The BD Success/Failure Matrix

There are four outcomes for BD people who do product integrations/partnerships. They all result based on the quality of BD person you are + the quality of product you are selling.

The four are:

1) Good product + good BD person

If you are a good BD person and have a good product you can become legendary. Good products sell themselves and a good BD person can do that + a lot more. Smart BD people will try to put themselves in a situation where they would only be selling or pitching a good product.

2) Good product + bad BD person

This is hard to spot initially as the product carries the BD person, even if they have no talent. But it can only go so far. Once you spot this, as a founder or boss, you need to try to help develop the employee or let the person go.

3) Bad product + good BD person

This is a tricky situation. There are usually two possible outcomes: the BD person helps the product (+ team) make the product sellable and it becomes a good product + good BD person combo. Or the product continues to suck and eventually the BD person needs to leave. You can go one or two years with a sucky product, but after a certain amount of time the person is putting their career on the line by shopping around a sucky product. I’ve seen the situation go both ways, so it really depends.

4) Bad product + bad BD person

Obviously this is the worst scenario. There is nothing you can really do in this case. It’s painful to watch as the company is really going to be climbing the hill on two sides (product, talent). This never ends well.

This post was originally published on August 19th, 2013 on my personal blog, Alex’s Tech Thoughts.