'To be clear, it's not lack of sales - it's the lack of profitable sales that causes failure.
Whether we're in a recession, depression or not - business must go on. We need to find the right sales and deliver them through a disciplined process.
Business is about achieving your objectives with limited resources. Being in business is about providing a product or service at a profit.
A service can be seen an agreed outcome where the risks and technicalities are managed by the service provider. This is especially true in IT where expertise on demand and managed services are an essential part of your value proposition.
A business development strategy combines demand generation with prospect nurturing to increase your sales - time after time.
Let's consider the case where your sales are high, but you cost of sales is higher. Generating more sales will serve to bankrupt you faster.
For that one reason, a solid business development process is possibly the best investment you can ever make in your firm.
As a business manager, you know the value of well defined processes - from accounting, project management to service delivery.
Without a process you risk poor quality results or your best people become locked into low-value work. You must be able to delegate with confidence.
Without a structured plan and good management practices it all becomes "too hard". Since you're focusing on day-to-day activities - you postpone it.
It's not hard. There are strategies and tactics that will repeatedly introduce your firm to new prospects. Then you can systematically turn them into repeat clients. You need to know what you want to sell, who you want to sell, what profit each sale makes, and what criteria you establish to ensure that your sales make good business sense.
If not, then the best you can hope is to survive. In the interim, your competitors and new entrants will emerge to find those clients that you didn't.
- Ask yourself are your sales cycles are too long?
- Are your clients are not spending enough?
- Do you have enough business to thrive and grow?'
As you work with clients you will uncover their pains and goals - and create new products and services to address them. If you let your competitors do that then in a few years, your firm will struggle be relevant as the business world turns and you're left behind.
There are 5 stages that every successful firm learns to master. They may give them different terms, I like to use:
1 - The Initial Introduction
2 - The Suspicious Suspect
3 - The Perfect Prospect
4 - The Optimised Opportunity
5 - The Customer Close
I think the names help clarify the mindset, possibilities and challenges in moving from one to another.
You'll not be surprised to learn that there are two further stages that the top performers methodically use:
6 - The Loyal Client
7 - The Ambassador
Take a moment to consider your own system of winning new business. Do you teach it to new employees? Can you train someone with the aptitude and attitude? Are they selling successful within 3 months?
The tools, techniques and tactics used during each stage are different.
You won't turn up a sales meeting to introduce yourself with a marketing flyer or brochure, would you?
If your potential client doesn't know the basics about what you do - then your marketing is mis-firing.
But what is worse is that your sales person is wasting your money by visiting leads that are not qualified.
Your sales person is not there to introduce your firm. That is the role of marketing.
She is hopefully meeting to learn what your firm needs to know and do in order to win business.
You'll win business by show how your firm can make a difference in your prospect's business.
After all, if your sales team cannot return with a definite opportunity to help - then they are wasting energy.
The preparation, travel and meeting time was better invested in remote introductions and early qualification.
You might be hoping that a business development strategy is your way out of a sales black hole - it isn't.
Hopefully, your business doesn't need an extreme make over - and what you are offering is fundamentally of value.
With all the best will - you can't work miracles - certainly not overnight. You need to invest time in your plan to make it pay off.
You'll need to work with your prospects as they struggle to understand what they need, why they need it, how much it will cost them, how to justify it, what are the risks and how to minimise them.
For the CFO - find out how much return on investment will it deliver? How quickly will it pay for itself?
They'll want to be reassured that what you offer is timely, relevant and achievable. Once your sales funnel is being filled with new leads then you can nurture them through your sales pipeline.
When they finally emerge, your strategy is working.
Within 60-120 days, you'll be rewarded with sales that more predictable and profitable.
You'll also have established the system to continually grow your firm that you can delegate.
Now you're free to work on the next strategy - out-smarting your competition and delighting your clients.
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