A good friend recently told me they were wracking their brain trying to figure out how to motivate more people in their company to participate in business development.
They lead strategy for a midsized AEC firm, and this was not the complaint of someone who wanted to push more sales responsibility onto an already overworked team. They genuinely believed more people in the company could contribute to its growth. They could see the relationships, knowledge, and potential sitting throughout the organization. What they could not understand was why so few people seemed willing to step forward.
They had talked about the importance of business development. They had encouraged people to attend events, spend time with clients, and bring back what they were hearing in the market. Leadership had said that everyone was responsible for growth.
Still, business development continued to feel like something that belonged to a handful of principals, executives, marketers, and naturally outgoing people.
They wanted to know how to motivate everyone else.
Because they are my friend, I would tell them the truth.
I am not sure motivation is the problem.
Most people want their company to succeed. They want job security, meaningful work, strong clients, interesting projects, and opportunities to grow in their careers. They understand, at least intellectually, that the company needs new business to create those opportunities.
But understanding that business development matters is not the same as knowing how to participate in it.
When leaders say, “Everyone is responsible for business development,” employees may hear something entirely different. They may hear that they are now expected to become salespeople.
And let’s be honest. Most architects and engineers did not choose their professions because they thought, “I would love to sell!”
They went into design because they wanted to create something, solve difficult problems, improve the way people experience a place, or see an idea become real. They built their careers by developing technical expertise and delivering good work. Then one day, often after being promoted into a senior role, they were told that they were now responsible for bringing in business.
That transition can feel abrupt because we often use business development and sales as if they mean the same thing. They are related, but they are not identical.
Sales is generally focused on converting an identified opportunity into revenue. There is a potential buyer, a defined need, and something to sell. The sales team qualifies the opportunity, presents the offer, responds to objections, negotiates, and works toward a decision.
Business development begins earlier and extends further. It is about building relationships, understanding the market, identifying needs, developing partnerships, strengthening the company’s position, and creating opportunities that may not yet exist.
The simplest distinction is this: business development creates and expands the opportunity. Sales converts the opportunity into revenue.
In AEC and other professional-services industries, however, the lines are blurry.
Our clients are not choosing a product from a shelf. They are choosing people to help them navigate complex, expensive, and often very public decisions. They are evaluating whether we understand their priorities, whether they trust us, and whether they can picture themselves working with our team when the project becomes difficult.
A project manager listening closely enough to uncover a client’s next challenge is doing business development. An architect who helps an owner think differently about a problem is doing business development. An engineer who explains a complex issue in a way that creates confidence is doing business development. A marketer who connects what the firm is hearing across the market is doing business development. An emerging professional who invests in peer relationships is building a network that may become important years from now.
None of them may describe what they are doing as selling. That does not make their contribution to growth any less important.
I once heard an owner’s representative explain why a team had won a project by saying, “Your superintendent won that for you.”
The superintendent likely was not trying to sell anything. They were answering questions honestly, demonstrating competence, building confidence, and helping the client picture what it would be like to work with the team.
That is business development, too.
This distinction matters because if people believe business development means becoming someone they never wanted to be, they will resist it. They may picture cold calls, forced networking, self-promotion, awkward conversations, or asking clients for work. They may wonder when they are supposed to do it, how they will be evaluated, and whether they will be blamed if their efforts do not immediately produce an opportunity.
Then they look at everything already on their plates and quietly return to the work they know how to do.
So the question I would ask my friend is not, “How do we motivate them?”
I would ask, “What have you built around them?”
Have you given people a clear role in the company’s growth? Have you shown them what business development looks like at their level? Have you taught them how to build relationships, ask thoughtful questions, recognize an opportunity, and share what they learn? Have you made time for it? Do their managers encourage it? Do you recognize the behaviors that lead to revenue, or only celebrate the person whose name is attached to the win?
You cannot motivate people into a system that was never designed for their participation.
Think like a high-performing team
If my friend wants to create a company where more people contribute to business development, I would encourage them to stop thinking about building a sales force and start thinking about building a high-performing team.
High-performing teams are not created by asking everyone to perform the same function. They work because people understand the goal, know the role they play, trust their teammates, share information, and have the support they need to contribute.
Business development should work the same way.
The principal who develops an executive relationship plays one role. The project manager who hears about a client’s next challenge plays another. The superintendent who earns the client’s confidence contributes differently from the marketer who studies the market, connects the dots, and helps the team prepare. The emerging leader who joins an industry organization may be developing relationships that become valuable long before anyone knows what the future opportunity will be.
Not everyone needs to sell. But everyone should understand how their work can help the company earn trust, create value, and grow.
That shared understanding is where a business development culture begins.
Define business development in human terms
Before asking people to participate, leaders need to change the language around business development.
Instead of telling someone to “go sell,” ask them to listen. Ask them to stay curious about the client’s business. Ask them to notice what is changing, follow through on a promise, make a helpful introduction, or share something the larger team should know.
Those behaviors are more natural to many technical professionals because they are connected to how they already serve clients. They do not require someone to adopt a sales personality. They require them to become more intentional about the relationships and information already present in their work.
The first step may be helping people recognize that they are already doing parts of business development. Before asking them to become something they do not recognize, show them the value of what they already bring.
Give people different ways to contribute
One of the quickest ways to discourage participation is to create a single image of what “good at business development” looks like.
Usually, that image is someone charismatic who loves walking into a room full of strangers, can start a conversation with anyone, and seems to collect relationships effortlessly. Those people can be valuable, but they are not the only people who can contribute to growth.
The thoughtful listener may learn more in one client conversation than the most outgoing person in the room. The technical expert may create credibility by explaining an emerging challenge. The connector may know exactly who should meet. The project leader may earn the next opportunity by delivering an experience the client wants to repeat.
A high-performing team uses those differences. It does not ask everyone to become the same kind of business developer.
Teach before expecting
“Go build relationships” is not a development plan.
If someone has never attended an industry event with purpose, show them how you prepare. If you want project managers to have stronger client conversations, help them develop better questions. If you expect people to identify opportunities, teach them what signals to listen for and where to bring the information afterward.
Invite emerging leaders into meetings before expecting them to lead those meetings. Debrief what happened. Explain why a question mattered, what you heard beneath the answer, and what follow-up would be helpful.
Confidence rarely appears before experience. It grows when someone is given a manageable opportunity, supported through it, and trusted with a little more the next time.
Create time and permission
Leaders cannot say that business development is important while measuring people almost exclusively on utilization, project delivery, and short-term financial performance.
Employees pay attention to what the company truly rewards. If every available hour is committed to project work, business development becomes extracurricular. It happens at breakfast, after work, or whenever someone can squeeze it in. Eventually, even willing people decide they do not have the capacity.
If relationship-building matters, make room for it. Talk about it in performance conversations. Include it in career planning. Help people identify a small number of relationships or activities worthy of their attention instead of vaguely expecting them to “get out there.”
Permission also means creating an environment where people can share what they are hearing without fear. Sometimes the most valuable intelligence is that a relationship is weak, a client is unhappy, or an opportunity is not right for the company. If every difficult observation is met with blame or pressure, people will stop bringing information forward.
Recognize what happens before the win
Revenue is a lagging result. By the time a contract is signed, dozens of actions may have contributed to it.
Someone made the introduction. Someone stayed connected when there was no immediate opportunity. Someone noticed a change in leadership, asked a better question, shared an important piece of intelligence, or helped the team make a smart no-go decision. Someone delivered the current project so well that the client wanted to work with the company again.
If recognition only goes to the person credited with the win, everyone else learns that their contribution does not count.
A business development culture celebrates the actions that create trust and opportunity, even when those actions cannot yet be tied neatly to revenue.
Culture is what your people experience
I have worked for companies that put people first. I have worked for companies that put profit first. And I have worked for companies that understood something more nuanced: building the right culture was the key to taking care of both.
The healthiest companies did not treat culture and growth as competing priorities. They understood that when people feel valued, know what is expected of them, and believe in the work they are doing, they are more likely to take care of clients, strengthen relationships, and contribute to the future of the business.
Building a business development culture is not about turning every architect, engineer, builder, or technical professional into a salesperson. It is about creating a high-performing team in which people understand the goal, see where they fit, and are equipped to contribute.
Your people may not need more motivation. They may need clarity, confidence, coaching, time, and a culture that proves business development really belongs to them.
A business development culture is not a company where everyone sells.
It is a company where everyone understands how they contribute to growth.
If this made you think differently about the culture inside your own organization, I would love to hear from you. Where do your people get stuck when it comes to business development? And what has helped them begin to see themselves as part of growth?
If you know a leader who is asking how to get more people involved in business development, please share this with them. It may be time to stop asking how to motivate people and start examining what has been built around them
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