know, I get it.

I remember, man, I remember.

I remember sitting down at my desk on a Monday, knowing that I had to make, you know, x amount of calls this week and frankly, just dreading it.

And I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you, I'm not at the end of the day sitting and making your calls, it never really gets easier.

But you have to make it a part of your weekly process.

You absolutely do.

Even if they scare you, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it's the thing you're dreading the most.

Picking up that phone and practicing your phone skills, practicing your pitch is only going to make you a better business developer over time.

And like I said, I think you're gonna find that, you know, nine times outta ten, if you can get somebody on the phone, you can, you know, build a value proposition, build enough interest over that conversation and you ask for that meeting, you're gonna get it because the power of your voice is truly incredible.

Number one, we have to be making our calls in 2025 and beyond.

Okay?

You must craft an interesting pitch that flows and not only flows, but resonates with your beliefs about the product and service.

It must be authentic to you and it must be memorable.

Remember guys, your voice is the most valuable asset you have in 2025 as a business developer.

If you can get somebody on the phone, nine times out of ten, you can close that meeting and take that to next step.

So we have to be working on our phone skills, we have to be practicing our pitches.

And guys, I don't like, I don't, I'm not a huge pitch guy.

At the end of the day, I like to have authentic conversations.

But we do have to have some way of introducing our products and services that is going to build enough interest that when you ask for that meeting, they are going to want to take it.

And so yes, whether you like it or not, you're going to have to craft something.

And I always say the simpler the better.

It doesn't have to be a long winded pitch.

If you can say something in three to five sentences, do that nine times out of 10, it's going to work really great for you.

But practice on Refining a pitch that is easy, easy for you to remember, that feels authentic, that feels like a flow, and that at the end you can say, hey, would you love to book a meeting and chat about it further?

And your customer is going to say, you know what?

That sounds interesting.

Let's do it.

The next thing that we have to get absolutely great at.

And once again, it is your voice.

Okay, As a business developer, 80%.

Yes, 80% of your calls are going to go to voicemail.

And I'm gonna be the first to say I let a lot of calls go to voicemail.

And I know people say, well, you're supposed to always answer the phone.

Guys, unfortunately, we live in a time where robocalls are daily.

I would say, like, let's call it.

Out of the eight phone calls I get in a day, seven of them are robocalls.

And I'm sick of it.

I'm absolutely sick of robocalls.

And so I'm gonna be the first to say I'm a business owner that rarely answers my phone.

I know that if it is important, if it is truly important, that person will either follow that call up with an email or if it's really, really important, they will just leave me a voicemail.

I can literally screen calls.

And I know a lot of business owner screen calls because I meet with lots of them and I have this conversation and I say, how often do you pick up your phone?

And most will say, I don't pick up my phone.

I wait to see if it's important by if they leave a voicemail or follow it up with an email.

So don't be surprised when 80 to 90% of your calls these days go to voicemail.

What does that mean for us as business developers?

It means we have to get epically good, and I mean epically good at leaving voicemails.

You have to leave great voicemails.

Guys.

I've been really successful at business development because I got really, really, really good at leaving voicemails that people would want to call back.

What do I mean by that?

I mean, you have a choice on how you leave your voicemails.

You can leave that.

Boring.

Hi, it's John Smith with ABC Company and I was just looking to connect with you to see if we could line up a meeting in the next couple of weeks.

Please feel free to give me a shout back at this number.

Right.

If you leave that voicemail, nobody is calling you back.

Let me tell you that right now.

If you're hearing this, and that's the voicemail, you Leave.

You probably don't get calls back, right?

Like you have to leave voicemails that people want to call back.

Hi, it's Kelly with Capital Business Development.

I was calling to see if you needed any business development support.

We offer a wide range of services.

It would be an absolute pleasure to meet you.

Feel free to give me a shout back.

Xyz, xyz, xyz.

I can't wait to chat with you.

Chat soon.

That voicemail will get calls back.

Why?

Because I'm smiling, I'm happy, I'm excited.

I've crafted a pitch on how I can help them.

I let them know that I can't wait to hear from them.

Guys, there is power in the voicemails that you leave.

Start to take your power back by leaving great voicemails.

Smile.

Be happy.

Let them know you're excited to meet them.

Let them know that you think your product and service can make a massive difference in their life and you can't wait to tell them about it.

Leave a voicemail that you would want to call back.

It is powerful.

Guys, we have to get good at leaving voicemails in 2025 and beyond.

The days of leaving boring ass voicemails.

Put them behind you.

Emails.

Now, obviously we can't talk communication without emails.

But.

But guys, these can't be 5, 6 paragraph long emails, okay?

The days of that are long gone.

You are marketing to millennials.

Remember who is receiving your emails these days?

Okay?

You're marketing to millennials.

Millennials.

We have a 12 second attention span.

If you can't wrap us in real quick, and I mean lickety split, if you can't wrap us in real quick, first couple of lines, we're done.

We're checked out.

If the visual isn't good, we're done, we're checked out.

If there isn't a powerful hook, you lost us.

We're done.

Okay?

And guys, it's not getting better, it's getting worse.

Gen Z, eight seconds.

Eight seconds.

And just for fun, a goldfish.

Nine seconds.

Okay, so it's not going to get easier for you.

It is going to get harder.

What does this mean?

This means that if we are going to communicate and we actually want our message to be heard, our brochures to be looked at, our websites to be checked out, our videos to be seen, our podcasts to be listened to, they have to build interest right off the bat.

Square one, Square zero.

Okay?

We have to be working to build interest right off the bat.

And so for your emails, kill the 5 paragraph long emails, okay?

Keep them short, keep them concise, word it in a way that is quick, engaging, gets your point across as quick as humanly possible, and asks for what you want, which in the case of business development, you want a meeting.

A meeting that leads to a relationship and opportunities over time for you, your business, your organization.

Okay?

Don't be afraid to just straight up say what it is you want, okay?

Direct works.

Direct matters.

Communicating in a short, concise and powerful way as you can with all of your messaging from this point forward, whether it be on your brochures, whether it be on your emails, whether it be on your social media posts, it is absolutely critical.

We have to word things in a way that is easy to digest but is also captivating.

I get it.

I'm asking you, I'm asking you to do something that isn't easy.

And I completely understand that.

What I'm saying right now is not easy.

But if we can really think about our messaging before we send it and we can craft things that are short, compelling and powerful, your impact is going to resonate.

Your impact is going to matter because I always say, you know, whenever I'm in a coaching call with a client and they show me their brochure and it's so full of words and so boring, right?

It's boring.

And if I look at it and I say, look like, you know what, your message is really great, but I'm never going to read it.

I'm never going to read it.

And you have to ask yourself this.

With everything you send from your text messages to your emails to your social media posts, it doesn't matter how good your content is, it doesn't matter how great and compelling your message is if you can't get them to read it.

Okay?

That's why visual appeal is absolutely critical on your websites.

That's why visual appeal is absolutely critical on your brochures.

As we head into 2025, 2026 and beyond, guys, it's not going to get easier.

It's not going to get easier for you.

It's going to get harder.

We have to have to have to make sure that we are prioritizing visual appeal, that we are creating and crafting content in short, easy to digest messages.

Okay?

You can always go deep later.

You can always, you know, send the in depth message to the engineer down the line, okay?

But when you're marketing to people, you have to understand we need to create marketing materials that people will actually engage with.

What do people engage with in 2025 and beyond?

Short, powerful, Concise messages, high quality visuals, compelling images, compelling layouts, compelling fonts, compelling videos, compelling messages.

We have to make sure that we are crafting powerful, short, concise messages that people will actually engage with.

And this also applies to our emails.

I always say let your brochures do the talking for you, right?

At the end of the day, if you want to craft something that's like in depth and like product specific, technical, put it in a brochure, but don't put it in your email body, okay?

Craft the email body in a way that is easy to digest, compelling, fun to read, and then say, hey, if you want something that's a little more in depth, I've attached this really powerful brochure and only if you want to go in depth with it.

Otherwise I've attached this other brochure that is more of an overview that you might prefer.

Right?

Don't be afraid to send two brochures.

Don't be afraid to have multiple marketing materials to speak to different people.

But if you're marketing to millennials, most of us have short attention spans.

And if you're marketing to Gen Z, the next generation, who is also now entering leadership positions, well, eight seconds, guys.

Eight seconds.

Make them count.

And last but not least on communication, guys, is your meeting skills.

Okay?

It's one thing to secure the meeting, it's another thing to take the meeting to next steps, okay?

So don't be afraid in your meetings to talk about non business things.

Don't be afraid to engage in conversation about anything.

About sports, about your hobbies, about vacations, about family, okay?

We're humans first, business people second.

Don't forget that.

I've never had a business meeting, guys, where business didn't come up, okay?

You're not going to sit down for an hour and talk about friends and family and hobbies and sports and life and politics or whatever you want to talk about and just be like, oh, well, have a good day.

Like it doesn't happen like that.

I would say some of the best business meetings I've ever had, business was the last five minutes of the conversation.

The other, you know, hour of the conversation was talking about life, building a connection, creating rapport, finding common ground.

Guys, there's power in being human.

Don't worry about it.

Business will always come up in the conversation.

If you've secured the meeting and you sit down and you have a conversation, business is absolutely going to come up.

Work on your ability to create a good conversation.

That is what's powerful.

Good conversations where you're being Authentic, where you're building rapport, where you're talking about real life with people, that builds trust.

Trust leads to opportunity and opportunity obviously leads to business for you over time.

Don't be afraid to be human.

Don't be afraid to spend some time talking about yourself in an authentic human way.

Don't be afraid to share yourself with the world.

It will create better meetings for you and better meetings that build trust.

Those lead to opportunity over time.

The other thing that I have to say is whenever you get a face to face meeting, guys, we have to, have to, have to have to ask for what we want, okay?

Fortune favors the bold.

They say that for a reason.

You have to be willing to ask for what you want.

You can go into these meetings, have an hour long, great conversation and it go nowhere.

It'll only go nowhere if you allow it to.

I always say there's five magic words that every business developer has to know.

And let me tell you, you have to use these guys in every meeting.

Not just client meetings, but internal meetings or any meeting where something has to come from it.

Okay?

The magic words are this.

What are the next steps?

Let me repeat that.

What are the next steps?

Those are five magic words to any business owner or business developer ever.

Okay?

Whenever you're in a meeting, before the meeting is done or at the end of the meeting, I want you to always ask, this was incredible.

What are the next steps?

What do we need to do?

Are you going to send us an rfp?

Do we need to fill out a vendor application form?

Do you have an order coming?

Do we need another meeting?

What are the next steps?

Let us know, we'll make it happen for you.

Those are absolutely magic, guys, but if you forget to ask them, the meeting can go nowhere.

But if you are bold enough to say, this was great, I would love to know what's next.

I'd love to work with you, I would love an opportunity.

What are the next steps?

Magic is gonna happen for you.

Always ask, what are the next steps?

And last but not least, with meetings, guys, you are only ever guaranteed the one meeting you booked, okay?

And even then, that's not a guarantee.

People can leave at any time for any reason or not show up.

You know it, I know it.

But here's the thing.

If you have a meeting booked, always assume this might be the only opportunity to meet with this company.

If you were only going to get one opportunity to meet with this company, who needs to be there?

Too often business developers are going to meetings by themselves.

Okay?

This is not the way to go about it, because here's the thing.

Business developers, no matter how great they are, typically are not the subject matter experts.

We typically cannot answer the hard, technical questions.

Always make sure when you are in a meeting that you have a subject matter expert in that meeting to answer and field any of the challenging technical questions about your product and service.

Yes, business developers are great.

Yes, we can handle our own with a lot of things.

But I've been in many meetings where I did not have the technical discipline to answer that question.

But I did have a subject matter expert with me in the room who could.

And it is absolutely powerful to be able to answer the hard questions on the spot.

Always make sure that at initial meetings, you have not only your business developers, but you have a subject matter expert in the room who can also answer the hard questions in the moment.

It is powerful.

You may only get one chance to make a first impression, make it count.

The second skill that we have to work on here in 2025 and beyond, and this isn't really a new one, but maybe some of the tools we use are, and that is your detective skills.

Okay?

Effective business development is truly done by doing legwork upfront.

I always say as business developers, we're really little detectives.

We're out there doing detective work.

We are tracking down the right people, we're tracking down the right industries, the right businesses, and if we do this effectively, we close more business.

Okay?

Our ability to narrow down an ideal customer profile is absolutely critical to our success in business development.

Okay?

This is the difference between somebody who says, oh, I made a hundred calls last week, and somebody who says, I made 20 targeted calls last week.

Okay?

The best business developers, they close meetings with only making a handful of calls.

Why?

How?

How they do it?

Because they do the legwork up front.

They identify the right industries, the right sub industries, what those companies are, who the buying positions are at those companies, and they reach out to them directly.

And they know they're speaking to somebody who understands their product and service and why that company needs it.

Guys, that is the difference.

I am never impressed when someone says, oh, we did an email campaign and we sent a thousand emails And I made 150 calls last week.

Okay, guys, that's not impressive.

What is impressive is being able to do it in a fraction of that.

Being able to send 20 targeted emails, being able to make 20 targeted phone calls, maybe booking four to five meetings, that is impressive.

And that is what great detective work does for you, okay?

Being able to identify the ideal customer profile Ahead of doing the work separates the incredible business developers from the rest.

Okay, you have to get great at identifying your ideal customer profile.

And it's funny because I know this goes in one ear and out the other.

I absolutely do.

I've been in many, many meetings where I bring this up, and I can tell the eyes just glaze over because it sounds like something you've heard on a million audiobooks.

I get it.

But trust me, it really is the difference.

It really is the difference between the good and the great.

The great do the legwork upfront, the great identify the buying positions.

The great identify the ideal industries and the ideal sub industries.

That might even be better.

They do the work upfront to make sure that when they reach out to the health and safety manager, the director of operations, that those are the people who actually understand why your product and service is valuable to the company.

Remember, if you just endlessly reach out to procurement, they don't understand why your product and service is necessarily valuable to the company.

You need to speak to the person facing the challenge.

You need to speak to the person who understands where your product and service fits in their organization.

If you can speak to that person initially without having to go through five or 10 people first, well, you just skip right to the meeting as opposed to maybe weeks before you get to that person.

Okay, take the time.

Make your ideal customer profile.

Identify the buying positions and the people at the company who will understand why they need your product and service and reach out to them directly.

It will absolutely change the business development game for you.

We have to understand what is our value proposition and what is our competitive advantage?

What separates us from our competition?

Okay, everybody has one.

You might have dozens.

Maybe it's not big.

Once again, that's okay.

But you have to understand and be able to communicate to your prospect why they should give your company a shot.

Once again, your competitive advantage might simply be, I have personnel and my competitors don't.

Literally.

Sometimes it's that easy, especially in service industries.

But being able to truly understand what sets you apart, is it your mission?

Is it your vision?

Is it your values?

Is it the way you do business?

Is it the software you use?

Is it the technological advancements your company has made?

Right.

What are the advantages?

Likely you have many of them.

Be able to understand them and be able to articulate them.

This is also very powerful.

And it takes detective skills sometimes to identify all of these competitive advantages.

Even after running through the list a couple of times, you.

You might find that you have a new one the next time you look at that list.

So evaluate your competitive advantage.

Understand your competitive advantage.

Be able to articulate it and review regularly to see if you've either lost some of them or if you've gained some of them.

Businesses are changing so rapidly right now.

Technology is advancing so quickly.

AI is advancing so quickly.

Tools are advancing so quickly that your competitive advantage six months ago may either be a big advantage or it might be gone six months later.

So evaluate regularly.

Understand what differentiates you from your competition.

Always find ways to get more efficient, and it will absolutely change your ability to compete in 2025 and beyond.

Number three, social media skills.

Okay, social media skills.

This one's fun and fairly new.

New as in 2020 and beyond, I would say.

Guys, like I said, when I got into business development, you know, way back when, way back, way back in the early 2010s, it was a very different world.

I got my first LinkedIn in 2013.

I learned how to use LinkedIn properly in 2021.

Yes, yes.

Like, even though we've all had LinkedIn for a long time, many of us, we had no idea how to use it until I would say, the early 2000s.

And even then, we're still learning every single day.

I learned something new, probably monthly at least, about LinkedIn that I did not know.

That makes me a better power user of it.

Okay?

It really is an evolving technology, social media, and understanding how to utilize it is evolving.

I am by no means a wizard.

There are many, many, many better than me.

And I'm learning all the time.

And you have to take that mindset as well.

Okay?

No matter how much you know about utilizing social media for your business, for your personal brand right now, trust me, you, there is always a way to use it better.

There's something you don't know.

Make it a lifelong goal.

As long as you are in business, as long as you're doing business development, to always commit to learning something new about it as often as possible, it will absolutely, absolutely level up your game.

Okay?

You have to, have to, have to have to be able to utilize LinkedIn for lead generation and target market research in 2025 and beyond.

What do I mean by this?

You guys have never been presented with a better tool for business development ever.

Let me just say that right now, there is no better tool for any business developer on planet Earth than LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is key.

It's king.

It's everything.

It has absolutely changed the game.

Let me tell you right now, I would like never go back to doing business development the old way, right?

In the old days, we'd have to identify a company, we would have to drive to that company or call that company, hopefully be able to talk to the position once again.

Probably not even know who's in it or who was in it.

Maybe Googled, if you were lucky, there was an article about that person, you could find them.

But in the old days, you pretty much had to connect with the right person, ask for that position, ask who was in it, see if you could get put through to them.

Like, it was a lot of work.

Okay.

In the old days of business development, it was inefficient.

And by old days, guys, I literally mean basically pre Covid, Like Covid changed everything because we were forced to find ways to connect with people without actually doing it in person.

And this made every one of us in business development better.

Better.

It was a huge level up, guys.

I would never go back now.

LinkedIn is incredible and learning how to utilize it.

If we could have learned this, you know, pre Covid, it would have made us powerhouses, powerhouses and our ability to do business development.

But we just weren't presented with that.

But we have been now.

And I would say at this point, LinkedIn Premium is absolutely mandatory for anybody in business development.

It has given you unprecedented access to almost anybody in any position in nearly any company on earth.

It is truly incredible.

At least in North America, it is mandatory and required.

Okay.

I can utilize LinkedIn to identify the ideal companies that I want to work for and the ideal buying positions and who is in them at nearly any company, like I said in North America.

So at this point, tracking down the right people, it's never been easier.

It has never been easier in the history of business development to find the ideal person at the company, what location they work at and get in touch with them.

So we have to use social media from this point forward.

If we're going to use social media in this way, we have to also be utilizing it to its full potential.

We can't be just having half filled out profiles anymore.

Okay, I get it.

You know when we launched into LinkedIn in 2013.

Absolutely.

But at this point, we need to make sure that our LinkedIn profiles are set up well, are fully completed, are visually appealing, like I said before, are bold and beautiful.

That we are speaking to our clients in every aspect of it, guys, from the banner to your photo to your profile, to your recommendations, we have to be utilizing every aspect of LinkedIn.

There's something new to learn about it all the time.

First off, if you aren't utilizing something as simple as your recommendations and features sections as business developers, guys, that's like part one to fill out.

If your banner image isn't designed and matching to your profile, that's something for you to complete and fill out.

If you guys are looking for inspiration right now, I'm going to recommend three people to check out.

I want you to look at Marcus Chan, I want you to look at Amelia Sordell, and I want you to check out Nat Berman.

These are all personal branding experts and sales experts.

They are absolutely killing it on LinkedIn.

Their brands are on point.

They know how to set up their profiles.

They are incredibly great people to emulate.

Take a look at their profiles to see what I mean.

But you absolutely have to, have to, have to be filling out your profiles to their full potential here in 2025 and beyond, it is mandatory.

Remember, people are going to be searching you too, right?

Everybody you reach out to now is going to look at you.

They're going to check your LinkedIn.

They're going to figure out, who is this person?

Should I care about them?

Are they even real?

AI bots are like everywhere.

So people are checking for authenticity.

They're checking to see if you are a real person.

Complete that LinkedIn profile, have a history, be somebody they want to connect with and have a conversation with.

Okay.

Remember too, when we are designing our profiles at this point, right?

It's not just random.

If you look at the best LinkedIn profiles, they are not random.

They are set up to guide you down a path, a path that leads to you wanting to get in touch with them.

This is ever so apparent in LinkedIn coaches.

If you guys look at anybody who's a coach on LinkedIn, their profiles are laid out in a way to lead you down a journey to eventually booking a meeting with them.

Now, you can do this for any business, if you're even a business developer, just for a business.

Lead your prospect, lead your connection down a path of why they would want to connect with you.

Speak to them in ways that they can understand in business terms that are appropriate for your industry.

Think about it from a standpoint of if somebody was going to follow my profile to a conclusion, where am I leading them?

I want you to design your LinkedIn profiles from this point forward with strategy, with thought, not random.

Lead people down a journey and always take into account, who am I marketing to.

You are marketing to millennials.

Okay?

You're marketing to Millennials, you're marketing to Gen Z.

Make sure your profiles are Bold, beautiful, engaging.

Make sure you're actually utilizing them.

Make sure you're connecting with a hundred people every single week.

Utilize all of your LinkedIn connections that you can.

Every week it's a hundred.

You get a hundred a week.

Whether you use them or lose them, start using your social medias to their full potentials, okay?

If you use them to your full potentials, you will get their full effects and their full effects are compounding and exponential.

We have to understand as well that at this point forward, building our personal brands alongside our corporate brands as business developers is not a nice to have.

It is absolutely mandatory.

Why?

Because as we start to utilize LinkedIn to its full potential, as we start to do weekly corporate posts, as we start to post more personal, authentic content on LinkedIn, your personal content has around a 500% higher engagement rate than your corporate content.

Yes, it is massive.

It is a massive, massive difference between corporate posts and personal posts.

And so I always say, at this point, I can't teach business development effectively without teaching personal branding at the same time.

Why?

Because personal brands elevate everything in their vicinity, right?

If you build a powerful personal brand alongside your corporate brand, if your personal brand gets engagement 500% higher than your corporate brand, you absolutely want to link your personal brand with your corporate brand to get that additional engagement, okay?

We can't just be posting corporate posts every week.

You're gonna get like five likes and maybe a reshare if you're lucky.

If you start to post things people resonate with on your personal brand side and then you pepper in your corporate posts alongside it, your corporate post, get exposure and engagement by simply being associated with your personal brand.

Business developers, you have to, have to, have to start building your personal brands.

There's lots of people out there.

I have plenty of shows.

If you go back and you want to kind of get a crash course on starting that process.

But there's many ways you can do it.

Video is an excellent example here in 2025 and beyond.

Simply sharing video clips, simply sharing quotes, simply sharing stuff that people can resonate with.

Remember, we have to resonate with it.

But if you start to connect in that way, you're going to build both your personal brand but your corporate brands alongside it.

Companies, we have to be encouraging our people to build those personal brands if we want that long term engagement.

Okay?

And I know it can be scary, but it's not as scary as it's going to be long term if you don't encourage it.

So believe in your people, give them Some autonomy.

Let them build those personal brands.

It will elevate your brands alongside it.

Number four, organization skills.

Okay?

Organization as a business developer is absolutely, absolutely critical.

Okay.

When I was younger, I was never that organized, right?

If you were to look at my desk in 2012 as a business developer, it was just full of business cards.

We had Excel spreadsheets.

We were doing stuff on like, I was not well organized guys.

I didn't get really, really great at organization until later on.

But let me tell you, when I got organized, things changed.

Things absolutely changed.

Organization will change your life.

And we're going to get into it.

The first tool that we absolutely have to have as business developers in 2025 and beyond is a CRM.

If you are not currently utilizing a CRM, if you're still utilizing an Excel spreadsheet, it is time to upgrade.

I use pipedrive, you can use pipedrive, HubSpot, Salesforce, whatever CRM you like, just pick one and stick with it, okay?

A CRM is an incredible, incredible tool.

You can keep all your contact data in one place, you can keep all of your deals in one place.

You can know what you need to do week to week.

You can update your meetings.

It is like a central organizer for all of your business development and sales information.

If you need to come back to something six months later, you have it on your CRM.

Trust me on this.

Get a CRM.

Learn to utilize it, Learn to set it up correctly.

I have plenty of episodes on CRM set up if you want to go back to the beginning.

CRM set up and flow is mandatory and getting it right really matters.

But if you can set this thing up right, you can utilize it weekly.

It is an incredibly invaluable, mandatory and powerful tool for all business developers moving forward.

The next thing that I want to talk about is specifically time management and focused work.

Okay?

We live in a time of so much distraction.

Okay.

So much distraction.

And I've been talking to you guys.

Cause now I'm saying, hey, now you have to utilize your social medias as well, which are also designed to distract the hell out of you and keep you away from your work.

Okay?

So there's something to be said now about doing time management like you have never done before.

I was never an advocate for this until later on in my career as, as a business owner, to be honest.

And the reason that it got to be mandatory as a business owner was I had to do obviously my brand building, this podcast.

I had to do client work, coaching, and somehow get my social media Content done in the same time.

Guys, there was not enough hours in a day like there was, but I had to get really, really good at utilizing my time.

Now, I am a massive advocate, guys, for utilizing a calendar.

Okay?

We have to be utilizing our Google calendars or Outlook calendars and we have to be scheduling our tasks in this will make you infinitely, infinitely more powerful.

Okay?

Having your time set for when you're going to make your calls, when you're going to do your digital introductions, when you're going to be utilizing your social media time, when you're going to be sending your emails, when you're going to be building that next proposal.

Okay, when you're going to be recording that next big podcast, it really does matter.

And if you can get really good at scheduling your time and focusing that work during that time, okay, remember, the scheduling on its own does nothing.

You have to do focused work during that time.

Get rid of distractions.

If your phone's a problem, remove it from the table during that time.

Figure out a way to do as much work as you can in those allocated times as possible.

It'll absolutely change your businesses for the better.

I also want to chat about the power of a notebook.

Yes, we live in this incredible time where we have note takers on our phone, where we're sitting in front of our computers all the time, guys.

But I still utilize a daily notebook.

And I have my entire business development career.

And I'm never gonna stop.

Let me tell you that right now.

I'm never, ever going to stop.

When I get up in the morning and I sit down with my coffee at my computer to start my day, I always start it with a blank page and I write at the top, top things to do today.

And I write down between five and 10 things that if I do them, will have a big effect on my business or on my clients for that day.

Okay, guys, this is absolutely powerful.

Writing the top things to do today is a powerful exercise that if you can get into this every single day, you are absolutely going to accomplish more.

Science actually says you're going to accomplish 42% more tasks by writing them down as goals and checking them off.

Guys, in my experience, this has been a game changer for my business.

I definitely check off more work than I ever had before.

And actually I get like, I get a little bit anxious now if I don't have my goals in order on my page that I need to do today.

It is absolutely critical.

Writing down those tasks is powerful.

It will help you.

It'll help you achieve more in your business.

I want you to take this away today.

Always have a notepad.

Write down at the beginning of each day top five things or top ten things to do today.

Write them down, check them off as you go.

It is absolutely going to make you more efficient and help you accomplish more in 20, 25 and beyond.

So goal setting guys, critical.

I do too.

I do two pretty consistently.

I do a weekly goals.

So typically at the start of my week I'll write out top things to do this week I'll write out, like I said, between five and ten absolute critical tasks that I have to do this week.

I always have lots, guys.

Podcast production, show production, maybe show, recording, client work, coaching work, social media content that I have to create, posts that I have to create, right?

There's lots, lots to do.

So I always have lots on my weekly list.

And then what I'll do is I'll pepper them out throughout the week in my things to do today.

I always make sure that I have a couple of those things in there so that I am accomplishing more.

But trust me, I accomplish, let's call it 8 out of 10.

80% of those tasks get done simply because I wrote them down on a piece of paper and I'm prioritizing them and I'm making the time to do them.

It will change your life.

If you're currently not using a notebook, just bring a notebook with you daily.

Doesn't mean you have to do it all the time, but trust me, give it a go, give it a month, see what happens.

I doubt you'll go back.

And last but not least, on the organization skills, guys, I want you guys to start creating weekly reports for yourselves.

Even if you don't answer to somebody, even if you are the business development manager, keep a weekly report of the things that you did that week.

Track how many calls you made, track how many meetings you attended, track how many meetings you booked, track how many digital introductions you sent.

Track how many contacts you added to your CRM that week.

Start to do this on a consistent basis.

And then if you start feeding these, these reports into chat GPT, it can give you statistics on your closure rates.

It can give you statistics on how many calls it takes for you to book a meeting.

This can be really, really powerful for you and your organizations as you move forward.

Just to give you an idea, I found out after, you know, a couple of years of doing this that we were booking for small to medium sized companies a meeting about every 11 calls.

Like it was starting to get really, really powerful for us.

We found out that on the big organizations, the large oil and gas companies in Alberta, it was taking us on average about 30 reach outs.

Way more than many would have thought.

But actually, I think is the statistical average.

So you would be surprised all of the data you can find by simply creating weekly reports.

And last but not least, it keeps you accountable.

It makes sure that you are doing the stuff that you need to be doing each week to achieve success for you, your clients and your businesses.

And number five is belief and consistency.

Okay?

We have to believe in our products and services.

Let me state that again because it is absolutely critical.

We have to believe in our products and services that they are genuinely good for the world and good for our customers.

Why?

If we do not believe it, we will not be able to speak authentically to it in a way that conveys trust and assurance for our customers.

If you do not believe in your product and service, find a new product and service to sell.

You are in the wrong industry.

Okay?

Find something you can believe in, get behind it.

You are going to be infinitely better at selling it.

At building interest and booking meetings.

We have to identify and follow an effective BD process.

Almost everything we teach on the show, guys, is about my business development process and how you can enact it on your businesses.

Okay?

The process that I use, it's not complex.

Actually, I think some find it pretty impressive of how not complex it is, but how effective and powerful it is.

And it's effective and powerful because when you follow an effective process week over week, month over month, year over year, you get consistent results.

Okay?

Business development is a long game.

If you start it, you can't expect results in the first month.

It's going to take a few months for things to get rolling.

But if you're doing the same things consistently, week over week, month over month, year over year, you're doing focused work.

You're making the calls, you're sending the digital introductions, you're doing your social media strategies, you're doing everything you need to do.

It's going to start to look like magic how fast and how often you guys are booking meetings.

And to people on the outside looking in, it's like, wow, like this person is just killing it.

They're just.

It's like magic what they're doing.

It's not magic.

It's consistency over time.

It's consistency over time that breeds success.

We have to be consistent.

We have to build a process that works.

We have to build a process that's easy to Follow and easy to understand.

That is what I teach here on the business development podcast.

I want you all to have an effective process that leads to repeat business over time, that you can follow on a consistent basis, that you always know where you are at.

That is it.

If you can do that consistently, you are going to book meetings.

Meetings are going to lead to opportunity, revenue and repeat business over time for your organizations.

We also have to commit to an appropriate amount of follow up, guys.

Okay?

Most business developers statistically are giving up on a prospect after only the second follow up call.

Okay, after only the second follow up call.

What did I say before?

It was taking us on average about 10 followers follow ups.

10 follow ups on average to book that meeting.

Okay?

If you're doing weekly follow up, that means 10 weeks.

That means 10 weeks of consistent follow up over time before you disqualify that prospect.

I want you guys to incorporate this into your businesses, okay?

If you've done the work upfront, you've identified the buying position, you know you have the right person, you're getting through to their voicemail or email.

Give them at least 10, 15 phone calls or emails or a mix of both, preferably before you disqualify this person.

And even then you would be surprised how many big oil and gas companies or large corporations it can take.

Up to 30.

You have to identify, do I have the right person?

If you have done the legwork up front, you've identified the right person at the organization, you know for a fact that they will understand your product and service and you have a direct line to them, give them an appropriate amount of follow up before you disqualify them, okay?

Like I said, especially with the big companies, they have to be in need.

They have to have a need for your product and service before they're going to give you that shot.

If you have the right person, don't give up too soon on that long shot.

Keep with it, Give them an appropriate amount of time and then disqualify if need be.

But most of us are disqualifying way too early.

Give them at least 8 to 10 follow ups before you disqualify.

You absolutely are going to close more meetings from it.

And last but not least, belief in yourself.

You have to believe in yourself.

One of my biggest challenges when I first got into business development is I didn't believe in myself.

I didn't believe I could do it.

I remember being asked, hey, you know, we need some big meetings with these big oil and gas companies.

And I remember just looking at my boss and saying, like, I can't do that.

Like, I don't know what I'm doing.

That's going to be impossible.

And remember, guys, whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right.

When I told myself it was impossible, it was impossible.

I wasn't going to do it.

It wasn't until way later in my business development career that I removed those limiting beliefs and I started booking meetings with anybody.

Let me tell you this right now, you can book a meeting with anybody.

Given enough time and enough effort.

Time and effort, you can book meetings with nearly anybody on planet Earth.

Okay?

That is your limit.

Simply you run out of time.

But understand this, you absolutely can do this.

You can book a meeting with anybody you need to.

You can make a pitch to anybody.

You need to just believe that you can.

It really is a massive differentiator between succeeding and failing.

Believe you can put in the time.

You're going to be surprised what you can do.

All right, guys, that takes us to the end of our primary skills.

I wanted to add just a couple extra ones because things are changing, right?

Social media is becoming more powerful.

People are building their personal brands.

People are starting podcasts, they're starting video series.

I want you guys to consider adding a couple supporting skills here in 2025.

And the first one, and I think the most important one, I want you guys to start focusing on video creation and editing video, okay?

Video is crazy.

Video is super cool.

We talk about the power of building trust here all the time, right?

We build trust in person, we build trust in meetings.

We build trust in human to human interaction.

Okay?

Video is cool because video actually can do that same thing.

It can build trust.

It can feel like a human to human interaction because it is.

But it works even when you're sleeping.

Start to build video content on behalf of your brand, your business, your expertise, and put it out consistently to the world.

Don't worry about your skills in the beginning.

They're going to get better.

You're going to learn the tools and the editing things to get it the way you want.

Just start putting video out there.

Video has this way of creating authentic connection and trust without you actually having to be there.

It is truly powerful and it is one of the skills that's going to differentiate the best from the rest in 2025 and beyond.

And let me just start by saying, personally, I've struggled with video.

You might be surprised to hear that.

Video is something that I have struggled with and it's more so just my Expectations of myself.

The fact that I haven't always been a big fan of myself on camera, but I'm working on it and you should too.

Focus on doubling down on video.

I know it's scary, I know it's challenging, but the reward, the payoff is gonna be massive.

Go for it.

Don't look back.

I also recommend that you guys start to learn how to utilize Canva.

If you haven't incorporated Canva into your business, Canva can be used to create literally almost any graphical image for your company.

Okay.

From logos to social media posts to branded content to video, anything like that.

Okay.

It is absolutely, absolutely a powerful tool for anybody who's willing to learn how to use it.

You can create nearly anything with it.

It doesn't take a ton of skill.

It just takes practice.

Practice over time.

Utilizing Canva consistently, daily.

It's a skill that will follow you throughout your career.

It's a skill that will grow your business.

It's a skill that will put dollars in your pocket.

And it is not expensive.

I think a Canva Pro subscription is like $150 a year.

It is, frankly, cheap for the value it provides to you and your business.

Double down.

Learn how to use Canva.

Learn.

Learn how to create content from it and reap the rewards.

Frankly, it's incredible.

It's game changing.

You need to learn how to use it in 2025.

And last but not least, we have to learn how to create marketing materials.

Okay, no, I'm not saying you have to learn how to create brochures or how to create websites.

No, that's not what I'm saying.

But we have to know what is good and what is not good.

I want you guys to get really, really great at being able to identify great marketing material from subpar marketing material.

And then once you are able to identify that, once again, I have lots of shows on this if you want to go back.

I talk about it a lot.

I talk about what is good, what is not good.

I'm not going to get into it today, but learn how to identify great marketing material from subpar marketing material and make sure that you are in the room for any content being designed on behalf of your businesses moving forward so that you can comment on it, so that you can make sure that we are creating marketing materials that are going to sell.

That we're creating marketing materials people are going to actually read and engage with it is absolutely critical.

Remember, it doesn't matter how great your marketing material is if nobody will read it.

We have to create it in a way that will build interest that leads to opportunity.

Brochures don't sell shit.

Meetings sell.

We have to use our brochures to get to meetings that lead to relationship and business over time.

I challenge each and every one of you to push your boundaries in 2025.

Remember, the job stays the same, but the tools and the skills required to execute are changing every single month.

Okay, Push your boundaries.

Do the hard things.

Believe in yourself.

You can and will make an impact in 2025 and beyond.

If you have some time today, I do have a favor to ask of you.

Please do Follow us, rate us and leave comments wherever you listen to the show, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify or something else.

Please do share this episode or another episode you love with a friend or family member.

Please follow us on LinkedIn.

We now have our March guest list out on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is where everything happens for the show, guys.

So if you're looking for information on who's coming on what guests we have on for the month, quotes from the show, videos, clips from the show, there's lots of information on LinkedIn.

It's where we live.

We would love for you to come on there comment with us.

It is me.

I am engaging with you, so please do leave me a comment.

Let's start a discussion on LinkedIn.

I'd love to have you there.

And last but not least, we're taking community questions for March of 2025.

If you have a question about business development, entrepreneurship, podcasting, I would love, love love to hear it from you.

Please send me an email.

Podcastapitalbt CA Shout Outs this week Lauren Graf, Gary Noseworthy, Susan Pasaka, Don Osland, CR Holes, Tony Gray, Aaron Lambert, Kevin Ormandy, Brian Hayes, Carmen LaBelle, Vajayan Swaminathan, John Pelley, Eric Portillo, Mindy K.

McRae Broadbent, Sean Neels, Steve Austin, Colin Harms, Tim Zagel, Shamia Zajal, Michelle, Sami Wieb, Nathan Plum, Zayl Moransky, Ross Hewitt and Tash Jeffries.

Until next time, you've been listening to the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca See you next time on the business development podcast.