Business Development based on relationships 101

Warren Leow

Oct 2016

Hello. My name is Warren and I wore many hats.

Business development is just another name for hustling, but with a more strategic mindset

Framing: Framing is the first step towards engineering outcomes

Objective Positioning Offering Ask Closure

Reinforcing/ Nurturing

Why are alliances useful?

Personality Product Values

Reputation Visibility

Shared aspirations

• Support network

• Cross marketing & PR

• Mentoring

• Route to Market

• Sales

• ….

What are you hunting?

Context: Target the right levels and adjust your tone accordingly

I- CEO

II- C-Level

III- Senior Managers

IV- Normal Managers

V- Frontline operational

Don’t miss the forest for the trees

Tactical Strategic

Low Pay-Off

High Pay-Off

Deal won’t be sustainable; Focus on other areas instead

You should target these moon-shots yourself

Get your biz dev people to chalk up numbers as part of ‘sales’

De-prioritise as these will be distractions

Objective: Alliances can be classified into ‘build’, ‘defend’, ‘attack’, ‘spread’

Attack: attack with partners

Build: pollinate ideas

Defend: create barriers of entry

Spread: develop ecosystem

Context: Define your positioning and projection from the beginning

Hard-ball

Individualistic

Fair

Soft

Federal

Opportunistic

vs

Emotional Rational

vs

vs

vs

Risky Conservativevs

Funny Seriousvs

Giver Takervs

Social capital takes time and effort to build and nurture

Help out with publicity

Share advice & insights

Provide introductions

Intermediate

How would you reach and nurture the 10-50-100 people

who can help?

How should you start when there is nothing at all?

New starter Leadership

How do you build a following based on credibility?

Practise your own script to have clarity in articulation

Be humble & don’t feel entitled

Add people on Facebook/Linkedin

Use any slight advantage that you have

Try to sound smart and passionate

Stand your ground/ Don’t get intimidated

Study the evolution of propaganda and brand-building

Respect boundaries

How are heroes formed or built?

Be genuine & truthful

Make time for F2F

How does a role model carry himself or herself?

Trade favours/insights to strengthen ties with multiple touch points

TakeGive

Tools to increase frequency of touch points:

Face to faceFacebookLinkedinWhatsappEmailForumsIntroductions

A nice person will send at least a one liner reply, and that is enough as an opening to follow through.

Informational capital needs you to focus on being the center of flow

How to form an information ‘focus-point’ or ‘choke-point’?

How to diffuse and spread information?

Do I know some useful market intelligence?

Am I an expert in something?

Is my knowledge valuable? Will people pay or barter for it?

Ask: How should I approach a person?

• When trying to score a meeting:– Start with deference– Understand motivations,

reservations– Be crystal clear– Offer something in return– Follow-up to nurture– Email, social media,

introductions

• Keep trying, keep hustling

Closure: Negotiations

• What am I optimising for?

– ROI? Sales? Prestige? Optionality?

• Should perception reflect reality?

• Which are the levers for compromise?

• Are we playing a single or multi-stage game?

• Which other stakeholders would I need to involve?

• What is the card in my back pocket?

MOVE THE NEEDLE

You can fake it till you make it but try to be 100% truthful

Stay away from these people and don’t be like them

Those who can’t keep simple

promises

Those who think they are too

important or fake

Those who have no constructive input to

add

Avoid wannabes

Objective Positioning Offering Ask Closure

Framing: Framing is the first step

Example: Respect is everything-especially given generational shifts

Example: Communication clarity will help save a lot of grief

Example: Relationship building is based on shared values and goals

Objective: Gather all the relevant technology-space leaders to network and give back

Positioning: Come meet other peers to grow the ecosystem together

Offering: A chance to give back; Everyone is in- are you in?

Closure: Each one of them became mentors or partners for programs

Example: Comparable benchmarks help to illustrate a point

Source: http://quotes.wsj.com/CN/XSHE/000681/financials

Example: Unicroach 250m group becomes a 24/7 accelerator of its own