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The Bridgepoint Way

Young woman signing contracts and handshake with a manager

What is “The Bridgepoint Way”?

The Bridgepoint Way is an evolution of our business development process into a company-wide philosophy and methodology. As we began to formally document our business development strategy several years ago, we realized that our strategy centered around the basic building blocks of relationship building.

The Bridgepoint Way is not a “sales strategy,” but a strategy centered around empathetic listening, curiosity, and certifiably attentive toward the person you are meeting – truly building relationships!

One day we woke up and said wait a minute?! This should apply to all our relationships, not just those centered around business development. This should apply to our interactions with each other in the firm, to our clients, to our network, to our families! Hence, The Bridgepoint Way (#tbw) was born.

Breaking Ice & Finding Common Ground

Breaking the Ice & Finding Common Ground is easily my favorite part about #tbw. Those that know me might tell you that I spend too much time on this step! Someone recently told me, “it’s so much more fun to be the interested person rather than the interesting person,” which is so true! Think back to any issues you may have dealt with over the past several months, whether at work or home. How many of those conversations may have ended stronger if you first sought to understand? If you took the time to get to know the other person better? If you took the time to understand the other stresses occurring in someone’s life outside of the issue at hand? Also, how much time have you spent building this relationship before an issue arose? Would a better relationship have made the issue less explosive?

Breaking the Ice and Finding Common Ground are tools for building trust. The ultimate foundation of The Bridgepoint Way. Build a strong foundation and the rest is easy. We all know what happens if you don’t.

By

As a Managing Principal for Bridgepoint Consulting, Manuel leads the firm’s growth strategy and geographic expansion initiatives. His background includes more than 20 years of experience in business process re-engineering and corporate governance across a range of public and private sector clients.