FutureLab
What kinds of work samples should my portfolio have for the field of Business Development?
Business Development

Business development applies to many different sectors. The work samples would be respective to the relevant industry. But include the following three steps:

1. “Business Wins” based on units like $ or % increases, or numbers of newcustomers gained from your efforts.

2. If you’ve been recognized for awards, provide the details. A word of caution: Whee possible, provide details of recent awards. If the last time you received an award was 10 years ago, the reader may get the impression that you haven’t achieved anything noteworthy in 10 years.

3. Give details of how you solved a problem. More and more, it is important to demonstrate how you solved a problem. Even if you didn’t get a good outcome, demonstrating that you did all you could is valuable.

Summary:
The underlying principle in each of these answers is this. People are judged, based on their actions and results, not by their intentions and aspirations.

It’s shallow to say in the portfolio that “I want to be the best business developer.”

It’s more concrete to provide examples of awards, what you’ve done or are doing, and how you solve things.