What Business Development REALLY Means, According to Cannon Carr

Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is your personal definition of business development?

• If you have a craft that you know and love and want to grow, you are naturally going to step into business development so you might as well do it right.
• For Cannon, business development is about connecting people and ideas. He thinks of it as purposeful engagement that connects those two things.
• Connecting people with ideas often becomes deeply personal. During the pandemic, Cannon noticed a number of clients struggling with aging parents so they put a lot of effort into coming up with and connecting clients with ideas to help manage the issue.
• Taxes and the rapidly changing legislative landscape has been another area where Cannon and his team have been working with clients to stay ahead of the curve.
• The foundation is always being helpful rather than looking directly for business. It’s not about the revenue, it’s about enriching lives.
• Sometimes the solution falls outside of the firm’s specialty and that’s okay as long as the end result is helping a person out.
• You have to think of your relationships as a portfolio with investements in people all the time. Being proactive and helpful will eventually pay off.
• Not everything will connect. You have to look for additional opportunities to be helpful and keep reaching out.
• Think about business development as solving problems through connecting people and ideas together. If you are doing a good job, you will naturally get your share of the business. Proactive engagement is vital for service businesses.

Mentioned in this Episode:

GrowBIGPlaybook.com

ccarr@cornercap.com

cornercap.com