[YouTube link]
I still remember my first product company -- it was so exciting to work with something tangible; this is what it looks like, this is what it does, this is how it compares to other products, and so on.
When you sell, you are dealing with an existing product (and/or service), the features and functionality, what it looks like, what it does, how it helps you do what you need to get done, etc.
Business development is a different (value) proposition -- and a competence current organizations need to fully develop to succeed in growing beyond increments. It is the ability to see the future before it happens, and the capabilities to build a roadmap to get you there.
And you don't do that with incremental improvements.
You do that by looking at what is there through a new filter. Whether that means envisioning something, in this case convergence, before it happens, as in the Steve Jobs video here [hat tip Steve Cheney], or executing a real operational integration by supporting it through technology.
In the segment shot around 1980, at around 17:35', Jobs talks about software/hardware integration:
“More and more, software is getting integrated into the hardware…
Yesterday’s software is today’s hardware. Those two things are merging. And the line between hardware and software is going to get finer and finer and finer.
And one of the ways that we’re approaching the problem of trying to remove the barrier is to try to look ahead a few years and try to make some predictions at how the technologies are merging, and at the same time very carefully looking at the kinds of high level tools our customers are going to need and trying to make those two points the same target.
When we build tools and identify what works in existing situations to make it better and amplify its effectiveness (Job's example of a computer as bicycle for the mind), we are coming up with net new applications.
Technology is part of that; yet not the only part.
That is what we do in business development scenarios. Unprompted and unscripted, we sign up to help organizations figure out what matters, identify what is needed, then prioritize what comes first, second, and third, etc.
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effect on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her to speak click here.