8 Essential Rules for Business Development Success: Boost Your Career

8 Essential Rules for Business Development Success: Boost Your Career

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 151 of the business development podcast. And today my show is for my amazing business development specialists who are looking to take things to the next level, who are looking to get ahead. Today we're talking about eight rules to live by that will get you to the next level. Stick with us.

You are not going to want to miss this episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years. Value 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.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 151 of the Business Development Podcast. Guys, I just wanted to give a gigantic, gigantic thank you. If you guys have been with us, whether it be from episode 40, episode 50, episode 10, or episode 140. Guys, I appreciate the heck out of you. And I just want to say thank you to all the people who've reached out and congratulated us on our 150th episode.

The reality, guys, is I could not do it without your support. I could not do it without the rockstar experts, the rockstar listenership that we have here on the Business Development Podcast. And so it is your win just as much as it is mine. And I wanted to say, Before we started today's show, thank you so much for your support.

Thank you so much for tuning in week over week, month over month. And you know, coming up year over year on the Business Development Podcast because I could not do this show if there was not people like you to listen to it. And so to all the listeners of the Business Development Podcast, to all my rock stars out there, I sure appreciate you.

Thank you so much for all you do. And thank you for being a part of the Business Development Podcast. Guys, episode 151 and you know, the reality is over the term of the business development podcast, I've had a lot of business development specialists reach out and people that just want to achieve more, want to stand out in their organizations, want to do better.

And so today's show is for you. Today's show is for my business development specialists. The ones out there in the field. fighting the good fight. Guys, I get it. I get it. We want to stand out. We want to be exceptional. And sometimes we just need a little kick in the butt. Sometimes we just need some rules to live by.

And today I wanted to chat about eight rules that we can follow to take you to the next steps to take you to the business development specialists that you want to be. Standing out in any organization can feel like a difficult task, and over the last year, I've had a lot of BD specialists reach out with this very challenge.

But the great news is that it is easier than you think, and it is all within your control. I get it, guys. It can feel out of control. The whole situation, business, development, going out, making new relationships, finding new people. Finding opportunities for the organizations you either own or work with, it can feel like an incredible, incredible daunting task.

And I want you to know I was right there, right? All the lessons that I teach you guys on the Business Development Podcast are hard, hard learned lessons that as I went through my business development career, I learned. And I'm hoping that I can save you guys some of the challenge and struggle that I went through.

But don't think I don't remember. Don't think I'm still not in it with you guys on a daily basis because I am. The reality is I used to struggle with a lot of the challenges that we're going to talk about today. And the reason that I can speak to them now is because I have overcome many of them. I have learned how to do better, how to get more performance out of myself, how to hold myself accountable, and overall, how to believe in myself.

So I hope today when you leave this episode, you're leaving with some of those lessons. You're leaving with some of that self belief and you're realizing that the only thing in your way, the truly only thing in your way from success and failure, Really is you so much of it is within your control. And I had to learn this the hard way and I get it.

There's some of you out there that are like, Kelly, that's me too. And maybe it is, but you know what? The next time that you hit that failure, you hit that roadblock. You're going to remember this episode. You're going to remember these rules and you're going to remember that you can turn it around one step at a time.

All right. So today we're going to chat about some rules to follow that will take you to the next level that took me to the next level. And I am very, very excited to share them with you. And so rule number one is effective process, guys. Effective process. Really effective. The biggest lesson today, the biggest rule, the biggest thing that I can impart upon you guys is the power of effective process.

And I get it, there's some of you out there that don't follow process and you're also still very successful. But actually, the irony is, I bet you, if you look at it, if you really break it down, you are following a process. It may be internal, it may be something that you have not sat down and put on paper.

But I bet you if you are incredibly successful at business development, you are following a process. You just need to quantify it. You just need to put it down on paper. But I bet you there's steps. I bet you there's procedures. I bet you there's things that you do that set you apart from the crowd because of an internal process that you're following.

But either way, effective process is the secret. It really is. Like I built my company around effective process. It works everywhere once you put it on paper and you truly understand what the process is. But once I understood that it was process that was really allowing me to stand out, there are a lot of things we're going to get into it today that accompany and piggyback on effective process to make it even better, to make you even more successful.

But the number one thing that we have to talk about today. is effective process because effective process can make even a brand new business development rep successful. It really can. If they have the roadmap, if they understand what buttons to push, what steps to take and in what order, they are inevitably going to find success.

And so I chat about this, whether you're a business owner, a president, founder, CEO, sales manager, a business development manager, whatever you are. The first thing you should do if you do not have anything, if you have nothing in place, is to outline an effective business development process for your staff to follow, or for you to follow, because once you start to implement effective process, and you can follow it day over day, week over week, month over month, and year over year, You are inevitably going to start to get consistent results.

And what's the biggest challenge we face in business development? It's inconsistent results. Because we ebb and flow with the way we're doing our sales calls. We ebb and flow with our funnels. We ebb and flow in general. And so the less that we can ebb and flow, and the more that we can just consistently flow like a river, We are going to have inevitably more success.

Your business development specialists are going to be inevitably more successful because they know what to do day over day, week over week, month over month, year over year. Okay. There is something to be said about knowing the process about knowing what you have to do today about having a process to follow that you can follow on a daily basis, a weekly basis that is going to lead to consistent results over time, which is really the biggest thing that we need to spend time with.

Remember, effective process gives you a road map to success. It gives you a roadmap to success, and I kid you not, it does. It is so effective that once you understand a process and you can teach a process to a business development specialist, they really can just hit the ground running. And yeah, they're going to run into challenges.

There's going to be trial and error things they need to do with their copy, with their pitches. with their value propositions, but the reality is they're going to get better and better and better and better at it if they know what frequency to follow, what they need to do, and what the steps are to success.

Trust me, if you are not starting with an effective process, you are already setting yourself up for failure. An effective process is an exponential advantage over specialists who do not have one. It is a X. It's a game changer. It's an absolute game changer for your company's guys. Put in an effective business development process.

And if you don't have one, start to create one, right? We talk about process on this podcast all the time, but the reality is you can create your own process. You can trial and error things and see what works and what doesn't work. But either way, start. Your process, start writing down what your business development process is.

Is it going to need to be revamped? Yeah, probably. But that's okay because we learn all the time. I am not beyond saying that at some point I won't revamp my business development process because I probably will. Because as technology changes, as people change, as the world changes around us, it will be inevitable.

you Things that worked once may not work down the line. And that's okay because we are always evolving. But if you have not even sat down and put that process on paper and put some thought into it, what are the steps that I follow on a daily basis? You know, when I booked that meeting last week, what was the process that got me there?

What were the steps I took? Start there. Start there and work backwards. But I think you're gonna find over time, if you create the process, you will find success. And so that is my number one rule for success for any business development specialist, any company, start with the process. Number two is belief in yourself.

Okay? This was one I struggled with. This is one so many business development specialists struggle with. Because we get thrown into a position Typically, we were doing something else and we got told, Hey, you know what? You're pretty good at dealing with people. We would like you to be in business development.

And so you're, you're learning everything. You're learning sales. You're learning psychology. You're learning how to work with people. You're learning how to create value proposition. And you start to feel like an imposter. I know for a long time, I felt like an imposter in business development. I felt like, my gosh, like they want me to grow this company.

That seems like incredibly challenging. I remember plenty of times looking myself in the mirror and asking myself, like, are we sure we're cut out for this? But guys, you are. You are. Your biggest challenge, your biggest challenge, the thing that is holding you back from success beyond your process is your belief in your ability to execute the position.

Well, okay. Remember that confidence in yourself and your ability is the most important Paramount. It's paramount to your success. Confidence is actually so critical to your success that you really should be working on this almost every day. And so if you struggle with self confidence, what are some of the things that you can do to bring your confidence up?

Right? If you're a little overweight and you feel like that's your thing holding you back, you know, start hitting the gym, start eating a little more healthy, figure out what it's going to take. What is it going to take to build that confidence up? If you struggle with the phones and you feel like maybe you stutter, maybe you.

Made a mistake the last time you did a cold call and now you're afraid of them. Great. Pick up the phone and make 10 cold calls. Make 20 cold calls. Make like a hundred cold calls next week until you are comfortable with it. Okay. You have to embrace the uncomfortable to get more comfortable. I'm sorry, there is no fast track.

There is no easy way to get over discomfort, but to face it head on. But trust me, the more that you start to face these challenges, these things that are holding back your confidence, that are holding you back, you are only going to grow. You are only going to face it, succeed, and come out the other side.

And so, I need you guys to start being brave. I need you guys to look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself you can do it because you can. You can. If I can, you can. Trust me. Trust me on this. I struggled for years with self confidence. I still struggle at times with self confidence. It doesn't ever really go away.

But guess what? You get better and better and better at dealing with it. And trust me, as you start to take on these challenges like phones, like your digital introductions, like making your pitches, right? Yeah, they're scary, but you get better at them every time. Every single time you make another call.

Every single time you tell the value proposition of your company. Every single time you attend another face to face meeting in an uncomfortable situation. You get better. You get better at handling it. Does that mean you never get meeting anxiety? No. Does that mean you never, you never experience stage fright?

No. Like, you 100 percent do. You get better at dealing with it though. And guess what? When you're feeling an imposter syndrome, the more time that you spend there, the more time you spend proving that imposter syndrome wrong, that you actually can do it, that you actually not only can do it, you're excellent at it, Something happens.

Your brain stops calling you an imposter. Why? Because you no longer can be. You can't be an imposter at something you're excellent at and you're killing it. Just remember that. Most of the challenges that you're facing with regards to belief in yourself just comes from not enough experience in that thing.

And so if you can put yourself in more scenarios that push that boundary, that push your, that push your limits, you are only going to experience more success, okay? Remember confidence in yourself is absolutely critical. And the next thing that is absolutely critical is confidence in your product and service.

Okay. We talked about this a long time ago. I've been talking about this the entire. The entire time I've been doing the business development podcast. Okay. One of the keys to success as a business development specialist is total belief in your product and service and that it can actually meet your customers needs.

Okay. If you do not believe this, it will show in Everything you do, it will show in every pitch. It will show in every meeting. It will show in the tone of your voice. Guys, you have to believe in the products and services that you are marketing. You have to believe in them almost more than the people who made them.

And I really mean this because you are pitching this product. You are, you are bringing this product to the world, okay? If we are bringing this product to the world, we have to believe in it. We have to be able to, with conviction, pitch the product. With conviction, let the customer know why this will benefit them, and why they'd be silly not to try it, okay?

If you do not believe in your product and service, it is damn near impossible to succeed long term. You might be able to sell a couple of them, but the reality is long term, you will never have the success that you could have had if you do not believe in the product and service. And so, To my business development specialists right now working at any company, I want you to ask yourself, do you 150 percent believe in the products and services that your company sells?

That they actually do bring a benefit to your customers, that they are value, that they are very valuable, that they are worth your money. Your hard earned time to market and sell and that you can speak to them with one hundred and fifty percent conviction if the answer right now is no, I don't believe in the products and services of my company.

Actually, I think our competitors products might be better guys. You need to do something else, you know, if you believe in the competitors product and service, maybe you should be there, but I'm just telling you, I'm telling you right now, if you do not 150 percent believe in the products and services and that they bring value to your customers, they're going to be almost impossible for you to sell.

So belief in yourself is not only critical belief in the products and services is equally, equally critical. And now I want you to look yourself in the mirror, and I want you to remove the non factual self limiting beliefs, okay? What do I mean by this? How about, I'm gonna give you an example for me. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

We are oil and gas country. In Canada, Alberta is the oil and gas hub of the entire country. Almost everything in Alberta, right down to McDonald's, gets paid for with oil and gas dollars. I really mean that. I know there's a lot of people who disagree maybe, but I think that almost everything comes down to oil and gas money in Alberta for the most part.

And so obviously working for oil and gas companies or being able to market to the oil and gas sector is one of those things that would sound pretty darn critical here, correct? Fair, right? For a long time, I didn't believe that I could get a meeting with the large oil and gas companies. And because I did not believe that, I did not try very hard at it.

And so for many, many years, more than I would like to admit, I didn't even bother trying to get in touch or book a meeting with some of the largest companies in this country. And That was silly, and that was a self limiting belief that held me back. Later on in my career, when I went out on my own, I had almost no problem whatsoever booking meetings with these companies once I started to realize that they were the same as everyone else.

And if I just followed my darn process, and I approached them regardless, I could typically get a meeting and so for many, many years I was letting self limiting beliefs and I, you know, for me, it was large oil and gas companies for you. I don't know what it is, but I guarantee you have it. I guarantee you have that company where you're like, I don't think I can do that.

I don't think I could get that meeting and I want you right now to get that out of your head. You can get a meeting with anyone. Given enough time, given a good value proposition, the right person, the right industry, the right target, and the right amount of time, you can get a meeting just about anywhere.

And so I had a self limiting belief that I no longer have. I now believe that I could get a meeting with almost anyone with almost any company on earth if I wanted to, if I had enough time, if I had the right people, if I had the right product and I had the right value proposition and time. I can do it and you can do it too and so I really, really, really want you guys to look yourself in the mirror today and start to evaluate what are my limiting beliefs.

What are the things that I believe about business development, about my ability, about my capability that are holding me back because I guarantee you, you have some just like the story I just gave you. I guarantee you, there's some belief in there that's holding you back and the moment you can squash that belief, you are going to exponentially grow, not just in business, but as a person.

Okay, belief in yourself is absolutely critical and why that's my number two rule. Number three is discipline. You must follow your process guys. Discipline. This is one I struggled with. I've struggled with it most of my life, right? I am. I'm a very much like a self driven person, but I have to believe I have to really want it.

I have to want to excel. And so discipline has been something that I've struggled with both as an employee, as a business owner, and as a human, my whole life on certain levels, I've struggled with discipline. And I know I'm not alone. I know there's a lot of you out there that discipline's a challenging one.

It wasn't really until I went out, like I said, on my own as a business owner that I really had to lock down my own self discipline because if I didn't, who was gonna? Who was gonna lock down my self discipline if I didn't do it? Who was gonna achieve if I couldn't put in the time if I didn't get up and do the things I needed to get done that day?

If I didn't get up and achieve success on behalf of my clients, okay? You have to be disciplined, you have to find your why and you have to find what is it in yourself that's going to motivate you to get up and do the things you need to do because guess what, if you can't motivate yourself to make those calls, nobody is going to, if you can't motivate yourself to do the digital introductions, nobody is going to, if you can't motivate yourself Nobody is going to and trust me.

I know I hear you guys out there saying, well, Kelly, you know, if I get offered the right amount of money, bullshit, bullshit, because if you aren't disciplined ahead of that offer, it's not going to be enough. It's not going to be enough. Mark my words, money alone. is not motivating enough to get up at 530 and do the things you need to do every day, okay?

You need to figure out your why internally. You need to figure out what is it you want. What is your purpose? What is it that drives you? What is it that you want to accomplish with your life? Do you want to just go down as another worker or do you want to do more? Because I wanted to do more and I realized that a little later in life and that's okay because That could be you too.

That could be you too. Your why could be coming. Your purpose could be coming. And you just haven't found it yet. But trust me, I think you'll find it. And when you find it, you'll also find that drive. You'll find that discipline that you really need. But you know what? You can start that today. You can start your discipline today.

You just have to make the choice, okay? You must be accountable to your results. Your successes and your failures. I get it guys. Being accountable is tough. We want to a lot of the times just slide under the radar. Slide under the radar. I get it, man. I was an employee for a lot of years. I get it. I get it.

Sometimes it's nice to be able to just do what you got to do and go home, right? Results or no results, whatever. I get it. I get it. But come on, how are you ever going to get to the next level? If you don't hold yourself accountable, how are you ever going to achieve more or do what you really want or earn what you really want?

If you can't just hold yourself accountable, trust me, guys, trust me. You must be accountable to your results and your success. You must measure You must also be accountable to your failures and learn from them, right? There's nothing wrong, there's nothing wrong with failure, as long as you learn the lesson so you don't repeat it.

What is wrong with failure is when you fail, and then you fail at the same thing again, and then you fail at the same thing again, and again, without enacting any of the lessons, repeating the same failures. Repeating the exact same challenge every time. That is what's wrong with failing, failing and learning a lesson, nothing wrong, failing and not learning a lesson, everything wrong.

Okay. We have to learn from our failures. We have to be willing to say, yep, I screwed up, but you know what? I learned a lot. And I'm not going to do that again. If you can do that, you are going to start winning way more than you're losing. So be accountable to yourself, be accountable to your results, and success will inevitably follow for you.

Okay. You must push your boundaries and be willing to explore your limits. Okay. This is something that a lot of people struggle with. This is something that a lot of people struggle with. Okay. I get it. We don't like pushing our boundaries. It's uncomfortable. Putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations sucks.

Guess what, guys? The thing that I've learned in doing this show, in being a business owner, is you have to get damn comfortable with the uncomfortable. You think I could have sat behind this mic, you know, two, three years ago? I don't think I could have had this conversation with you. I don't think I could be here right now talking to you guys about uncomfortable situations because I avoided them.

I avoided them too, okay? You're not alone. You're not alone. We all struggle with this. We all want to live in comfort, but guess what? We don't grow in comfort. We can't become the best versions of ourselves in comfort. We have to become the best versions of ourselves by, by fire and brimstone. Sometimes guys, we have to become the best versions of ourselves by hopping into the fire, by hopping into the uncomfortable situations and growing as humans and growing as business professionals.

Okay. Trust me. Be willing to explore your limits. Be willing to make five more calls than everybody else. Be willing to do that speech no one else wants to. Be willing to write down your results, right? Be willing to report your results, guys. Be willing. Be willing. Be open. Be accepting. This will make you grow.

Number four, we have to effectively use our CRMs, guys. And I know, I've talked to way too many companies now that are just not doing it, okay? I can't tell you. I've talked to companies that do 20 million, 40 million, 80 million that are still using Excel spreadsheets. They are still using Excel spreadsheets.

And I know I'm talking to you, I know, I know there's Mr. or Mrs. business development specialist on the other line of this Mr. or Mrs. business owner who's saying yeah yeah, yeah, that's me too. That's okay. Guys, get a CRM. What are you doing? What are you doing? We do not live in 2008 anymore. It is 2024.

There are tools out there that will make you better than ever and a CRM is a not even a negotiation anymore. You need a CRM, okay? You need it to become more organized. You really do. You need all that data in one place in an easy to use space. And you need to be able to track all your emails in one place, all your calls in one place.

If you like, it's really, really amazing. CRMs will change your life. And I was not an advocate for CRM. Let me just start off by saying I was that person using Excel spreadsheet until probably 2015, 2016. I literally hate to admit that. But that was me, okay? I now use a CRM on a daily basis. A daily basis, and I would never go back.

I would never, ever, ever go back to an Excel spreadsheet unless CRMs for whatever reason vanished off planet Earth. And even then, If they did, I would probably try to make one. They are that effective and they are not expensive. So I would like you guys to implement a CRM. If you have not done so, I have many shows on it.

Feel free to go back, check them out, how to lay it out, how to use them. But trust me, guys, trust me. CRMs will change your life. They are non negotiable in 2024 and beyond. And they are absolutely, absolutely amazing for tracking your contact details. Project details, all your followups, the calls you need to make this week, the digital introductions, you need to make emails all in one place.

It is amazing. If you are not using one, please do use one. Remember though, a CRM is only as good as the data you put into it. Okay. And I get it. I get it. We're in a hurry. Some of us are lazy. We don't want to fill in the data. Okay. Guys, a CRM is only as good as what you put into it. And so fill out the data.

Stop skipping steps. Put in the job titles, the full names, the phone numbers, the emails, every bit of information you have when you make a call, put the results of that call when you make an email, tie it, tie it to the CRM so that you can go back in six months and actually figure it out. Heck, if you're recording meetings, put the transcript for the meeting in there, put the meeting summary in there.

Make sure that your CRMs are so packed full of data that if somebody with no experience with no understanding of that customer was to go into that CRM in six months time, they could fully understand the picture. They could fully understand the customer need and what needs to be done next. That is the level that we need to take our CRMs to.

It is not that hard. It comes down to discipline, guys. Once again, discipline. In actually filling out the full amount of data and making sure that we do that every single time. If we can start doing that every single time, your CRM will become invaluable. Understand me. Invaluable and irreplaceable. Start to use them fully and they will change your business, they will change your life, okay?

Remember to you guys that we are putting in new leads to our CRM on a weekly basis. Okay, hear me weekly basis. We need to be doing a hundred digital introductions a week on our LinkedIn's and we need to be inputting all the people we reach out to on LinkedIn into our new lead section, our digital introduction section of our CRM.

So make sure that we are keeping that up to date and we consistently have a funnel of new leads. Yeah, it's going to be huge compared to your weekly contact list. And that's okay because it is much better to have too many leads Then two little leads every day of the week. So I want you guys to start making sure that you are adding your digital introduction stage to your CRM and anybody that you connect with in those hundred invites and send your own digital introductions to you with your brochures, that you are adding them to that stage for future weekly followup.

Okay. Number five, we need a desire to become better. We are not in this to be mediocre. Nobody wants to be mediocre, right? You guys didn't start your business development, your sales careers to make you know, a median salary. I just want to be average. I just want to make, you know, whatever I need to make to pay my bills and not live the life I want.

Guys, that's none of you. Quit it. Quit pretending that's you. You do care. You can be better. You have a desire to be better. You just lost it somewhere, okay? Somewhere along the lines, you got comfortable, and you forgot about that. But today we're going to kick it back up because you know what? If you want to succeed more, if you want to stand out in a crowd, you have to be better than the crowd.

You have to put yourself out there more than everyone else. You have to do a little more than everyone else to stand out. Okay? There's no easy button. You can't get there by being mediocre. You can't get there by being average. So stop it. Stop playing average. Stop it. You can do this. You can become better.

Remember, a desire that outweighs your need to be comfortable. That's what you need. You need to figure out your why. Why is it that you show up to work every day? Because it's more than just your kids. It's more than just paying your bills. It's more than your mortgage, okay? You care about success. You care about doing better, about achieving more.

You don't want to just be another business development person. You want to be one of the best. You want to be one of the best, and you can be. The only thing that you need to do that, is you need your desire to be better, to be bigger than your desire to be comfortable. Because guess what? You're not going to get there in comfort.

You're going to have to push your boundaries, you're going to have to get a little uncomfortable to find it, but trust me, when you find it, you will excel to a level that you could never have imagined. When you push your boundaries, you know what you learn? It was silly you even had them. And you could have done way more.

And I want you to figure that out now and not wait another day to figure it out, okay? Because one day, you are going to be too old. One day your career is going to be over. And I don't want you to look back and say, I could have done better. I should have done better. You can do better today. Stop waiting.

Tomorrow is never coming until you put down the pen and say, you know what, today is the day. Because if you keep putting it to tomorrow, it's never going to happen. Okay? So remember, the secret to becoming better is to learn to make the uncomfortable comfortable. You know how you make the uncomfortable comfortable?

You put yourself in uncomfortable situations whenever and wherever possible. And trust me, I'm speaking from experience. I hate uncomfortable situations. But I've also learned in this podcast, in my business career, in my business ownership, in my leadership, That the only way to the success you really want is through discomfort.

There's no easy way to get there. If there was an easy way to get there, we'd all be friggin successful. We'd all be the best business development people. We'd all be leaders at every organization we're at. But we're not, are we? We're not. Because we are afraid to be uncomfortable. Learn to make the uncomfortable comfortable.

And you will become better. Inevitably. There's no way about it. Accept that you don't know it all, okay? We cannot become better until we accept we don't have all the answers. I don't have all the answers. I give you as much as I can on a weekly basis. I'm learning every single day. I'm learning how to be a better business development person.

I'm learning how to be a better business owner. I'm learning how to be a better entrepreneur. I'm learning how to be a better Kelly, okay? I do not have all the answers. I am no longer afraid to admit that. There was a time when I was afraid to admit that. But the reality is, I do not have all the answers.

I, I recently had a message come in from a gentleman who is a long time listener of the show, asked me a question. I did not have an answer for him. And I straight up said, I said, you know what? I do not have expertise in this area. I apologize. I would love to answer this for you, but anything I told you would be total bullshit.

And he thanked me. He thanked me for my time and he thanked me for my candidness and honesty. And there's nothing wrong with not knowing, but there is something wrong with pretending you know it all when you don't. And so don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to say, I don't know, but I'm going to find out.

Don't be afraid to learn. Don't be afraid of new technology. Just don't be afraid. There's a thousand things you don't know, and that's okay. Because if you knew it all, it'd be pretty damn boring, wouldn't it? If you had nothing left to learn, my gosh, what a boring existence, okay? The reality is There's a lot you don't know.

And guess what? That's a gigantic, gigantic opportunity for long term improvement. Number six, we need a will to win. Okay? So much of my success as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a podcaster, as a business development specialist. I hate losing guys. I've hated losing since I was a little kid, whether it be video games, sports, whatever.

I hate losing. And you know what? I'm going to lose and I'm going to fail and I'm going to have shitty situations. And you know what? I'm going to be pissed off about it, but I'm going to get over it. I'm going to learn my lesson and I'm going to move on and I'm going to find the next win. Because. I don't dwell in the losses.

I find a way forward. I can't stay there because if I stay there, I'll never find the next win. And so you have to find that will to win. You must want a winning outcome whenever and wherever possible. And I get it. It is not always possible. That is okay. You go for it anyway. You go for the win wherever you can, and you are going to have way more wins than losses because a lot of the times your win is one more effort away.

It's one more meeting away. It's one more proposal away. Okay, your win is right there. You have to go for it. You have to go for it every time. You have to put in the extra work until you get the result you want. Okay, think about it this way. If you make 20 calls a day on behalf of your organization and you're not booking the meetings you need to be booking.

What does that mean? Well, it means a couple of things, but let me tell you right now. You should put in 25, right? If 20 isn't doing it, find the number that is. And yeah, you need to get better. And that's okay. We all have to get better at our value proposition, at our pitches. But understand that if you are not getting the results you need to get.

It does not give you permission to keep doing the same thing that is not getting you results. Understand me? You need to find what gets results. You need to find your win. How do you get your win? If 20 calls isn't cutting it, maybe 25. If 25 isn't cutting it, maybe 30. Maybe a re evaluation on the pitch and then going back to 30 and seeing if that does it.

But understand, if you are not getting the results you need to get with the effort you are putting in, you need to probably put in more effort. And once again, this comes back to discipline, this comes back to a will to win, but you can't be okay with endless loss. You can't be okay with not getting the results you want, because if you are okay with that, you will never grow.

You will never find the path forward. You must turn your failures into lessons and try again, okay? Failure is going to happen. If you're trying to win, you are inevitably going to lose. Hey, like we can't win everything. You can't. Someone's got to win a basketball game. You have two players. One might be better than the other.

Someone is losing. Okay. It doesn't mean you didn't want to win. It doesn't mean you didn't fight hard, but it does mean you lost. However, there is always a lesson to be learned in the loss. And the only failure in a loss is if we learn nothing. And so Note the failure, note the lesson, learn the lesson, deploy the lesson, and that way you won't have that failure again.

Or at least you'll have a much reduced risk of experiencing that challenge or that failure again, okay? We only fail if we learn nothing. And so understand, a failure is still a win if we learn. If we learn the lesson. And apply the lesson to our business and to our lives. Okay, guys, a failure is also a learning position.

A failure can be turned into a win if we learn the lesson and do not repeat it. Okay, number seven, we have to embrace trial and error. Embracing trial and error, guys, is what has made me successful in life, right? Copy, for instance, we're doing a proposal, a pitch. It's almost never right the first time. You have to learn what is effective and what is not, right?

Your social media strategies. What is effective and what is not? The only way you're going to learn is trial and error. But guess what? Unless you try, you're never going to learn. So how many of you are reluctant to put stuff out on social media? To put yourself out there? Guess what? You're always going to be reluctant until you get out there and actually try it.

And yeah, maybe it goes shitty. Maybe you fall on your face. Guess what? I've fallen on my face plenty. Okay? I've had plenty of shows where I was not happy with it. I've put out social media posts that I was reluctant to. I've put pictures of myself out there that weren't flattering. Okay? It's okay. It's okay, because I learned.

I learned what I liked. I learned what worked and what didn't work. I learned there's people out there who really like this show, who really like me putting out the effort, even if I'm not always 150 percent happy with it, okay? There's amazing, amazing things that happen if you are willing to put yourself out there, and trial and error is just a part of the process.

But trust me, unless you try, you cannot learn what works. Unless you make it. 20 cold calls that fall flat on your face. You'll never learn about the one that didn't. You have to trial and error. You have to find out what works and guess what? Winning proposals. They typically come from trial and error winning social media strategies, trial and error.

Winning copy, winning pitches of any kinds, trial and error, and learning the lesson, deploying the lesson, and not repeating the error, guys. Trust me. Trust me on this. Stop not trying because you're afraid of falling on your face. I want you to fall on your face, learn the lesson, get back up, dust yourself off, do it again, and win.

I want you all to win, but there is no win without discomfort. There is no win without trial and error. There is no win without learning the losses first, okay? But if you guys get out there, you try it, you 100 percent are going to learn. You 100 percent are going to achieve more and you 100 percent are going to win over time.

Number eight, our final rule, find what works and replicate, okay? We've talked about it, guys. We've talked about trial and error. We've talked about learning the lessons. Where does this all lead? This all leads to success. This all leads to the thing you learned that works. This leads to the social posts that get the most engagement.

This leads to the podcast. That gets the most traction. This leads to the proposals that win the most bids. This leads to the calls that lead to the most meetings. When you learn these things, pat yourself on the back, celebrate, because it came from hard learned lessons. But, when you have it, and I've seen this happen more often than you could imagine, do not stop doing it.

How many people have found the path to the winning proposal, have found the path to the winning phone call, and then change it? Go right back to doing the thing that didn't work for them. I've seen this happen more often than you guys could imagine. When you find what works, replicate it. Find twists on it that make it even better.

But replicate what got you to success. Because what got you to success will also get you to the next success. And the next success, right? If you find what works, do it again. Do it again. Do it again. And keep repeating the success, okay? Figure out what works. And do more of that. Don't go back to doing the same old crap that wasn't working for you.

If you implement these lessons and you start to get a whole bunch of success, do not go back to being undisciplined. Do not go back to not wanting to be better. Do not go back. Okay. Figure out what works for you. If it starts to work, do more of that because success breeds more success over time. Okay? You got this.

You got this. Find what works, do more of it, and you will be inevitably, inevitably more successful. Embrace these lessons and don't just stand out. Differentiate yourself. Exponentially shout outs this week. Lasse Joergensen, Colin Harms, Rodney Lover, Aaron Haberman, Carmen Labelle, Zale Moransky, Esther Hall, Jason Chakalakal, Jesse Shuchuk, Monty Pedersen, Govind Khosa, Martin Blessing, Joel Magalnick, Derek Nolt, Marcela Mandeville, Jerry Luke, Ken Gee, Ben Gioia, Jordan Murphy, Juan Martin Germano, Alan Pentz, Oli Johnson, and Dr. Neetu Johnson. Until next time, this has been episode 151 of the Business Development Podcast, and we will catch you on On the flip side.

Outro: 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 @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.