A Day In The Life Of A Business Development Representative At William Blair

That's a lot. There are amazing things happening on a daily basis. You'll see me doing analysis on the marketplace.

For example, when I'm looking to prospect clients in my territory, everything west of the Mississippi, I look at pension plans, foundations, and institutional investors. I go through databases to identify key investment committee decision-makers for these investment programs.

When I do that, I'm also studying their needs. I look at board minutes of their investment committee. I'm really trying to identify a solution that we can provide for these potential clients. I get on the phone, do Zoom calls, and engage in powerful conversations to create opportunities as a solutions provider.

At the same time, I'm working with them to network. A lot of it is from scratch. We're looking to identify key decision-makers we can partner with for the long term. That's one aspect of it, the calls and Zoom calls.

I also spend time traveling. You'll see me on a plane going from city to city, whether it be from LA to Austin, Austin to Seattle, or Seattle to Chicago. All of it is business meetings where we explain our story, share our narrative about what we do, and how we differentiate ourselves from the competition.

In other parts, I'm preparing for a final pitch. This is where we're at the tail end of a partnership possibility. I'm analyzing markets, our solutions, our investment strategies, and how we fit. I'm studying the competition, analyzing what they do better and differently.

It's a holistic and comprehensive approach. When I go to bat to finally close the deal, sometimes I close the deal and then I'm working to manage the relationship and onboard our clients. I then pass that on to our client service specialists.

It's multifaceted, from creating an initial conversation with a prospect who doesn't know me to someone who has known me for five years, and we're just trying to close the possibility of a partnership together.