10 Tips to Better Business Development

May 22, 2025•3 min read

I heard early in my sales career, at my first training as a seller, 'activity equals results - do not focus on making sales everyday, focus on activity that will help you make the sales.' It has been years since I heard those words, and today, they are as true and meaningful as they were back then, Lets face it, creating new contacts, sales prospects, and new sales opportunities is the fuel to our business. Also, it can be the activity that many of us avoid, dread, put off, and before we know it, we have zero opportunities in our pipeline. The fear and anxiety set in, and we become paralyzed. Do not let this happen to you! I have been there, and I tell my story of how I went from 'Zero to Sales Hero,' in my book, and how you can, too. Today, I would like to share some tips that you can follow to keep your prospecting and business development activity strong. Lets face it: the latest research shows that prospecting remains a vital strategy for business to business sales in 2025. According to Gartner, 82% of buyers are open to meetings initiated by you and 69% influenced by outreach phone calls, refining your approach is essential. Here are 10 tips to enhance your cold calling strategy:

1. Do Your Research: Does your contact have any mutual contacts on LinkedIn (or other social media channels)? Get to know your contact before you reach out to them. What are their interests, awards, focuses, or initiatives?

2. Make an Impression in 7 Seconds: Capture attention in the first 7 seconds by referencing specific challenges they are facing in their industry and ask if they are open to an idea as to how they can resolve it. Do not talk about the product or solution you are selling, features, or benefits.

3. Timing is Everything: Schedule your prospecting time. I find people are in a good mood on Friday afternoons, at the end of any business day, not as much on a Monday morning.

4. Be Kind to Gatekeepers: Engage gatekeepers by asking for guidance on specific responsibilities, transforming the interaction into a business inquiry rather than a sales pitch.

5. Cast Your Net: Change your approach and use phone calls, text messages, social media messages, email, and video messages to accelerate response rates.

6. Effective Voicemails: Leave concise voicemails and remember, people decide within 7 seconds if they will listen to you or your message. Be brief, be bright, be gone.

7. Make it All About Them: Ask open ended questions. Talk less, listen more. Use a script and ask open ended questions based on their challenges and pain points that you can help them overcome.

8. Handle Objections with Confidence: Objections are questions in disguise. Ask, clarify and show that you care about the concern.

9. Persistent Follow-Ups: Remember, it can take up to 7 follow up touches to get a prospect to respond to you. Follow up once a week.

10. Conclude with Clear Next Steps: Always end calls by scheduling a specific follow-up, increasing conversion rates by 65%.

By integrating these strategies, you'll enhance your prospecting and business development effectiveness, securing more meetings and closing more new clients and business in 2025.

Amy Lemire CSP

Amy Lemire CSP DTM works with success-driven leaders and teams who want to be more, make more, and sell more with confidence, with momentum. She is the creator of “The Best Version of You: Success Habits Breakthrough” Program. For the past 10 years, she has trained thousands of sales and business professionals on standards of excellence, and mastery of the keys to success and the ‘Sales Confidence Code.’ Her focus is on how to win the inner game of self-confidence to drive peak performance results in sales, business, and speaking, through the mastery of success habits. After spending 2 decades in business-to-business and medical sales and training, Amy founded AIM Training and Consulting International. She is a certified “Habitfinder” Leadership Coach. Amy is the author of 2 books: “From Zero to Sales Hero,” and “From Zero to Speaker Hero.” Amy was recently designated as a Certified Speaking Professional, in March 2023, by the National Speakers Association, for delivering over 300 hours of training and speaking. She is also a VISTAGE-certified speaker. Amy is a Distinguished Toastmaster, the Past President of National Speakers Association, St Louis Chapter, and a Member of the National Speakers Association. She has been recognized as a Fortune 500 top sales performer and sales trainer for over 3 decades. When she is not working you may find her at local rock concert, personal development seminar, or at home with her husband Nigel and her cat Brianna.

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