Sales Speak: Five Ways to Start a Business Development Streak

I am part of a group of professionals interested in learning python, the coding language often associated with data science and machine learning. We work through a free Codecademy program during weekly conference calls held on Fridays at 7:15 am ET (you are welcome to join). Recently, I noticed that the system awarded all of the participants a badge for starting a streak. Since business development is often comprised of a series of incremental efforts that generate momentum, I immediately embraced the idea of connecting daily streaks to obtain results. I even coded the next day just to see if I would get another badge, which I did. Here are five ways to start your own streak.

Learn Something New

Rapid skill development is a key element of standing out in the current market. Take advantage of this trend by making a list of techniques you would like to learn or skills that you want to acquire. Then, identify a free or very low-cost source from which you can obtain that knowledge, such as YouTube or Codecademy. You may also want to look for peers who might be interested to join you as a means of building accountability into your effort. "Learning something new is not only beneficial for a professional practice, it is essential for survival; with the increased role of computers, in-house staff, and cheaper alternatives for commodity-like tasks, it is critical to always be on the lookout for new ways to bring value to clients," says Philip Comella, a partner with Freeborn & Peters LLP in Chicago.