Tutorial

FYI

Biz Dev Questionnaire

Substantiation

What experiences have you had that reveal your superior characteristics?

An important biz dev goals is to reveal to your prospects that you have the ability to deliver. A common strategy is to simply claim that you have a particular skill or capability. But claiming capability may not be enough. You want to communicate your ability in a way that has more credibility and power.

One of the best ways to reveal your superior characteristics is to tell stories about your experiences. These "War Stories" make your experiences come alive. Telling stories has always been a primary motivational mechanism for helping people learn, believe and remember important information.

There is a fundamental belief that prior behavior portends future behavior. You should select experiences that are emblematic of the characteristics you want your prospects to know. For example, if you want to reveal your creativity, list experiences in which you were particularly creative. If you are proud of your ability to solve complex problems, list an experience where you solved a particularly complex problem.

Of course you cannot list all of your experiences. But you can list key experiences that will be motivational to the majority of your prospects.

Plus, this process, will teach you how to think about this issue and help you be prepared to use experiences as a way of motivating prospects. For example, if your prospect has a need that requires that you be very thorough, you will be trained in immediately telling a war story about a situation where you were particularly thorough.

You should review this section periodically because you will constantly be having new experiences that improve your ability to motivate your prospects.