All too often, business development executives and salespeople are handed targets with little training or no clear roadmap. They’re expected to deliver – without the strategies and confidence to set them up for success.
It’s no surprise that many feel nervous and anxious about BD.
They dread rejection and failure. They confuse sales pitches with genuine conversations. They chase transactions instead of trust. And they talk when they should listen.
What’s missing, says Laurie Serafini – former AFL champion turned BD coach – are the skills and structure to win work. Consistently.
So we sat down with Laurie, CSA workshop facilitator, to unpack buyer psychology. Discuss relationship selling. Learn how to handle objections. And find out why winning in sales has more in common with sport than you might think.
From the footy field to the boardroom
For Laurie, the parallel between sport and sales is unmistakable: fundamentals matter. Every champion athlete – and every successful BD professional – must master the basics and build their skills before the big moments.
‘You’d never send a player onto the field without practice, training and feedback,’ says Laurie. ‘So why do leaders send capable people into the sales arena and expect them to convert on the fly?’
Laurie rose to AFL pro with the Fitzroy Football Club and then as a National Sales Director in charge of a multimillion-dollar budget. The elite arenas of footy fields and boardrooms shaped his high-stakes performance philosophy: the power of preparation backed by training.
‘Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner still hit a thousand backhands in practice – and they are at the top of their game,’ says Laurie.
‘In BD, it’s about practising your opening sales pitch and your responses to objections until you’re fully fluent – until you’re consciously competent. That is, until you know exactly what you’re doing and why at every step.’
What holds people back from BD success?
Having trained hundreds of corporate teams, Laurie sees the same symptoms arise when capable people stumble with BD. Time and again, talented professionals are:
- Nervous about approaching strangers
- Afraid of rejection – and go quiet after one ‘no’
- Unsure how to start a conversation or reach out
- Fearful of being too pushy (and so undersell their value)
- Intimidated at the thought of talking to senior executives or owners
‘BD tends to fall off the to-do list when people get busy. Not from laziness, but from discomfort – and a lack of guidance on what good BD even looks like.’
The blockers are strikingly consistent. And without training to build confidence, the self-doubt multiplies.
‘It’s all above the shoulders,’ says Laurie. ‘Before you can teach people how to run pitch meetings or lead a sales call, you need to address some amateur psychology to explore and explain what’s going on upstairs.’
How buyers decide: winning the head, the heart and the wallet
Even seasoned sales professionals misread how people make decisions. That’s why Laurie stresses that buying is far more than a rational exercise. It’s an emotional and political one too.
‘There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than just cost or capability,’ Laurie explains.
This layered decision-making process means that BD conversations need to go beyond selling a product or service. Laurie breaks it down into three core motivators:
- Rational motivators – the head: The logical, numbers-based reasons a client should buy from you. Does it add up? Can they afford it? Is the timing right? ‘This is where clients pull out the calculator. They’re looking for value and ROI,’ says Laurie. It’s essential you tick these boxes. But they’re only the beginning.
- Emotional motivators – the heart: Here’s where trust and connection take over. ‘Clients are asking themselves: Do I feel comfortable with you? Will you make me look good if I choose you? Do I trust you?’, Laurie explains. If they don’t feel that emotional connection, trust and rapport, no amount of numbers will get your pitch across the line.
- Political motivators – the hidden landscape: Think internal alliances and long-standing supplier relationships. ‘You can have the best meeting, the perfect proposal – and still lose because the final decision was made elsewhere,’ Laurie says. The antidote? Curiosity and tactful questioning. Ask: Who else is involved in the decision-making process? How do you choose providers?
Recognising all three motivators will help your team move from frustration to foresight. You’ll stop being blindsided by invisible factors – if you ask the right questions early. It’s about being consciously competent – and that takes practice, time and effort.
‘You can’t control every purchase variable. But you can prepare for them,’ says Laurie. ‘That’s what separates amateurs from confident BD performers.’
Handle rejection by resetting your frame
Every business development professional faces rejection. The difference between good and great salespeople lies in how they respond.
Laurie’s advice? View objections as invitations, not rejections.
‘Don’t flinch if someone says: You’re too expensive. Ask what they mean. Maybe you haven’t explained the value clearly enough. Go back and clarify. Then move forward.’
He frames this through a timeless rule: seek to understand before being understood.
‘It’s amazing how often the problem isn’t the objection. It’s the misunderstanding behind it. When you pause and probe, the whole tone changes. The conversation opens back up.’
Laurie cautions that enthusiasm can become the enemy if you’re new to sales: don’t talk too much. If you stop to listen, you’ll pick up clues about their priorities, pain points, constraints and circumstances.
‘People get excited about their product. They talk on and on. They lead with their sales pitch and their slides. They’ll tell you all about their company – instead of leading with curiosity. The best BD conversations are question-led, not pitch-led.’
Give your team the confidence to win work
The reality remains: too many people are expected to sell without being taught how.
That’s why CSA partnered with Laurie to develop Business Development Bootcamp – a course for teams who want to build confidence and a consistent pipeline.
Over two high-impact days, your team will sharpen their BD toolkit centred around: rapport, questioning, meeting craft, objection handling and pipeline management.
The bootcamp blends coaching, activities and practice to develop conscious competency – so people know precisely what they’re doing from the first phone call to the final proposal.
Laurie also helps teams to cultivate resilience – a lesson learned from his footy days. (Often the hard way.) It’s all about building stamina, know-how and momentum.
‘You’ll get a few blood noses in BD,’ he laughs. ‘Don’t take it personally. Dust yourself off and go again. You either win or you learn – and you often learn more from losing.’
Give your team the structure, language and confidence to sell with purpose. Join Laurie Serafini at Business Development Bootcamp.