Design the Right Team to Win

One of the brilliant aspects of consulting is the opportunity to step in to a wide variety of business development teams. I enjoy hopping in and out of people lives - getting to know how they operate, learning from what goes well and what doesn't, then skipping away before I get engulfed in office politics. That means that I get to gather countless lessons learned and cultivate a mental archive of all the good, bad, and ugly. What works, what doesn't, and what could work if it was given just a slight tweak.

At this stage in my consulting life, I've seen business development teams of all shapes and sizes. From tiny one-woman shops to bustling machines with teams for everything, there are so many options on how to design a successful business development operation.

I've seen teams organized in dozens of different ways.

What's interesting to me is that no one is talking about this. Aside from a few *unnamed* consulting firms, who get paid bank to pop in, tell your organization what it's doing wrong, then disappear without a change management strategy to help you get there, it's nearly impossible for organizations to learn what works and what doesn't when it comes to structuring their business development teams.

The only way that knowledge transfer seems to happen is by recruiting a senior level business development position. They bring their knowledge from the team they came up in, and they try to apply it to the new organization. This works - in a way - but they're still bringing only a small window into the different ways business development teams can be set up.

I get it. This is privileged information. Organizations hold their structures nearly as close to the chest as they do their strategies. It may just be the thing that helps them win. It may be the secret to their success.

But I don't like secrets.

I think that we all win more if we can all learn from each other. The amazing thing here is that what works so well in one place - for one team - may not work at all somewhere else. It's impossible to apply perfect replication. This is more nuanced that taking the exact model that was used elsewhere and slapping it over the top of your own business process and culture.

With that in mind, I want to pull back the curtain ever so slightly. Based on my knowledge and inside look at so many different organizations, I've pulled together some mock business development team structures in a simple digital download packaged just for you. These aren't my clients - these are amalgams of my clients.

Each model shows how a business development team can be structured in a unique way to emphasize a different area - be it recruiting, technical design, whatever. I've seen these structures, and I've participated in them at work. And for only $99 you can see for yourself what they look like.

There are pros and cons to each different structural model.

That's why I don't want to leave you with this digital download alone.

Anyone who purchases the $99 business development team structures download will receive a digital coupon for a free 30-minute consultation.

I'll set up a time to talk over the phone and answer any question about the structures outlined there (except which client informed them). I'll talk you through what work, what didn't, and what I'd recommend for my own clients.

Normally, an hour of strategic advising like this would cost you well over $100, but with this digital product, you'll get that half hour completely free.

What are you waiting for?

Help me unburden myself from secrets.