Significant Career Lesson from a Head of Business Development at Xsolla

Never underestimate the power of relationship building, especially in something like business development. Our job is predicated on the relationships we build with our customers and clients, and the trust they have in us to look out for them and their businesses.

When selling a product, people want to know they're dealing with someone trustworthy, someone they can continue to do business with long-term. Most folks aren't looking to swap vendors frequently; ideally, you want to work with one partner for an extended period.

Learning how to develop and nurture those relationships, and making people feel like you genuinely care about their wellbeing and their business's wellbeing, is crucial. Many clients have internal stakeholders they report to and objectives they need to achieve within their organizations. Helping them accomplish these things can build significant goodwill and trust.

It's like in sales, there's the cliche of the sleazy car salesman. You never want your clients to feel like they're just another line item on a PowerPoint sheet, someone you just need to hit up for revenue before moving on to the next. While many people do business that way, I personally don't.

The phrase I always use is "be relational, not transactional." If you are relational, the transactions will continue to come. If you focus solely on getting through the transaction, yes, money is important, as we are in business.

However, if people feel you're just after the money and not focused on helping them succeed, they're less likely to continue engaging with you long-term. I have clients now whom I consider friends, having worked with them over the years and built a strong rapport and relationship.

At this point, they don't even bid out projects to anyone else. In my old role, this was certainly the case. My new role is more internal, but in my previous position, it reached a point where clients would say, "I don't need a proposal, we're not bidding this out. We're giving this to you, just give me the price and timeline, we'll get it approved."

This comes from building those relationships and trust over time because they understand you have their best interests at heart and can execute effectively. This gives them the confidence to continue working with you. Therefore, I believe the number one skill you can develop as a business developer or salesperson is creating and maintaining those relationships.

This sometimes means checking in with people even when there isn't an immediate revenue-generating opportunity. In my previous sales and client-facing roles, I used to read a lot. If I saw anything that reminded me of a client, I'd send them the article with a quick note.

I'd say something like, "Hey man, saw this, and it made me think of you. Here are my thoughts," or "I'd be curious to hear what you're working on or how this might work for your business." Often, they appreciate just receiving that information or knowing you're thinking about them or their business outside of the regular transactional interactions.

Sometimes, this can lead to more business because they might say, "I hadn't thought about this, let's explore ways we can make something work." Ultimately, business development is all about the relationships you maintain and develop.