Fit For Business Development?

What aspects of business development do you least like? For many it is the initial chemistry meeting, or the big pitch where the stakes are very high. Those are my favourites. I am less keen on all the activities around keeping in touch. That means I need to pay special attention when in that zone, so it's targets, goals and activity if I want success.

Activity. It is about activity. The right sort of activity. The Snip got me a Fitbit for my right wrist. It logs my activity and will tell me if I am losing weight... if I log in my calories. I know how to lose half a stone in two months and have done it before but it is one thing to know how to do something, quite another to do it.

This little black band has, however, changed my behaviour. Breakfasting (healthily, I have rediscovered porridge) on the South Bank of the Thames I had a meeting in Moorgate, a few miles away. Taxi or tube, normally. My map app says 38 minutes to walk.

By quarter past ten I had decided to walk the two miles. It is not clever to plan arriving five minutes before an important meeting kicks off, but I reckoned I could shave ten minutes off those 38 by stepping out a bit quicker and I can always jump a fast black if necessary. But I am comfortably outside at just after quarter to the hour. I walked back too and my new friend told me I had burned over 3000 calories that day. Nice, very nice.

And so it continues. Today I am walking to the gig (good shoes in my briefcase) and watching what calories I am shoving in my face. Do you think it works, putting out more and putting less in? My spoffy digital scales say yes: four pounds down, three to go. Then I fancy taking another seven pounds off, taking my weight to what it was when I was still playing football on a Saturday (I have no intention of buying a pair of boots...).

So to the big white board with the sales figures on it. The principle is exactly the same: put the right stuff in, get good stuff out.

Set yer goal, measure yer activity, move in the right direction, feel the motivation, keep doing it. Just like my Fitbit lets me know how I am doing if I play nice, so should your BD activity: measure it and don't cheat.

Ah, cheating. On the calorie front I confess I have been cheating as I have no patience for looking up the numbers: I guess. But when I guess I add a few in for good measure rather than underestimate, so when I step on the scales I usually get a nice surprise, not a shock.

The last lesson then, is not to pretend you are doing the BD thang when you are not. Busy work does not cut it. And when putting those numbers on the board, be an optimist if you like... But a realistic optimist.

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Russell Wardrop is our Chief Executive. If you would like to know more about this subject, drop him an email and we will be in touch.