Business Development Training & Coaching
Successful business development depends on people. Their ability to build relationships, recognise opportunities, communicate value and take the initiative can make a significant difference to an organisation’s growth.
Yet business development doesn’t always come naturally, particularly to professionals whose expertise lies in delivering services rather than winning work.
At Extended Thinking, we provide practical business development training, coaching and mentoring to help you and your teams become more confident, capable and effective in developing business.
We work particularly with B2B businesses, professional firms and organisations that sell expertise, tailoring our support to people’s roles, experience and the commercial challenges they face.
Businesses typically come to us when…
“Our people are technically excellent, but they’re not always comfortable with business development.”
“We want our teams to be more proactive in developing customer relationships and recognising opportunities.”
“Our professionals need greater confidence in networking, building their profiles and having business development conversations.”
“We’ve invested in training before, but we need people to put what they’ve learned into practice.”
How we help
We design and deliver practical training, coaching and mentoring that reflects your business, your people and the situations they encounter.
Depending on your needs, we can help with:
- Business development skills and behaviours – building understanding, confidence and a more proactive approach to identifying and converting opportunities
- Customer relationship development – helping people strengthen relationships, understand customer needs and recognise opportunities to add value
- Networking and referral development – developing the skills to build professional connections, nurture referral relationships and make networking more purposeful
- Personal visibility and reputation – helping individuals communicate their expertise, develop their professional profiles and become more visible to relevant audiences
- Business development conversations – building confidence in asking effective questions, communicating value and progressing opportunities
- Pitching and presentation skills – preparing individuals and teams to present their ideas, expertise and propositions convincingly
- Individual coaching and mentoring – providing tailored guidance, constructive challenge and support to help people address specific development needs and make progress
Practical learning that translates into action
We believe effective business development training should go beyond explaining what people ought to do. It should help them understand how to do it and give them the confidence to put their learning into practice.
Our approach is interactive, relevant and grounded in real business situations. We use practical exercises, discussion, reflection and examples that participants can relate to their own roles and responsibilities.
We also recognise that people have different levels of experience and confidence. What works for an experienced partner or business leader may not be appropriate for someone taking their first steps in business development.
That’s why we tailor the content, format and level of challenge to the people involved.
Flexible support for individuals and teams
Our involvement can take different forms depending on your objectives and resources.
We can deliver individual workshops, structured training programmes or a series of shorter sessions that build skills over time.
We also provide one-to-one coaching and mentoring for individuals who would benefit from more personalised support. This might involve building confidence, preparing for a particular challenge, or taking on greater business development responsibilities.
Where appropriate, we can combine group learning with individual follow-up and practical actions to help maintain momentum.
Typical outcomes
Through our training, coaching and mentoring, we aim to help clients achieve:
- Greater confidence and capability in business development activities
- More proactive and purposeful customer and professional relationships
- Stronger networking, communication and opportunity development skills
- Greater awareness of how individual behaviours contribute to business growth
- More consistent application of business development skills in everyday work
- Clearer personal development priorities and practical actions
- Teams that are better equipped to contribute to their organisation’s business development objectives
Developing skills that make a difference
Business development isn’t simply a set of techniques to learn. It’s about developing the confidence, judgement, and habits to build relationships, spot opportunities, and take the actions that will lead to a successful outcome.
Our focus is on making learning relevant, engaging and practical, so people can apply what they’ve learned in their everyday work and continue enhancing their effectiveness over time.
Looking to develop your people’s business development skills?
Whether you’re planning a team workshop, developing a structured training programme, or seeking individual coaching and mentoring, we’d be delighted to help.
Get in touch for an informal conversation about your objectives and how Extended Thinking can help you and/or your people become more effective at business development.
