WOMVE2604. Building Effective BD Habits: Practical Strategies to Grow Business & Closing Remarks
In today’s competitive accounting landscape, technical expertise alone isn’t enough. To elevate your influence and advance your career, cultivating strong business development (BD) habits is essential. But for many women in accounting, BD can feel overwhelming or even misaligned with how we naturally build trust and relationships. This session will demystify the process and offer actionable tools to help you identify the right clients, manage pursuits with intention, follow up effectively, and close with confidence—by tapping into the emotional intelligence, empathy, and relational strengths that many women already bring to the table.
Designed as a practical, hands-on session, we’ll walk through:
• Common BD myths—and replace them with mindset shifts that support confidence, clarity, and action.
• How to spot your “ideal client” by asking the right questions—to uncover whether they value the expertise and service you bring to the table.
• Ways to initiate and nurture authentic business development conversations—by using your natural communication style and building connections in ways that feel genuine and sustainable.
• What it takes to lead a pursuit from interest to close, including tips for staying strategic, top of mind and organized.
• Effective follow-up techniques that feel natural, not salesy.
• Client expansion strategies to turn current engagements into deeper, more valuable relationships.
Whether you’re new to BD or looking to sharpen your edge, you’ll leave this session with a repeatable, low-pressure system to integrate BD into your weekly rhythm—and build a pipeline that reflects your value, expertise, and personal style.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify common myths about business development that may discourage engagement.
- Recognize ideal client opportunities by asking strategic questions that reveal alignment between client needs and your unique value proposition.
- Identify personalized approaches for initiating and nurturing business development conversations.
- Identify a repeatable framework for managing client pursuits and expansion.
