Unfortunately forgetting business purpose is all too common when people talk about work winning. Usually the focus is on customers, opportunities and process. However, purpose is the thread that ties all three Assess, Aim and Action stages together. It keeps your efforts centered on the activities that align with and champion your organizations reason for being. Keeping it front of mind allows for purposeful growth that keeps your company thriving.
Below I discuss three ways to maintain purpose throughout your business development cycle.
Purpose in the Assess Stage
The Assess stage of the triple A framework is all about finding your companies place within the Sales Ecosystem. While this includes external factors like competitors, market and customers, it also focuses on the internals of your organisation. Defining your company’s purpose is arguably the most important part of this internal focus. As you can see from the hierarchy detailed below your purpose dictates your objectives which directs everything else down to the customers you approach and do business with.
To develop this clarity sit down with the leadership team, and get answers to the following:
- What are the key aspirations of our organisation?
- How are we different from the competition?
- What market do we play in now?
- Which markets do we want to play in for the future?
- What do we want to look like in three years’ time?
- Where does our business development effort fit into the above?
Answering these honestly will allow the purpose to shine through. Define it as succinctly as you can and write it down. Don’t worry too much about the actual words. The intent is much more important than grammar. This will guide all your daily business development activities moving forward.
If you are struggling to understand or define your business purpose a good place to start is Find Your Why by Simon Sinek. Check out his video here.
Purpose in the Aim Stage
Defining your purpose is only one part of the Assess stage. Other aspects of your market, competitors, industry and customers have also been evaluated. Aiming all this information into a series of plans will inform your future activity for the coming months.
Checking the objectives contained within these plans against your purpose should be a regular exercise. For example are the customers and market segments furthering the overall organisational vision? If they aren’t you will need to understand why and make some changes.
I’ve fallen foul to this in the past whilst working for a multinational instrumentation company. I had aimed much of my effort into tackling the mining effort here in Australia. However, the company purpose was actually focussed on the oil and gas industry where the product really shined. This misunderstanding on my part meant that despite putting in lots of effort and activity, support from head office for mining trials was limited at best. Aligning my planning and activity with the company purpose and vision would have yielded much better results.
Purpose in the Action Stage
The Action stage revolves around your daily activity developing customer relationships, creating leads and closing opportunities. Again, your company purpose plays an important role here. The customers you meet, the leads you qualify and the opportunities you pursue should all be furthering this vision.
Activities running against the purpose should be pretty obvious by now. As such they should be avoided or politely declined. If something is running close to the line and you’re not sure take time to investigate it a little more closely. Ask yourself if this activity will be taking time away from something that will be furthering your business purpose.
What’s Next
I believe that company purpose and vision should be threaded through all your business development activity. My challenge to you is to take a serious look at your organisation and what it’s long term vision and purpose is. If it isn’t clear, ask the leadership. Do a quick audit of your BD activity and ask yourself honestly; does it align?
As always I’m keen to hear your thoughts. Feel free to drop a comment below or touch base through the usual channels.
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