# Why Is Business Development Difficult in IoT? | Calum McClelland Director of Projects at Leverege | #AskIoT E012

- Show: [IoT For All Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast)
- Published: 2019-02-22
- Length: 50m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec
- Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/iot-for-all/episodes/Why-Is-Business-Development-Difficult-in-IoT---Calum-McClelland-Director-of-Projects-at-Leverege--AskIoT-E012-e28bp6t

## Summary

Calum McClelland, Director of Projects at Leverege, explains why business development is difficult in the IoT space due to its horizontal nature and the lack of clear customer personas compared to vertical industries. He details how Leverege shifted from outbound sales to content marketing to build trust and generate inbound leads, emphasizing the value of providing educational resources like white papers and e-books. McClelland also discusses the transition from business development to project management, highlighting the importance of organization, technical curiosity, and soft skills in managing complex, multi-vendor IoT deployments.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=0) Introduction and Guest Background
- [4:20](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=260) The Difficulty of IoT Business Development
- [9:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=573) Content Marketing as a BD Strategy
- [13:32](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=812) Benefits of Writing for Technical Learning
- [20:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=1248) Transitioning to Project Management
- [25:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=1527) Hiring and Prioritizing PM Skills
- [29:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=1740) PM Role in Product Development Lifecycle
- [43:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec#t=2596) Advice for Young Professionals in IoT

## Topics

- [Marketing & brand](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/marketing-and-brand)
- [Hiring & workforce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/hiring-and-workforce)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)
- [Connected products & IoT](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/connected-products-and-iot)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Leverege (company)
- IoT For All (company)
- Upserve (company)
- NB-IoT (other)
- LPWAN (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Developing a Winning IoT Platform with André Jacobs of IoT.nxt](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-01-19-developing-a-winning-iot-platform-with-andre-jacobs-of-iot-nxt) (Over the Air)
- [Why IoT Is Difficult with Jonathan Beri](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2021-01-18-why-iot-is-difficult-with-jonathan-beri) (The Amp Hour)
- [#014: Why Your IoT Project Still Hasn’t Taken Off — And How to Fix It](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-08-05-014-why-your-iot-project-still-hasnt-taken-off-and-how-to-fix-it) (Coredump Sessions)
- [Building Customer-Focused IoT Applications Easier with Charlie Key, Co-founder and CEO of Losant](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-08-04-building-customer-focused-iot-applications-easier-with-charlie-key-co-founder-an) (Over the Air)
- [Start With the Problem, Not the Technology w/ Jonathon Hensley](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2020-10-06-start-with-the-problem-not-the-technology-w-jonathon-hensley) (The Manufacturing Executive)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2019-02-22-why-is-business-development-difficult-in-iot-calum-mcclelland-director-of-projec. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to IoT For All Podcast.