BDMSummit 2017 Winter

On Saturday 28 of January, I attended BDMSummit – local business development conference taking place in Kyiv. Four stages – Sale like a PRO, Outsourcing Hero, Marketing & Branding, Workshops, 300+ attendees, 30 speakers – not a huge event, but I brought a couple of useful insights and met interesting people there so I can say it definitely worths visiting.

All speakers whose presentations I attended were great, but I have selected three that I liked the most.

Helen Petrashuk from Seductive mobile gave an inspiring presentation about effective attending the conferences and meeting new clients there, shared her calendar of events and useful tips how to save on business travels.

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Олена Петращук "Як підписати контракт одразу після IT конференцій в США та Європі?" BDMSummit 2017 Winter from Lviv Startup Club

Lively and hilarious presentation by David Brown from TemplateMonster kept the audience active, smiling and inspired. David was talking about an importance of your personal and professional network, a necessity to stand our of the crowd and bring your creativity into everyday work. His 5-step system of networking makes a lot of sense:

1. Research. Investigate your contacts interests, history, problems, style, and surrounding.
2. Warm-Up. Follow on social media, react to their activity, read their blog, etc.
3. Connect. Don’t ask for anything, just introduce yourself and the value you can bring.
4. Ask. Be specific, don’t bother, ask for only one thing
5. Follow-Up. Deliver value, say public thank you, communicate with your contacts on a regular basis.

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Давид Браун "How to acquire strategic contacts, keep engagement and close deals" BDMSummit 2017 Winter from Lviv Startup Club

Igor Luzhansky from Neadevis in his presentation described benefits of working with partners, listed types of them and ways to work efficiently with each group, advantages, disadvantages and where to find them.

BDMSummit 2016 - Ігор Лужанський "Partners and the way to work with them" from Lviv Startup Club

But the summit was not only about presentations, but more about people and networking. That was a pleasure to meet old friends there and discuss news in their and our professional life.

Afterparty in “Fog Area” allowed to meet participants and speakers in more informal surrounding, talk through different situations, address some questions, get valuable advices and inspiring ideas, and just have fun 🙂

Ideas, insights, and notes I brought from the event:

• Makes sense to get listed on Clutch – big and trusted service companies list with ratings and reviews.
• Working with partners – is a powerful approach to business development, as partners can bring new clients, help with advice or idea, increase awareness about your company
• It is important to stand out of crowd as much as possible, get noticed and remembered
• There is no such thing as a useless contact, all your network is important, and growing it is a crucial task for every business development manager
• Tech conferences is an excellent platform for networking, meeting with potential clients and getting up to date with what is happening in the world.

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Books worth reading:

• “The ONE thing” by Garry Keller
• “Thinking, fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman
• “Predictable Revenue” by Aaron Ross
• “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini (read this one already, but it is so great, that I would re-read it again)

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