If you are in business development in professional services and you are thinking that we will get back to normal by the Autumn or by Christmas or by Spring 2021 you are making a mistake.  You are kicking the can down the road and not taking the opportunity to learn, change and deliver what your clients need now.  That in summary is what Mo Bunnell (CEO & Founder of Bunnell Idea Group) is saying in the video below, and I agree.

This pandemic sucks.  It has negatively impacted all our lives.  It has changed the way we work and the way we can drive growth in our businesses.   However, this reality does not give us the opportunity to do nothing.  To wait.  To simply hope that soon we can get back to how we used to do our business development.  It might be a shame; it might seem too hard but it is true.

Hopefully, it will not be permanent - but right now it makes sense to act like it is here forever.  That way you can release yourself from the 'hope' that the old ways of driving business will be back soon.  Assume that forever you cannot run events, you cannot entertain clients over posh lunches, you cannot invite prospects into your posh offices or take them to the tennis, football, or opera.   

The way we act now within this new reality - and in particular our mindset - is the thing that will help us survive and hopefully thrive.

As Mo says learn how to build relationships in this environment.  Try new stuff, fail, learn and keep evolving your approach to help your clients.  As a partner at Deloitte told me a few months ago 'We cannot keep physically close so we must keep virtually close'.   Invest in new skills.  Pivot. Change.  

Check out Mo Bunnel's video below.  I love this quote from Mo:

"Own your time now, invest in your future self, learn new tools, try new (BD) techniques. You will find out what works now and that will not just pay off today it will pay off next week, next month, next year and over the next decade".