This week I’m bringing out the big guns. Epictitus, a slave in the Roman empire, was one of the most influential Stoic teachers during that period. One of his most important ideas was something that all of his teachings depended on:
“Some things are within our power, while others are not. Within our powers are opinion, motivation, desire, and aversion … not within our power are our body, our property, reputation, and office …”
Of course, he wasn’t talking about business development. But BD might be the purest stress test of his idea ever devised.
What’s the normal position we all run to when a big opportunity is on the line?
“We simply MUST land this one!”
This is even more true when the market is soft, when every prospect matters more, and the sales funnel is thin. So, you pour yourself into the outcome. You follow up a little too aggressively, you sharpen the pencil on rates, and you tell the prospect exactly what they want to hear. And all of this is aimed at the one thing you’re desperately trying to control — signing on the line which is dotted.
Are you ready for some truth?
You don’t control who signs.
You control everything that makes signing likely.
So, this week, when a deal goes cold, do a solid post-mortem. Where was the disconnect? Was it a budget freeze, a timing problem, or an incumbent relationship you were never going to crack? Take what it taught you and move to the next opportunity. On the other hand, if the disconnect was yours, then that’s your work, and it’s good news, because your work is the one thing you control.
Everyone is chasing the win right now, but not everyone is spending their energy on what they can control.
Be the firm that works on what it can control. That’s where the next win lives.