BD from the Friendzone
When most people hear the term “friendzone”, they think of romantic relationships.
You know. It’s the dreaded position to be in — when one person has amorous intentions, but the other person only sees their relationship as friends.
In my business development consulting conversations, I am often asked about how to extend personal relationships beyond the friendzone (my term) to offer professional services. In their own words, it feels artificial, awkward, and even somewhat pushy.
It’s a risk, right? By leveraging your friendship, you are putting yourself out on a limb even more so than when you pitch a stranger.
You may ask yourself:
What if you’re rejected?
Or, what if the sale is successful, yet the technical execution by your operations team is lacking?
Will the friendship survive?
The advice that I offer when I consult my clients about this topic includes:
Assess
Examine each relationship within your network. You may be sitting on a voluntary board for your PTA with the CFO of an organization in which your company is already targeting.
Strategize
Start small but be intentional. Not every personal relationship needs to be leveraged right now.
Timing
This is the part where most people get stuck. You must choose the best moment to do the ask.
As you pivot from personal to professional, the best time is often not when you’re at a casual event such as your child’s soccer game. However, you can utilize that relaxed environment to ask for a business meeting to discuss your service offering.
Because of the relationship, your likelihood of garnering that pitch will be increased, as will the probability of gaining the sale. When you are successful, it’s imperative that you shepherd the project to its close to ensure that the client experience that you promised is realized.
Analyze
Once you achieve victory, then don’t forget to reflect upon what worked best for you from that friendzone scenario. We all have our own unique DNA when it comes to BD. Make sure that you analyze your unique tactics so that you can rinse and repeat again.
By the way, prior to Authentizity, I did have a few sales in which the handoff from BD to operations was lackluster in that the contractual promises did not meet the quality of the delivery. I stepped in, as I could, to assist and to get it back on track. Most of all, those friendships survived and even thrive to this day.
Authentizity would not exist but for my personal allies and network. Since founding Authentizity in 2017, I have worked with many of my friends to create programs individualized to their organizations and team’s needs. In the early years especially, Authentizity was built on first-line relationships from professional colleagues with mutual respect and knowledge of my accomplishments.
I have experienced that those relationships are deepened further because of our work together. BD from the friendzone is a risk, but the reward is most definitely worth it!
If you’d like to explore this or any of the other topics on business development that I’ve recently covered, then please contact me at dlandry@authentizity.com.
