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The most important thing to understand in selling professional services (of which design services are a subset) is that you should not assume that a prospective client will fully understand how the design studio can add value to the client's business. If you enter into the busdev process fully expecting to have to work closely with the client using words and numbers to scope the project and its justification, you are much more likely to succeed than if you walk in expecting the client to know everything they need to know about maximising their investment in design.

One way to think about business development is to break down into the main tasks or objectives:

Business Development Process

1. Find prospects
2. Determine what the prospects might be interested in from you
3. Set up a relationship-opening discussion with the prospect
4. Find out what the prospect is REALLY worried about
5. Present the studio's value proposition and positioning
6. In your own words, play back to the prospect what their design issues are
7. Then go on to suggest ways how you might work with them to solve these issue
8. And also suggest what the business outcomes/results might be
9. If the prospect takes the bait, negotiate a contract

Since many existing articles on this site touch upon the above steps, I thought I should simply list those articles as they relate to each step:

Determine what the prospects might be interested in:

• Marketing 101

Studio value proposition and positioning

• We all know design is important, but why?
• The role or influence of design
• What they want...
• Clients or projects?

The prospect's design issues:

• We're here to solve a problem

Ways in which you can work with them (also, why you rather than the competition):

• Competitive advantage for designers
• Competitive advantage, Part 2

Suggest what the business outcomes/results might be:

• Marketing 102

Negotiate contract:

• Pricing of Design Services
• Retainers and Other Forms of Payment
• Copyright Basics 1

Right, the above list pretty much leaves us with one main query which is, "how do I find prospects and set up a first discussion?"

Some ideas for you to play with:

A. Do a survey of potental clients to understand their design-related issues. Offer as an incentive a sanitised report comparing them to other corporations - this is also a fantastic excuse for a 2nd meeting. The beauty of this approach is that it enables you to clearly and unambiguously say, "I am not here to sell you anything", which is one big reason why people refuse cold calls. You can use your personal network, as well as other sources, to identify who is the right person to either get an entree into the corporation, or who may be exactly the right person to talk to.

B. Do an external review of a prospect's design work, assess it in comparison to their publicly stated strategy (from site or annual report or press clippings) and offer to set up a no-strings-attached discussion of your assessment.

C. Using the principles I outline in the "Clients or Projects" article, go through the stock exchange listing of companies and pick out the ones that fall into your chosen approach, then use techniques A or B.

Good Luck!

"Andrew,

Having worked in a business development role for a global design agency Citigate Lloyd Northover I understand the level of work involved in pitching for new business. For quite some time I have been scouring the internet for literature to enhance my grasp of the techniques for selling design. Never have I come across such a comprehensive, yet succinct blue print. If you have further material available, could you please recommend where I could find this!"

Good luck to all of you with sales and marketing responsibilities.