Resources 
 

The biggest growth opportunity your business has is already inside your current accounts. Most companies never find it. You've had the same clients for years — but you've never met their other divisions A competitor is already having those conversations Your team asks for more of the same. They should be asking about what's next. Growth doesn't wait for the market to improve Account growth is not account management. Managing an account means keeping what you have. Growing o

It's not charisma. It's not a network. It's not even talent. It's curiosity—and most people stop using it the moment they feel competent. The good business development pro answers the client's questions. The great one asks the ones they haven't thought of. Understanding the goal—not just the bid—changes what you propose and how they see you The best-paid "unpaid employee" on your client's payroll is the one who cares about their business Great is not a personality type. It's

Your team works with people from everywhere. "One size fits all" leadership is costing you deals and losing you talent. What reads as confidence in one culture reads as arrogance in another Silence in a meeting isn't disengagement—but you might be treating it that way The nod doesn't always mean yes The team you're managing doesn't think about hierarchy the way you do Global business means your business development and leadership teams are working across cultures every day—wi

Your team is answering questions the client never asked. The best business development professionals are asking ones the client hasn't thought of yet. "What do you need?" is a vendor question. "What keeps you up at night?" is an advisor question. Most salespeople pitch too early because they stopped listening too early The question you don't ask is the opportunity your competitor finds Understanding the problem is 80% of the sale Asking better questions is not a communication

The best business development professionals don't win deals. They make losing them difficult. Your client calls you before the RFP goes out You're involved in shaping what they're going to buy—before anyone else knows it exists Price comparisons don't apply when you're the one who defined the need "Preferred vendor" is a position. This is how you earn it. There is a tier of business development professionals who almost never lose a competitive bid—not because they're better a

You didn't lose on price. You lost on value—and nobody told you. The buyer smiled through the whole process. Then chose someone else. You bid what they asked for. They needed something you didn't offer. Your proposal answered their question. Not their problem. The competitor who won understood the business. You understood the spec. Most business development professionals debrief a lost deal and conclude the other side was cheaper. Sometimes that's true. More often, the winnin

Saying yes to every term doesn't mean you won the negotiation. It usually means you lost it. Your team keeps giving ground when they don't have to Price pressure is real—but it's rarely the whole story The other side always has a "why." Do you know what it is? The best negotiators win before they get to the table Most negotiation training teaches tactics: anchoring, silence, making the first offer. GWA's approach goes deeper. The negotiators who consistently win aren't the on

The lunch, the golf, the relationship. It used to be enough. It isn't anymore. · Your buyers research suppliers before they call you · A competitor just walked in with insights you didn't bring · "We've always worked together" is not a competitive advantage · The relationship gets you in the room. Value earns the business. If your team is good at relationships but the business isn't growing, the playbook has changed. Today's buyers are under pr

Every service business has them—the account managers who know the customer's operations inside out, who get called first when something breaks, who could recite the client's org chart from memory. They're valuable, but they're not growing the business. Take a client your team has served for six years. Three other divisions sit inside that same company, and none of them has ever heard from you. Account management was never set up to catch that. The job is keeping today's relat

You didn't lose that client to a cheaper competitor. You lost them long before the price conversation started. The invoice kept going out—but the relationship quietly went cold They stopped returning calls as fast. You didn't notice. Someone else was having the conversations you weren't By the time they left, the decision was already made Client retention isn't a service delivery problem. It's a business development problem. Most companies assume that doing good work is enoug