Dollars in Door?
Does your business development process deliver a Consistent and Predictable numbers of NEW clients?
If not, you may not have a process at all.
Business Development is known by many names. It’s been called “Sales,” “The Sales Process,” or “Account Generation.” In reality Business Development is a Process. It is a process that encompasses all aspects of sales, sales management, marketing, advertising, branding and even new client onboarding. Business Development should be a holistic process that when implemented generates a predicable number of new clients/customers on a consistent basis. Sales is one element of this process. It is a “point in time” event, which may occur several times during the Business Development process, but is not an end in itself.
Much like a general business plan, in which you set direction for the entire company to follow, a Business Development plan is intended as a guide for your Business Development (Sales) team. This plan must specifically outline the goals you want the Business Development team to achieve and create the measurements that enable you to monitor your Business Development team to keep them on track. A well-outlined Business Development plan will also hold the Business Developers accountable for the results. This is a great motivational tool for the Business Development person, as well as being a useful tool to review results and determine the effectiveness of efforts.
When a business has good predictable results from a process that is succeeding, the owners can make better business decisions. Predictability allows the business to better position resources, such as purchasing new equipment, or engaging their hiring process, (Another process …. Do you see a pattern?) timed to coincide with the expected growth curve. No more being caught short with lots of new business and too few employees, equipment, or resources to produce effectively and to your company’s established high standards.
Any process designed to gain new clients has two basic but critical requirements:
- It must be simple, easy to use, teachable, and repeatable.
- It must deliver Consistent and Predictable numbers of NEW clients annually.
If a Business Development process can be described as a “spaghetti on the wall” methodology (throw enough on the wall and see what sticks), it is unlikely to produce Consistent and Predictable growth in NEW clients, year-in and year-out, and will ultimately cost more than it gains.
There are three major areas you need to focus on when creating your Business Development program. You will need to clearly define your Business Development objective(s), give a clear plan of action, and report and track your results.
Business Owners and Senior Leaders must ask themselves some deep, introspective questions:
First, what would it mean to have 5-10 times as many new clients annually than your team produces now?
Second, how much is it costing you to not have an effective, Consistent, and Predictable system in place?
Third, what are you going to do about it?
At Advantage Resources Inc. we help business owner create effective Business Development processes, as well as other systems to better run their companies.