Purposeful Business Development

Upskilling technical specialists in purposeful business growth

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Business development is a core skill for every technical professional.  I prepare you in the foundation of consistent and purposeful work winning.

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Business Development

Three Ways to focus on Customer-Centric Business Development

By Tom on

There are lots of advantages to being customer centric as a business developer. For a start one of your key functions is to grow revenue. Obviously To do that you need customers.

Unfortunately, I often hear stories of sales teams who are so focused on the sale that they grow disdainful of the customer. They forget about the customers perspective or needs. Instead they form an arrogance about their skills and product. “The customer should be grateful to have access to us” begins to permeate the culture.

I believe that the customer should be central to business as a whole. But this is even more important to the business developer. The benefits to this are innumerable. When your messaging, conversations and marketing are all focused on the customer you begin to look through the lens of service. Consequently customers are more interested in your offering as they see your desire to genuinely help them. Not to sell. Below I discuss three ways you can become more customer centric in your day to day business development activities.

Before I get started, a quick reminder that my book lands on 18th October. If you want to get yourself a simple framework to get your business development working I’d recommend checking it out.

Treat your customer as the Hero

1. Treat the Customer as the Hero

Framing yourself as the hero is a real mistake when it comes to business development. It’s difficult for the customer to understand how they are going to benefit. Instead placing your customer as the hero gives them focus on what their life will be like if they use your product or service. Donald Miller talks about this at length in his book Story Brand. Rather than focusing on your own offering take time to understand the customers problems. Explain to them how they will be the hero in their story if they use your product or service.

Enter business development conversations with a service mindset

2. Treat Business Development Conversations as a Service

How many of you have fielded a sales meeting or call and been bombarded by the pitch? Most of us I bet. I always leave those conversations feeling a little disappointed. Much to the point above I’ve heard all of the amazing features that your product offers but the salesperson has not found out how or if it relates to me. This is how sales has got a bad name.

Don’t enter customer conversations with the intent of getting something out of it. Rather approach each with a mindset of curiosity and service. What can I learn about this persons role? Do they have problems I can help solve? Use questions and active listening to really figure out their perspective.

Only once you really understand their needs can you look for ways to help. Perhaps it is your product. Maybe you can put them in touch with someone else in your network. A service mentality will have you looking beyond the confines of your offering. Surprisingly it may open up avenues you had never considered.

Keep your customer at the centre of all decisions

3. Put the Customer at the Centre of All Things

Being customer centric extends beyond the business development function of your company. I’m a firm believer that business development extends far beyond sales. A true business developer is involved with all parts of the business. Who else can bring the customer perspective to bear on operations, production and delivery?

As such you should be getting customer centric around all decisions. How will customers be challenged by changes in process, product or delivery? What features or service are the customers clamoring for? A business developer should be watching and listening for these things and actively feeding insights back to the teams. Additionally the business developer is critical in getting the messaging around company changes out to the customer.

Having a customer centric view keeps your decisions relevant to arguably your most important stakeholders. Being disciplined in maintaining this perspective allows you to adapt quickly and effectively.

Customer Centric Action

I would ask you to look at how you keep your customers at the center of your activity. Do you maintain systematic contact and ask for feedback regularly? Be honest, are you really listening to what they tell you?

What channels do you use to communicate customer feedback and information to company leadership? Do they listen? Maybe it’s time to start opening up a customer centric conversation in your business.

As always I’m keen to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments below or through the normal channels.

Resources

Are you looking to kickstart your business development journey. Download my free BD checklist below. It gives you the list of must-do activities to lay down a solid foundation for your work winning.

My new book, Business Development Begins Here, lands in a couple of weeks, I’d love for you to check it out.

Pre-Order Now!

If you want a more proactive and personal approach to your business development I am available to help. Through face to face video calls I’ll set you on the right path and keep you accountable to future activity. I currently have space on my 13-week 1on1 personalized coaching program. To learn more click the button below.

Business Development Coaching

Do You Hate Being Called a Salesman?

By Tom on

Talking to a manager of an engineering consultancy last week unveiled an interesting insight into the perception of sales professionals today. She complained that her up and coming scientists and engineers showed no desire to step into a business development/sales role. She had tried several different approaches including training and allocation of client accounts. However, there was still no inclination from any of them to take it any further.

This got me thinking about my own journey into the world of business development. I started my work life as a hydrogeologist. While I did take on BD accountability I hated being referred to as “sales“. I just didn’t identify with it at all. Over time as I learned, read and practiced the craft I became much more comfortable with the notion. Multiple conversations have shown me that this is still very much an issue in the consulting industry today.

Daniel Pink wrote To Sell is Human as a way to combat the sales malaise. He shows that selling is very much a part of the day to day human condition. Certainly his book helped me view sales in a different light.

Unfortunately the Salesperson Stereotype is less than ideal

Used Cars Salesman Stereotype

Though outdated the used car salesman stereotype is still very much alive. This isn’t helped by the entertainment media who regularly play on this trope. Generally they portray the salesman (both male and female) with the following traits.

  • Greedy
  • Not interested in customers needs
  • Aiming to get the sale at all costs
  • Eye firmly on the commission
  • Loyal only to themselves

Obviously this is a trope and not necessarily close to reality. Unfortunately the stigma still exists in some circles. It isn’t helped when you do come up against a salesman who is blatantly using manipulation tactics against you. While not all that common I’ve been subjected to this on numerous occasions. Only yesterday I had a video call with a prospective service provider who told me that I should buy immediately as his prices were “coincidentally” rising tomorrow. Behaviour of this sort makes you re-consider if perhaps there is something to the stereotype after all.

Unfortunately I think that this is what our next batch of consulting scientists and engineers consider when they are asked to develop business in the market. Understandably they don’t want to be a part of it.

Technical professionals often don’t identify with sales

Will Never Identify as a Salesman

Technical consultants have spent money, time and stress to become proficient in their field. They identify as coastal engineers, environmental scientists, civil engineers etc. Subsequently they are proud of their role. Quite rightly so, it takes a lot of effort to do what they do and the work is undeniably valuable.

When they are asked to undertake customer pursuit and sales I believe this is seen as somehow diluting their role. It’s almost as if the act of selling their services diminishes their position. Of course we know this isn’t true. How else can you help serve your customers if no one is out there marketing and selling said services.

Unfortunately this negative perception of sales does not only lie with the up and coming staff members. I have seen an even worse attitude amongst the very experienced principal level professionals. They often see sales as being somehow beneath them. They like to tell you that their services are so good that they effectively sell themselves. While this may be true for some, I wonder if this misconception is a way to hide within the comfort zone of their technical disciplines. Focusing purely on the technical work absolves them from any responsibility for the wider team. If work isn’t coming through the door it is easy for them to sidestep the blame and point it towards someone else. Shouldn’t all senior staff be striving to bring in opportunities, after all they are likely some of the best connected professionals in the firm.

Thinking back to my perception of this as a consultant hydrogeologist I strongly identified with the technical application of my role. That is until I started seeing leadership pathways and was forced to start facing the reality of work winning. Once I started down these paths the importance of business development and selling became very clear. Not only that I got a real kick out of the strategic nature of the work.

The question is, how do we make the importance of work winning understood by our rising stars and senior consultants alike?

Business development can help!

How Business Development Can Help

Lets start with the fact that business development is not sales. Rather it is the strategic, sustainable growth of the business. Does sales form part of this? Absolutely. But applying business development principles does not make you a salesman.

For those consultants with an aversion to selling, developing the business might be the way to get them thinking about the pursuit of opportunities. Get them to understand that for customers to be served via our technical expertise requires active engagement with the wider market. If they don’t a competitor will be helping those customers instead.

Getting each team to work through the assess, aim and action stages of the triple A framework would, I believe, start them walking the right path. Removing any talk of sales and really focussing on understanding the customers needs within the technical context is the key here. This isn’t sales. It’s identifying, understanding and solving customer problems better than the competition. Aligning business development with the technical discipline will keep the work winning firmly planted within their technical passion.

Next Action

Are your team members resisting on the work winning front? Have a think about framing it with the principles of business development.

If you want to give your team the tools they need to create consistency and repeatability in their work winning, I can help. For a simple framework to base your business development activity around I recommend checking out my new book Business Development Begins Here. You can order it from Amazon by clicking the pic below.

If you are looking to get your business development processes squared away right now, download my free BD checklist below. This gives you the actions needed to create a system around your work winning, turning it into repeatable action and results.

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If you want a more proactive and personal approach to your business development I am available to help. Through face to face video calls I’ll set you on the right path and keep you accountable to future activity. I currently have space on my 13-week 1on1 personalized coaching program. To learn more click the button below.

Business Development Coaching

Key Elements to include in a Business Development Operational Plan

By Tom on

Once your strategic plan is in place you a business development operational plan has to be written. This gets more granular around the goals and priorities of the business development effort. Timescale should be no longer than 12 months. Ideally the information should fit within a single page. Taking the company-wide strategy and applying it to the particular markets within your sphere of responsibility.

At a minimum, it should detail revenue targets, quoting targets, key industries, and actions. Details of a measurable KPI should accompany each action.

Business Development Plan Framework

A model framework is presented below to be adapted for your particular circumstances.

  1. Mission—adapts the company mission to apply to your region and areas of responsibility.
  2. Targets—details the targets for revenue, volume of quoting, and number of business development meetings and calls.
  3. Customer Experience—defines how you want the customer to engage with and experience your offering. This shapes both how you approach customers and your internal delivery teams.
  4. Marketing—highlights those marketing tools planned for the coming year. Details social media plans, specific events, and launches, etc.
  5. Existing Market Segments—details the key goals, targets, and actions for this segment of your customer base.
  6. New market segments—longer-term goals and actions that are unlikely to yield immediate results but tie in with the growth aspirations of the company.
  7. Projects—defines projects specific to your team for the coming year. Includes development of the company website, marketing materials, or project references.
  8. Collaboration—features internal stakeholder alliances to enable smooth collaboration in any joint actions needed.

Example Plan

Google holds many examples of sales strategies. A simple search will give you plenty of choice. However, I developed an example intended to be simple and succinct (see below). Capturing enough detail to be relevant, it defines the priorities clearly. Adapt this to your own specific set of circumstances.

Remember to make all KPIs SMART. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

Example operational business development plan

Action Your Business Development Plan

Commit to building your annual operational plan. This will help guide your activity in line with your company purpose. completing this exercise gets yous thinking more strategically about the activity you need to undertake. Who are your key customers and where is your growth going to come from this year? Give it some real thought and include in the plan.

If you need help, spaces are available on my personalised coaching program. This one on one service will let us do a deep dive on you business development planning, market assessment and daily activity. I’ll help keep you focused and accountable.

If you are starting your business development journey and would like to understand the different stages and activities needed for success download my free BD checklist resource below. You can use this on its own or in conjunction with my new book Business Development Begins Here.

For a simple framework to base your business development activity around I recommend checking out my new book Business Development Begins Here. You can Pre-Order on Amazon by clicking the pic below.

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If you want a more proactive and personal approach to your business development I am available to help. Through face to face video calls I’ll set you on the right path and keep you accountable to future activity. I currently have space on my 13-week 1on1 personalized coaching program. To learn more click the button below.

Business Development Coaching

Three Simple Tips for Adding Value to Customer Meetings

By Tom on

I remember going to my first customer meeting as a business developer. It was terrifying. I didn’t know the prospect and the thought of meeting someone new and trying to develop a business relationship seemed an alien concept. But I reminded myself that they had agreed to meet because they were interested in the hydrogeology services that my company offered. I also had the mining experience that they desperately needed.

Once we’d sat down with a coffee I didn’t feel comfortable going on a rant about our services. I think perhaps my innate shyness got the better of me. I’m glad it did. Instead I asked about the customer about them. Their situation. Their problems. To my surprise they opened up. The conversation explored their needs and I could respond by explaining a deeper knowledge of the problem and how we could assist.

I left that meeting feeling like I had really added value. It felt great. From then on I kept adding more and more business development responsibility to my role.

Knowing how to behave and looking for ways to add value in you customer meetings and other interactions is a core part of being a business developer. In this post I’m going to describe a good and bad experience I’ve had before detailing three tips to add more value to your customer meetings.

Example of a bad customer meeting below

A Bad Customer Meeting

Picture this—a business development manager from a large project tracking software company reached out to me via LinkedIn and asked to meet. The product he was selling would add benefit to the role I was in, so I was interested in learning more. He suggested meeting in a coffee shop near where I was working.

Firstly, he was ten minutes late, not a good start. Second, he didn’t offer to buy me a coffee; instead, he launched directly into his pitch. I had to stop him and go and buy my own coffee, politely offering to get him one also. I had to sit and be talked at for 20 minutes. To be honest, his product could have held the answers to all my project tracking needs, but I was no longer interested in listening to what he had to say. I drank my coffee as fast as I could before closing the meeting down.

A Good Customer Meeting

A better example was a business coach who I met through a board I was serving on. He was early. We grabbed a coffee, and he asked me about my leadership journey and any issues I was facing. After he learned about the problems I was tackling, he proceeded to explain how he could guide me through these challenges and what success might look like. I left the meeting feeling that I had learned something and, importantly, that I wanted to learn more. Needless to say, I became Greg’s customer for many years.

Tip 1: Listen Listen Listen

To get the most out of a customer meeting set yourself the goal of learning as much as possible about your customers situation. Stephen Covey’s Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood could not be more aligned to my message. Listen to your customer. Ask pertinent questions and understand the context around their issue. Only once you’ve understood them can you begin to start solving their problems.

Tip 2: Be the Guide, Not the Hero

In my bad example above I mention how I was talked at. The sales rep couldn’t wait to tell me about all the features and advantages of their software. They were the hero of their own story. Donald Millers’ Story Brand really encapsulates the idea that a company should act as a guide to their customers. Helping them to become the hero. By extension, the business developer should be the physical representation of that guide, leading the customer on the hero’s journey. Again, ask pertinent questions, listen, and advise. Don’t talk about yourself and how great your company is. Make the customer the centre of the conversation and react to that.

Once you understand their needs explain what their life will be like if they utilise your solution. Perhaps their productivity or their staff retention will improve. Whatever it is, don’t explain the process but describe how your customer will be the hero if they implement.

Always follow up after your customer meetings

Tip 3: Follow Up

Updating the tactical action plan after each customer meeting is essential. Adding a brief one-line summary is enough. Update the date for the next meeting in line with your predetermined priority cadence or based on the needs of the opportunity. Any immediate actions should be moved on to your daily task list.

Be sure to follow up the customer with any actions from the meeting itself as soon as you can. This shows them that you value them, while also striking while the iron is hot.

Finally, any interesting information about the state of the market or customer direction should be noted and fed back to the wider team.

Customer Meeting Action

That wraps up the three tips to add value to your customer meetings. My challenge for you is to think about incorporating Listen, Hero, & Follow up in to your future meetings.

As normal I’m ken to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment below or reach out through the normal channels.

Business development

Are looking to begin your Business Development journey but are not quite sure where to start? Download my business development checklist below. This gives a list of actions and activities to get you on the right path.

For a simple framework to base your business development activity around I recommend checking out my new book Business Development Begins Here. It has just gone on Pre-Order on Amazon. Visit the link to reserve your copy now.

Order your copy now!

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If you want a more proactive and personal approach to your business development I am available to help. Through face to face video calls I’ll set you on the right path and keep you accountable to future activity. I currently have space on my 13-week 1on1 personalized coaching program. To learn more click the button below.

Business Development Coaching

Six Steps to Creating the Ultimate BD Strategic Plan

By Tom on

Your strategic plan is an excellent place to start your organising your business development effort. As the first of the three plans it sets the direction and purpose for all your business development activity. Consequently it informs the whole of the aim phase of the triple A framework. Ideally it should stem from the overarching strategy for the entire business. The plan highlights the overall direction of the business and priorities to be pursued.

If you are sitting within a large multinational company, generally the strategy will be guided by the global leadership. In contrast, working for a small business will see the strategy written by the owners. If no strategy is in place, talk to the owner about developing one.

Below I discuss the six core components that every business developer needs to have in their strategic plan.

Step 1: Purpose

This is perhaps the most important step of the six. What is the company there to do, and why is it doing what it does? Really this acts as a compass guiding future direction and activity in line with the company purpose. Having a succinct and powerful purpose is extremely useful for the business developer. Integrating it into client conversations and marketing, lets customers engage with the larger intent behind your organisation.

For example, working for a company that provides environmental monitoring equipment, I defined the purpose as:

“supporting environmental monitoring excellence, enabling positive action in protecting our natural environment.”

Bringing this up in conversation really resonated with existing and prospective customers mirroring shared values, allowing trust to form.

If you are having trouble articulating or defining the purpose of your organization, I suggest reading Start With Why by Simon Sinek. This inspirational book provides the tools to really dig deep into the purpose of your company.

Your purpose and vision guide your future business development effort

Step 2:: Vision

In addition to purpose you need to understand the long-term vision of the company? What will it look like in five to ten years’ time. Importantly, how will this shape the future customer base? Clarity of vision aligns the business development activity with the long-term goals of the company.

For example, an engineering consultancy articulates their long-term objective as obtaining a large mining project portfolio to diversify their transport infrastructure project base. Accordingly this enables their business development team to focus some of their energy on longer-term customer and strategic project opportunities in the mining sector.

Step 3: Mission

The mission is really the nuts and bolts of what the company does and how it does it. For example, a technical company might have a mission to provide the highest quality flow data for their customers. Achieved through technical superiority, instrumentation design, and manufacture. Defining this mission aligns the company’s sales and marketing messages, showing that you walk the talk in what you do.

Financial goals are a core part of every Strategic Plan

Step 4: Financial Goals

Revenue and profitability is what keeps an organization healthy. The strategic plan must define the immediate and long-term financial goals of the company. How does your business development effort support these? This information supports prioritizing customers and making decisions around opportunity pursuit.

It must make clear the acceptable pricing strategy. Of course this will differ between various geographies and industries. These financial goals must align with the wider company purpose and vision.

Step 5: Growth Areas

Every business developer must know where are the intermediate and long-term growth areas are expected to be. This information makes sure that your effort aligns with the growth expectation of the company. How is growth going to be achieved? Consider the Ansoff Matrix here. New products, services, or customers?

For example, company BuildingPro is looking to grow in the residential housing market. Their BD team would need to align with the internal engineering specialists and start exploring residential housing opportunities. This doesn’t mean that other opportunities wont be explored. However, priority must be placed, and time allocated to, pursuing the prioritized areas of growth.

Who are your Key Customers?

Step 6: Key Customers

Who do the leadership team consider to be the key customers of the company? Remember this is a strategic take on the customers within the context of the 3-5 year goals. This information is gold, as key customers are usually the highest yielding customers with the strongest existing connection. Robust relationships and trust in your offering are assets that already exist here. Leveraging this will really help fill your sales funnel.

To give you an idea of how this might look, consider this example. The new business developer at BuildingPro understands that the local company Open Homes is considered a key customer. Discovering an existing relationship with the main account manager for Open Homes provides the business developer introductions to some of the main decision makers in Open Homes. This in turn assists the business developer to build relationships of their own. A great start!

Highlighting strategic prospective customers here is vital, tying in with the previously identified growth areas and the priority pursuits.

Presenting the Strategic Plan

Once the main components of the strategic plan are identified, write them down for future reference. I always keep a copy of the strategic plan on the wall above my desk for reference. This lets me do a quick check-in, keeping business development activities on point in the context of the company direction and purpose.

If you are not sure of the best way to present this information, a quick google search will yield plenty of results. An example of a simple plan, which I have used on numerous occasions, is presented below. This should be able to fit on one page.

Simple Strategic Plan

However, I recognize that every business is different, so feel free change the information as your needs dictate. For maximum impact, keep the plan simple and short and ideally to one page. Above all, a quick scan with the eyes is enough to gain an understanding of the central intent.

Strategic Plan Action

Do you have a Strategic Plan in place? If so, do you understand it? If not, I suggest you start pulling one together using the framework above.

What do you consider to be the core components of a strategic plan from the business development perspective? Let me know in the comments below or reach out via LinkedIn.

If you would like to kick start your business development download our business development checklist below. Detailing a clear business development path, this checklist helps grow your revenue. Download now and get it working for you.

My new book: Business Development Begins Here has just gone on Pre-Order on Amazon. Visit the link to reserve your copy.

If you want a more proactive and personal approach to your business development I am available to help. Through face to face video calls I’ll set you on the right path and keep you accountable to future activity. I currently have space on my 13-week 1on1 personalized coaching program. To learn more click the button below.

Business Development Coaching

Never Hire a Salesperson to Grow Your Business

By Tom on

When growing a business you will need revenue winning staff. Whatever you do, don’t hire a salesperson. This may sound counter intuitive. In my opinion you need someone more strategic. Someone who chases more than just revenue. Once you’ve read my three reasons I think that you’ll agree.

A Salesperson is Transactional, Not Strategic

Popular culture today portrays a salesperson as some who is hyper focused on the win. Often at the expense of everything else. In some extreme cases at the expense of the truth. This can lead to some issues.

Focussing only on the sale can lead to valuable relationship building opportunities being ignored or at worst torched. Instead of carefully listening to a customer they are gunning for the sale, the revenue and the commission.

Why not hire a business development professional. They understand the strategic nature of business and are looking to develop long term customer relationships.

Chasing revenue not profit

A Salesperson Chases Revenue, Not Profit

Many salespeople are incentivised by the dollars that they bring through the door. Therefore their focus is purely on the top line revenue. Profitability is not considered. This often leads to a mindset of drop the price, get the sale.

Revenues may go up. But if profitability is low or non-existent high revenues are effectively meaningless. Your business will shrivel and die.

Why not hire a business development professional. Someone who understands the commercial levers to pull and how hard to pull them. They have an eye on profitability at all times ensuring every sale adds to the bottom line.

A lone wolf can damage the team and the customer experience

A Salesperson is a Lone Wolf, Not Integrated With the Team

Obviously the title is a broad generalisation but I’ve seen more than a few salespeople in small organisations behave like lone wolves. Jealously guarding their customers. Not telling anyone what they do and distancing themselves from the rest of the team. They are often good at bringing in revenues but at what cost? The delivery team don’t know what projects are pending. The customer contacts are all held by one person. The damage a lone wolf can cause is immense. The book “The Challenger Sale” goes into more detail on this.

Why not hire a business development professional who understands the importance of integrating with teams inside and outside your organisation. They take other members of the business to meet customers. They openly share customer and market feedback. They’ve developed strong relationships with the delivery and technical teams. Ultimately this leads to a better experience for the customers and the team.

When you are interviewing next, look beyond the sales skills

Don’t Hire a Salesperson. Do You Agree?

Obviously I have made some extremely broad assumptions around sales staff. But my point still stands. Hiring someone for sales skills alone could end in disaster, especially in smaller companies where the bulk of the revenue is won by one or two people.

Instead look for business development skill and experience. Someone who understands the commercial aspects of your business. A developer of relationships who is aligned to your purpose and goals. Hunting revenue is one thing, but someone actively growing your business in the long-term is a keeper.

What do you think? Should you hire a salesperson or a business developer? Let me know in the comments below.

If you are looking to enhance your business development skills click the download button below. This will give you access to my free resources including the Business Development Checklist, LinkedIn Mastery Roadmap and Assess Phase Workbook. All designed to get you focused on the right path.

My new book: Business Development Begins Here is available for Pre-Order on Amazon. Visit the link to reserve your copy.

If you want a more proactive and personal approach to your business development I am available to help. I’ll set you on the right path and keep you accountable to future activity. I’m currently have space on my 13 week 1on1 personalised coaching program. To learn more click the button below.

Business Development Coaching

7 Easy Ways to Improve Your Sales Process

By Tom on

Whether you like it or not your sales process is a core component of your business development strategy. Consistency and discipline in the way you pursue customers and opportunities creates a strong chance of success. I talk about the overarching Sales Path in my recent post. If you haven’t done so already I recommend checking it out for context. In this post I discuss how to instill consistency in your process once a lead is qualified.

A Real-Life Example

Sam, a good friend of mine, had spent months perfecting his side hustle handcrafting beautiful wooden furniture. He had identified a customer niche in the creative corporate space. Business owners who valued fine craftsmanship, sustainable materials, and local business. Feeling inspired, he set up some simple digital marketing, which lead to a couple of face-to-face meetings. This allowed Sam to refine his offering. From there, a number of very warm leads rolled in that qualified as opportunities.

Everything seemed suddenly real. The side hustle had the potential to sell. Sam froze, afraid of taking the next step. Opportunities with the potential to make significant revenue sat there doing nothing.

Sam explained his dilemma to me over a beer. So I laid out a simple systematic pursuit process on the back of a paper napkin. My slightly smudged pen highlighted the key points—clarify, call, meet, send proposal, follow up, and adjust. I sensed Sam’s demeanour changing from subdued to excited. He understood the structure and was comfortable implementing the process.

I got a call a week later to let me know that he had secured his first sale.

Sales Process and the Art of Pursuit

Opportunities are qualified leads. Therefore they indicate that the customer has identified a need for your company offering and wants to learn more. Engaging with the customer quickly is essential. Ask yourself this—would you rather buy from a company that sends you a price via email, or a company that calls and takes the time to understand what you are looking for?

Easy right?

Relatively, though you do need to be consistent. It is crucial that you run all opportunities through the same sales process so that nothing is missed. This is where the systematic pursuit process comes in. Below, I’ve detailed a simple systematic pursuit process, based on the scribbles I’d developed for Sam back in the day. Systematically leading your customers through this process vastly improves your chances of turning those opportunities into revenue.

The Seven Stages of Systematic Pursuit

Seven Stages of Systematic Pursuit

Systematic pursuit follows seven consecutive stages.

One: Clarify—carefully examine what the customer is asking for. Subsequently, define a list of questions that need clarification. Show the customer that you know your subject and are interested in finding them the right solution.

Two: Call—I cannot emphasize this enough—pick up the phone and call your customer. Ask clarification questions and listen to the answers. Make sure to get answers to all the items from stage one. Putting a human face (or voice) to your organization will set you apart from the majority of your customers.

Three: Meet—if the opportunity is particularly large or complex, arrange a face-to-face meeting. Use this to clarify points, discuss concerns, and do a deep dive into the customers problem. Again, ask questions and listen. You need to be the customer’s guide.

Four: Proposal—simply sending a quote with a price is not enough. There needs to be context around how you can assist your customer with their problem. Brevity is preferred. A quick skim of the document should be enough to know why they should be using you. Usually a simple explanation with key bullet points should be adequate.

Follow up with your customers is a key part of your sales process

Follow Up

Five: Follow Up—this critical stage is often forgotten. Even seasoned business developers will sometimes immediately move on to the next opportunity following submission of a proposal. Give the customer time to read the proposal, and then follow up with a call. Does it meet the requirements? Is the price point right? Get valuable feedback—without it, you can’t adjust your offer.

Six: Adjust—once you have the proposal feedback from the customer, don’t waste it. If possible, adjust your offer based on the customer conversation. Next resubmit a version that is more aligned to the customer expectations.

Seven: Feedback Request—once the opportunity has been won or lost, use this as a way to open up further dialogue with the customer. Ask for feedback on why the proposal was won or lost and be sure to listen. Use this to sense check your assumptions. Discuss this feedback with the leadership team, as there may be gold in adapting the organization for future wins.

Key Takeaway: Listen

I hope you can see the value in implementing a consistent pursuit process into your business. It’s a relatively easy way to get more air time with your customer. By doing so you get a greater understanding of their needs and the ability wither to adjust.

Asking questions is a crucial part of this system. But they are worthless if you don’t listen to the answers. Listen to your customers and adapt!

If you like what you read please consider downloading my free business development resources. These include a BD Checklist, LinkedIn Mastery Roadmap and Assess Stage workbook. A great way to keep yourself on the right path.

My new book: Business Development Begins Here is available for Pre-Order on Amazon. Visit the link to reserve your copy.

Pre-order available now

If you need help with your sales process, spaces are available on my personalised coaching program. This a one on one service will let us do a deep dive into your business development planning, market assessment, processes and daily activity. I’ll personally keep you focused and accountable.

Level Up Your Business Development

As always I’m keen to hear your thoughts. What process do you use for your pursuit? Let me know in the comments below or reach out to me on LinkedIn.

The Only Three Business Development Plans You Need

By Tom on

Business development plans are essential to start making impact with your work winning effort. Completing an assessment of your sales ecosystem, it is easy to start doing everything at once. But, your enthusiasm will only get you so far. A systematic approach is essential if you want to start getting repeatable results. To achieve a systematic approach you must carefully aim your effort.

Aiming Your Effort

Your strategic intent and sales ecosystem assessment provide an excellent foundation. Therefore, use these to form your action-oriented business development plans.

Sitting at a desk waiting for the customer to call is not business development. It requires daily effort. Get into the market, talk to customers, and feedback your findings to the company leadership.

Aim your effort

Daily marketing activity fills the sales funnel. This requires daily action, to turn leads into opportunities and sales. It never stops—the cycle needs continuous effort. Activity must always be working toward the goals of the business.

To sum up, that is a lot to stay on top of. In an ever-changing day where customers, opportunities, and leads are all competing for your time, there must be a system. A plan is required that outlines this system of action. This allows you to approach your customer base in line with your goals. Additionally, it prevents customers and opportunities being forgotten. The following section summarizes the three plans that will focus your activity in the right direction.

Introducing the Three Plans

The Three Plan Hierarchy

Strategic Plan—contains the overarching goals and intent of the company as well as the core growth areas. Usually has a 3-5 year time span. Only one of these plans will exist at a time.

Operational Plan—covers the goals and focus areas of the business development function for the coming year. Likely forms part of a broader business unit plan. A separate operational plan should be in place for each area of operation. For example, business development managers in Florida and Alaska will be following the same strategic plan. However, each has a separate operational plan capturing local differences in the industry and market.

Tactical Action Plan—this daily use plan executes on the operational plan, identifying daily actions for the business developer.

Your Business Development Plans

It is not necessarily the role of the business developer to create all three plans. This will depend on the company size and structure. As an entrepreneur or small business owner all three will definitely fall into your work flow. Whilst, a BDM in a large organisation will likely have responsibility for the operational and tactical plans. At a bare minimum, you must have input into the operational plan and ownership of the tactical action plan.

Take care when developing these plans, as they ultimately shape the growth of your business. Use the data collated in the assess stage to aim your efforts in a direction based on evidence and opportunity, not gut feel.

Get a bullseye with your business development plans

Over the coming weeks I’ll unpack the three plans in more detail giving tips on how to implement for your own use.

Sign up below to get access to my free business development resources. This includes my LinkedIn Mastery Roadmap and BD Checklist. These will keep you focused on the important things letting you be more effective with your time and effort.

If you need help with your business development planning, spaces are available on my personalised coaching program. This a one on one service will let us do a deep dive into your business development planning, market assessment and daily activity. I’ll personally keep you focused and accountable.

As always I’d love to hear what you think. Leave a comment or reach out on LinkedIn.

How to Implement Simple Lead Qualification

By Tom on

Implementing a simple yet robust lead qualification process saves you significant time and money. When done correctly it siphons out those leads that are not worth pursuing. Focus is placed on leads that are likely to yield revenue. As such it is an integral part of the Systematic Sales Path. Ideally it involves a fast assessment of leads to determine their worth as an opportunity.

Some Examples of Lead Qualification

Back in the day I worked for a large national engineering company. We had a very robust qualification process that consisted of a go/no-go meeting. The process demanded the meeting comprise at least four high-level personnel, plus the bid/project manager. Consequently, a large amount of money had been burned before a decision had been made.

In their defence they were pursuing $100,000+ opportunities. However, on smaller prospects, the profit had evaporated from the project before it had been won. Their go/no-go form, however, was exceptional and I will be using it as a basis for the checklist below.

Donald Miller’s Business Made Simple company has a whole team dedicated to qualifying leads, both digital and phone calls as they come in. Therefore, only qualified leads are passed to their sales team allowing them to focus on customers who have the strongest revenue potential.

Our Simple Lead Qualification Checklist

In our case, we are assuming that the business developer is either alone or part of a small team. A dedicated team of qualifiers is, unfortunately, not part of the picture. Therefore, the qualification process should be fast, intuitive, and easy to use. It should be simple enough to check off mentally if required.

I’ve adapted the go/no-go form from my previous job into a series of quick questions that can act as a simple checklist.

– Is this a business-as-usual request?
– Can the lead afford our offering?
– Is the lead outside of our regular deal value?
– Does the lead play to the strengths of our offering?
– Will we require additional resources to win this lead?
– Is this an existing customer?
– Is the customer a good fit?
– Does the lead come with an added level of risk?  
Simple Lead Qualification Checklist

The answers to these questions should provide clear guidance as to whether you should progress the lead into the pursuit stage. I’ll be looking at the pursuit stage in more detail in an upcoming post.

Develop your lead qualification checklist

Checklist Questions

Now we have a simple checklist to work with, let’s look at each question in more detail. Each has an associated question or trigger.

Is this a business-as-usual request?

Is the lead related to our business-as-usual activities? If yes, change the lead to an opportunity and pursue. If no, can we deliver on the opportunity?

Can the lead afford our offering?

If no, disqualify the lead.

Is the lead outside our regular deal value?

A lead with larger than normal revenue may prove difficult to deliver. Proceed only after further discussions with the wider team to make sure delivery is achievable. On the other hand, leads with revenues that are too small may not be commercially viable.

Does the lead play to the strengths of our offering?

If the lead does align with the offering strengths, then change to an opportunity. Otherwise additional assessment will be required to determine alignment with the strategy.

Keep your questions relevant to your business

Will we require additional resources to win this lead?

Do we have those resources available? If no, then do not qualify. A half-baked proposal can do significant damage to the company’s reputation. It is better to send nothing at all than to send something substandard.

Is this an existing customer?

Remember the Ansoff Matrix? It’s always better to sell to existing customers who already know your offering and can be more supportive if you are trying something new.

Is the customer a good fit?

This is one of the most important questions. Does the customer fit within the preferred customer profile? Do their values align with your own? If yes, qualify. If no, do not qualify.

Does the opportunity come with an added level of risk?

Consider, for example, any reputational, financial, or safety risks associated with the opportunity. Risks take many forms and need to be carefully considered. If high risk looks likely, initiate a discussion with the leadership team. Importantly, mitigating the high level risks is e for the lead to be qualified.

Which qualifying questions will you add to your list?

Your Lead Qualification Checklist

Of course, the qualification checklist will be different for each company. Therefore, you should consider what is important for your particular circumstances and adjust accordingly. It is even possible to incorporate the company values into the qualification checklist. For example, I’ve seen this done really well with a question like: Is the opportunity based within the tobacco, whaling, or nuclear industry? If yes, do not qualify. This is a clear message that this organization does not support projects within those industries.

Are there any non-negotiables that you can incorporate into your own version?

As always I’m keen to hear how you have used lead qualification in your business. What processes have worked well for you and your team. Leave a comment below or drop me a line on LinkedIn.

If you need help with your business development, spaces are available on my personalised coaching program. This a one on one service will let us do a deep dive into your business development planning, market assessment and daily activity. I’ll personally keep you focused and accountable.

If you want to kickstart your business development journey download my free BD Checklist below. This will keep you focused on the important things letting you be more effective with your time and effort.

Simple LinkedIn Marketing in Three Easy Stages (part 3)

By Tom on

Welcome to my third post discussing a simple LinkedIn marketing system. The last two posts explored Profile and Propagate, if you haven’t read them yet I suggest having a quick look before reading further. Now it’s time to look at promoting your business on the platform.

Promote: the Third P of LinkedIn Marketing

Each time someone connects with you or views your profile it can be considered a touch point for your brand. Developing your burgeoning network and providing further touch points around your brand and company offering, is an efficient way to begin sourcing leads. You can do this in two simple ways by:

  • engaging with accepted connections
  • posting value-add material.
Systematically engage with your connections

Engaging with Connections

If someone accepts your invitation to connect, it indicates that they have some interest in what you have to offer. Developing a simple conversation script that generates further touch points is a quick method to uncovering leads. A simple script, where you only move down the process following a response from the contact, might look like the following:

1. Hi, Thanks for connecting, Regards, Chris.

Customer response: No problem. My pleasure.

2. How are you finding the market at the moment, keeping busy?

Customer:  Pretty busy at the moment.

3. We’re pretty steady at the moment. How do you manage your contaminated land issues?

Customer response: We manage it well at the moment, but could do with some extra field staff.

4. If you need any advice on contaminated land investigations, feel free to give me a call.

Making the messages short keeps things to the point and incites a reply. No one wants to read long boring messages on the platform. While each response is tailored to each of the Lead’s reactions, a simple script like this can maintain consistent messaging and speed up interaction times.

Regularly posting content helps generate interest in your brand

Posting Value-Add Content

Regular posting on LinkedIn for your target audience is another simple way to keep your company offering front of mind. These posts should not be sales focused but rather adding value through teaching, providing new information or looking at things from a different perspective. Use this opportunity to cement your position as a specialist within the industry or niche.

Relevant posts centred on your offering form valuable touch points that get your customer base thinking about what you do and not what you sell. This is a small but significant difference in gaining the trust of the buyer. Consistently posting two posts a week is enough to start gaining traction and leads. Don’t forget that results won’t happen overnight, consistent action is a must to achieving growth.

Donald Millers StoryBrand can really help with your messaging

Messaging

If you are not sure how to message your offering appropriately, I’d advise reading Donald Miller’s book, Building a Story Brand (Miller 2018), and following his methodology to define your customer, cementing yourself as a guide and mentor around the problem you are helping them solve.

Reading the book and completing the Story Brand Script will set you in the right direction. It recommends putting the customer at the centre of the messaging not yourself. Posts should be about how you make the customer the Hero and what their world will look like with you guiding them. Do not post about how great you are as a business, people aren’t interested in that.

Consistency

Being consistent in adding connections and posting within LinkedIn will yield leads. It is crucial that when someone shows interest in your offering, you respond quickly. Make sure to take the conversation off LinkedIn as quickly as possible. Transfer to email first and face-to-face once the lead is qualified as an opportunity. The discussion should form part of your systems and not be held within a third-party platform.

Final Thoughts

This ends the final part of my series on simple LinkedIn marketing. I think you will agree that getting your company brand recognised on this platform is actually pretty straightforward. Put some time aside this week to revisit your LinkedIn strategy and let me know how you go.

Download my business development LinkedIn Mastery Road Map, Business Development Checklist and other free resources from the link below.

If you need help with your business development, spaces are available on my personalised coaching program. This a one on one service will let us do a deep dive into your business development planning, market assessment and daily activity. I’ll personally keep you focused and accountable.

How to Cultivate Customer Relationships

By Tom on

Learning how to cultivate customer relationships is a crucial part of business development. It also forms the first part of our Systematic Sales Path. This post discusses what to do once you’ve identified an organization that you want to do business with. How do you go from an unknown entity to connecting with your ideal customer. I’ve identified a number of actions required to get the ball rolling. Remember that this is cyclical. Even if you win work through this customer you must continue to practice these actions to develop the relationship and ensure you don’t get replaced by a competitor.

The Customer Development Model contains the sequence of actions to be undertaken to begin developing relationships with your target companies and future customers.

Customer Development Model. To help cultivate your customers.
Customer Development Model

Surf the Org Chart

This encapsulates the concept of identifying a who’s who of the stakeholders and decision makers within your target customer organizations. Getting hold of a customer organizational chart can be virtually impossible. LinkedIn is the ideal tool to identify a few key personnel to follow up with. Ideally, these are customers with a use for your company offering or leading the teams who would be using it. This will identify which customer relationships to cultivate.

You must connect with different levels within the customer organization—leaders, frontline workers, and budget holders. Having multiple roles aware of your offering makes their decision to buy that much easier. If the frontline workers request your services and the leaders and budget holders already understand the value, the funds are much easier to release.

Surf the Org Chart to find prospective leads

Don’t fall into the trap of having only a single contact within a customer organization. Once that contact leaves, the relationship can vanish. It becomes all too easy for that customer to seek your offering elsewhere.

Introduction

For existing customers, the introduction is pretty straightforward. Asking for a meeting to gain feedback on your company’s performance allows you to meet with a clear agenda that doesn’t feel salesy. Remember to listen to the feedback they provide and take notes for later.

Gaining a meaningful introduction to a new potential customer can be the hardest part of the entire process. How do you get them to talk to you, let alone to meet you in person? The answer may surprise you:

Don’t be a salesperson!!

What I mean by that is put yourself in your customers shoes. Their time is precious—why should they spend it in discussion with you? Have a deep understanding of your customer’s problem. Make sure that what your conversation is going to add value.

Let your customer know what it is you intend to discuss and how it will be of use.

One of the best ways to get an introduction is to get a referral from a mutual acquaintance who believes there is value in you meeting. Talk to your personal network and existing customers to see if they can help you get an introduction.

Contact Customer

Once an introduction is secured, make contact via email or phone. The latter is more personable. With emails, be careful that your tone doesn’t come over as spam-like. This isn’t the time for a hard sell. Keep phone calls and emails short and to the point. Brevity is key. Just say who you are, who recommended you meet, and what you want to discuss.

Get on the phone and make contact!

If they say no, don’t feel despondent. Perhaps they’re not yet ready for your services. Always be polite and professional; you may well be dealing with them in the future. Make a note on your tactical action plan or CRM and move on to the next one, remembering to place a date to loop back to that contact again in the future.

Face-to-Face

Now the contact has agreed to meet. Don’t be nervous—they are meeting because of an interest in the agenda from your previous communication. Make sure that you stick to that agenda. You don’t want your customer to feel ambushed. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Do not spend all your time talking about how great your offering and company are. Use the 80:20 rule:

80 percent listening and 20 percent talking.

Learn as much as you can from the contact. Tell them a little about what your company and how you believe it can help in relation to what you’ve heard them say. Be polite and ask permission to reach out to them again in the future.

Cultivate your customers through a face to face meeting like the two women in the picture.
The best way to develop a customer relationship is via a face-to-face meeting

It’s worth noting that in the current times a face-to-face meeting can also be conducted via video call.

Follow Up

Once the meeting is complete, make sure to follow up fast. A quick email thanking them for their time and providing any information they may have asked for is enough. Adjust the tactical action plan or CRM with relevant notes, and set a date for a follow-up based on priority and opportunity potential.

Trial/Proposal

Having learned from the meeting about where the customer needs help, consider a way to let them experience your offering with little risk or expense. Perhaps you could invite them to your factory for a tour or provide some free training.

Alternatively, provide them with existing customers who are willing to act as a reference. Allowing the customer to experience what you have to offer can help develop their sense of trust in your company and offering, which can go a long way in reducing any concerns they may have of taking a risk on a new company.

Customer happily trialing a new product on his laptop.
Giving the customer a free trial can really show them the benefits of your solution

If the customer has discussed a specific problem that you can solve, don’t just send a quote, prepare a proposal. Include the costs. But you also need to reassure the customer that you understand their problem; explain how you can solve it. Make sure to highlight what the benefits will be once your solution is engaged. The proposal can take the form of a letter, formal document, or email. This will very much depend on the customer’s expectations. Regardless, placing your offering into context is key.

I’ll be discussing proposals in more detail in a later post.

Feedback Loop

In addition to updating the tactical action plan or CRM, it is critical that the information learned in the meeting is fed back into the wider business. Taking time to share findings during the leadership or team meetings is important so the organization can adapt. Don’t forget to include your internal stakeholders and influencers as part of this communication.

Cultivating your Customer Relationships

The Customer Development Model is a simple process that can really help you cultivate those relationships. Remember it is intentionally cyclical. You will need to repeat this cycle over and over again for your existing and prospective customers. It all comes down to not thinking like a salesperson but rather where you can create the most value. That way customers will look forward to you getting in touch and your conversations will be useful.

How do you cultivate your customer relationships? Let me know in the comments below, on LinkedIn or via the usual channels.

If you’d like to get access to more free content including our Business Development Checklist and LinkedIn Mastery Roadmap sign up to our list below.

Simple LinkedIn Marketing in Three Easy Stages (Part 2)

By Tom on

In my last post we looked at the Three Ps of LinkedIn marketing and discussed ways to get your Profile in to shape. This week we will look at the second P: Propagate. That is developing a network of connections who are interest in the services you offer.

Three Degrees of LinkedIn

Now that your profile really highlights your offering and can act as an interesting landing page, it is time to start making relevant connections. LinkedIn has three degrees of connection shown in the figure below.

Three Degrees of LinkedIn Connection

These are described as follows:

First-degree connection: Contacts that have connected to you. You either know these people directly or have something in common. Preferably industry and geography.

Second degree connection: Contacts who are connected to your first degree connections. Generally, you don’t know these people, though you will have acquaintances in common.

Third degree connection: Contacts outside of your immediate network. To connect with them you will need to broaden the reach of your second degree connections.

LinkedIn connections must be relevant
Make sure your LinkedIn connections are relevant

Not All Connections Are Equal

For your LinkedIn marketing to be relevant do not fall into the trap of connecting to everyone. This is completely counterproductive and will significantly dilute your efforts. Connections need to be hyper focused on individuals who are relevant, who may have an interest in, or a need for, your offering. To clarify, they should be potential customers or stakeholders.

Revisit the work done on your ideal customer, and look at the key customers in your operational plan. Within this group, which roles have the most interest and influence around your company offering? Once this is established, a simple LinkedIn search will yield gold. For example, principal water engineer, Washington, would generate a list of principal level water engineers in the Washington area. I have found that the more specific the search criteria is, the more useful the results will be.

Use the filters to refine you search by region, company or industry. Within minutes you will have a list of relevant contacts. Then simply click connect.

Building your network is key to leveraging the power of the LinkedIn platform. Committing to connect with thirty relevant second degree connections every day will expand your network dramatically.

What’s Next

The third post in the series will explore the third P of LinkedIn: Promote. I’m always keen to hear your thoughts. Tell me how you use LinkedIn to successfully market your company.

Download my business development LinkedIn Mastery worksheet and other free resources from the link below.

Three Secrets of a Killer Sales Process

By Tom on

In order to keep your business development humming along you must have a solid sales process in place. A good sales process is not complicated. Rather simplicity is key here. I call this the Sales Path. It comprises all activity that fills the sales funnel (marketing, lead generation etc) through to winning and delivering the sale. In this post I’m going to explore the three secrets of a Killer Sales Process.

  • Development
  • Qualification
  • Pursuit
Systematic Sales Path

Secret 1: Development

The first stage includes a cycle of activities around the development of relationships within your target customer base. Your Tactical Action Plan or CRM will direct this activity. Particularly around who to reach out to and at which cadence. Coffee meetings, networking events and feedback phone calls all play a part. As do your other marketing efforts generating and developing leads.

The secret here is consistency. You must be in regular contact with both your existing and future customers. Let them know what you are doing. Ask them about their problems, listen to their answers and work out how to serve them best. This needs to be done again and again. You can’t stop. Ever.

If you don’t get consistent on the development stage customers wont remember to ask you to solve their problems.

Development Cycle

Secret 2: Qualification

During the continual cycle of the development stage leads will show interest in your offering. However, Not all leads are created equal. This is where the qualification comes in. Having an efficient way to determine whether a lead can be considered worthy of pursuit is crucial. This focuses your effort is spent on real opportunities with potential to yield revenue.

The secret here is consistency! Having a strict set of qualification rules and following them for every lead is essential. If you don’t have consistency here you might as well chase every shiny opportunity that crosses your desk. You’ll be busy. But, you won’t make money.

Follow that Process!

Secret 3: Pursuit

The third stage, pursuit, contains the series of actions to follow once you have qualified a lead. Each action is designed to engage with the customer, learn what they really need, and respond appropriately.

Secret 3: Pursuit

The secret here is . . . you guessed it: CONSISTENCY! Each opportunity that travels down the sale path must be treated the same way. By having the discipline to follow the process you will give each opportunity the highest chance of success.

One More Secret: Consistency is Key

One point to bear in mind is that the sales process for your business should be the same regardless of the sales cycle time. Long and short sales cycles, should be following the same process. This ensures consistency in the way customers are treated. Consistency in qualifying which leads to pursue further, and consistency in pursuing opportunities. This all funnels into spending your time on activities that have the strongest chance of bringing revenue into your business.

Final Words

I realise that this post provides a broad overview of the killer sales path. I really want to put it into context for you before doing a deeper dive into each of the three sections. Later posts will lead you through each process and give you the tools to implement these in your own business.

My new book Business Development Begins Here has more on the Systematic Sales Path and puts it into the wider business development context. Check it out here.

As always I’m keen to hear your stories. Touch base and let me know how you’ve had success using a systematic sales path.

 

Simple LinkedIn Marketing in Three Easy Stages (Part 1)

By Tom on

Looking back at the Sales Funnel, the first stage in creating a pipeline of opportunities is filling the funnel with leads. A key component of keeping it full is through systematic marketing. Where the GDBD can have real impact and complete control of their activity, is by leveraging the power of social media, and in particular, LinkedIn.

Although LinkedIn originally began as a tool for recruiters, it has firmly established itself as the social platform for business. As such it lends itself as the perfect tool to initiate business-to-business marketing. Marketing, NOT selling. I cannot emphasize this enough. The platform is there to grow and nurture a network of business connections, and the quickest way to lose these connections is to directly sell to them.

Utilizing LinkedIn systematically, day-to-day, is an excellent way to generate brand awareness, develop leads and position both the brand and the business developer as subject matter experts in their niche. Taking ten minutes a day on the platform and spending an hour crafting two posts a week, can begin to generate results relatively quickly.

There are many courses and experts pushing their LinkedIn expertise and charging a lot of money for the privilege. However, starting with the platform is not that difficult. Over the next three posts, I highlight a simple daily system that you can follow.

What is your LinkedIn goal?

Your LinkedIN Mission

Before we start developing your LinkedIn system we need to consider what the aim of the campaign is going to be. In my opinion the overall objective should be:

Provide a steady source of leads to the top of the Sales Funnel.

This translates as the marketing effort adding opportunities and revenue into your sales pathway. The specific mission that supports the objective can be broken down into three tasks:

  1. Position the Business Developer and Company as a subject matter experts within the niche surrounding their offering.
  2. Generate regular touch points for the Company brand, building recognition over time.
  3. Develop a network of connections who are interested in your company offering.

The Three Ps of LinkedIn Marketing

The actions required to achieve this mission tasks can be divided into 3 Ps:

  • Profile – create a great first impression for yourself and your company
  • Propagate – develop a network of connections who are interested in your offering
  • Promote – generate touch points and value-based content to produce interest, brand awareness and trust in your offering.

Profile is discussed further below. The second and third Ps will be examined in later posts.

Get your LinkedIn profile working for you!

Profile

If you have a quick scan through the LinkedIn profiles of your connections, it is obvious that most people have structured their profiles like an online resume. Seeing as LinkedIn was originally designed as a tool for recruiters this makes sense. However, the profile of a GDBD should focus on your offering.

Think of your profile as your customers’ first impression of your company and the opportunity to highlight the unique aspects about what your offering comprises. When redesigning your profile, use the following four points to guide you.

Stand out and be compelling. Highlight your company offering in your headline and make sure your photograph conveys professionalism.

Add detail around your company offering. In your ABOUT section make sure the reader can understand the key ways that you can help them, following a quick scan of your profile.

Use key words throughout your profile. Think of these as words that potential customers would type into Google if they were looking for your offering. For example, if your niche was flood modelling, you would include words and phrases like, flood modelling, flooding, flood specialist, flood mapping etc. Mention these a number of times throughout your profile.

Make it easy for the connection. The aim of using LinkedIn is to get a steady stream of leads entering the Sales Funnel. So, make it easy for interested connections to learn more. Put your contact details in the about section, phone number and email address and add a link to the relevant pages of your company website.

Further Action

Take time to look through your profile and adjust it to reflect what you offer your customers. Stop thinking of it as a resume. In part 2 we will look at systematic ways to use LinkedIn to assist your business development efforts.

Download my LinkedIn Mastery worksheet and other resources from the link below.

Let me know how do you set up LinkedIN to support your business development efforts?

What is Business Development? Sales or Not Sales?

By Tom on

Unfortunately business development (BD) means different things to different people. While often seen as another word for sales, this is doing the craft a massive disservice.

In this post I’ll explore what BD is and what it is not. I’ll also provide a simple definition before detailing why I think the craft is so important.

What Business Development is Not

Business development is not sales.

Sales by definition is the action of selling. On the other hand, BD involves more than seeking and closing the deal. It requires strategic thinking and decision-making behind who to approach, and how to approach. Additionally, it focuses only on new opportunities that align with the long-term success of the company.

Business development is not transaction based.

Traditionally, sales are considered short-term and transaction based. Get the sale, ring the bell and move on. The strategic position of the sale in the wider context of the company’s goals is missing.

What Business Development Is

True enough, BD is, at its core, about the sale of products or services. However, rather than focusing on the transaction it wraps around the long-term goal of sustainably growing the business.

I consider the core components of BD to be:

  • Sales and Pursuit—an aggressive pursuit of sales opportunities that align with the company’s vision and intent.
  • Customer Relationships—the development of robust, trust-based relationships with customers.
  • Commercial Integrity—a strong commercial acumen. The ability to sell products and services at a profit margin that aligns with the company goals.
  • Productive Paranoia—an avid following of your company’s leading and lagging indicators.
  • Market Intelligence—a deep understanding of the market, the key players, and consequences of any changes therein.
  • Offering Intelligence—a deep understanding of the problem that your company solves.
  • Adaptive Feedback Loop—a conduit for information between the market and the company. Ensuring customer and market feedback is heard and acted upon.
  • Customer Service—a polite and professional approach in all dealings. You are the face of your organization.

So, what does this boil down to?

The act of sustainably growing your business.

Business development: A simple definition

Why Business Development is Important

Business development should be at the core of every business. The BD leader must have a seat at the leadership table. No one is better suited at aligning company decision-making to the point of view of the customer. These leaders operate in the heart of the marketplace, allowing them to identify shifts in customer behavior and initiate meaningful change to adapt.

Gwynne Shotwell, an accomplished aeronautical engineer, is a great example of a strong business development leader. She quickly transitioned into sales and BD while maintaining her engineering skillset. Shotwell saw a gap in Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture and joined as employee number seven, as the vice president of business development. Using both her technical and BD abilities to successfully position the space explorer as the industry leader made her an invaluable part of the company. So much so that she was promoted to president and chief operating officer (Vance, 2016).

The argument for having business development integrated into company leadership could not be stronger.

Gwynne Shotwell President of Space X

Summary

Hopefully this post has given you an insight into what business development is and what it is not. I’ve provided a simple definition that sets it far beyond the remit of sales alone.

Don’t make the mistake of hiring a salesman to be the face of your company. Look for BD leaders who can align the purpose and goals of your business with strategic customer pursuit and the growth of the business as a whole.

My new book Business Development Begins Here explores the foundations of this craft and will provide the tools to set you up for successful growth.

If you would like to get some free resources to help kickstart your business development journey follow the download link below. This gives you access to our Assess Workbook to help you work out where your company sits in the Sales Ecosystem. At the same link is our LinkedIn Roadmap to get your profile working for you.

Get the Edge With a Competitor Matrix

By Tom on

Unfortunately, playing in a blue ocean market where your offering is the only option for your customers is extremely rare. There are always going to be other companies vying for your customers’ money.

It is important to understand where, how and why these competitors do business. Identify their strengths and weaknesses and how they compare to your own. Using a simple Competitor Matrix allows you to quickly assess your opposition and recognize where your advantages and disadvantages might lie.

Ask the right questions!

Ask the Right Questions

A quick scan of your competitors should answer the following questions:

  • What is their main offering and how does it differ from yours?
  • Why are they in business? Are they focused on shareholder return or social legacy?
  • What is their business and pricing model?
  • Is the competitor winning more business, hiring and growing? What growth trajectory are they on? Are they a multinational with enormous reserves or a tiny start-up scratching for resources?
  • What does their team look like? Many staff across multiple disciplines, or a small number of highly specialized personnel? Do they have business development staff active in the market?
  • Who are their key customers, and how loyal are they?
  • How do they attract and retain customers? Do they have a proactive sales team hunting new customers? Are they marketing aggressively through social media or other channels?
  • Do they hold significant market share?
  • What is unique about their offering and how is this different to your unique selling points?
  • Which points of difference between the two companies can you successfully compete on? 
Compile your results

Compile Your Competitor Matrix

The answers will provide enough information to start assessing your competition. A quick way to do this is through the creation of a simple Competitor Matrix. Generate a series of attributes based on the most important questions above. Next, populate the categories for your organization and each of your competitors.

Using a traffic light system to denote strength and weakness when compared to your company, allows you to quickly visualize differences. For instance, RED signifies areas where they exceed your offering, while GREEN indicates areas where their offering is weaker. An example Competitor Matrix for a water consultancy is provided below.

 Your CompanyCompetitor 1Competitor 2
Product/ServiceWater Consultant Enviro Consultant Water Consultant
Business ModelSpecialized – mine dewatering, high feeQuick, cheap, minimal reportingSpecialized Modelling, high fee
Financial ResourcesMediumHighLow, one-man band
Market Share20%30%5%
Growth StrongStrongNo Growth
Marketing StrategiesWord of MouthAggressive social media, event sponsors, networkingWord of mouth
StrengthsMining skillset
Quality of outcomes		Fast reporting
Low Prices		Water modelling leader
Weaknesses …Quality of reporting …
Business Model … … …
Example Competitor Matrix

Use Your Findings

Once completed, the Competitor Matrix will provide a broad indication of the competitor’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to your company. This allows competitive messaging to be formed for marketing, and it will also inform any conversations in which customers bring up competitors offerings.

The example Competitor Matrix above, while incomplete, gives insight into who the competitors are and how they operate. Perhaps the water consultancy in question needs to revisit the way they do marketing. In addition, competitor 2 has a very specific specialization and may be a good partner for a future alliance.

Importantly, the matrix can help guide decision making around changes to your company offering. It may highlight a weakness that needs to be minimized or strength to be reinforced. The competitive landscape is a crucial part of the Sales Ecosystem, and any changes in competitor information should be fed back into the company immediately.

Use your Findings

Your Competitor Matrix

Take some time to think about your own competitors. Develop a list of key attributes and generate a competitor matrix. What insights does it provide?

As always I’m keen to hear your thoughts. Feel free to reach out via the normal channels.

Scaling Your Revenue through Alliances and Stakeholders

By Tom on

My thoughts on using alliances to enhance your business development follows on from my previous post on the external environment.

When I started work as a State Manager for a national asbestos removal company, I had very few contacts within that industry. Much to my surprise, we had no recurring customers in our geographical territory either. While assessing the Sales Ecosystem it became clear that the consultants, who set up and oversaw the projects, needed a removals contractor whose work reflected well on them. In turn, we as the contractors needed good consultants —the relationship went both ways.

I quickly identified a series of consultants whose work ethic mirrored our own. Thereafter, began forging mutually beneficial relationships with them. This introduced us to projects and clients that we had no prior relationship with. In turn, we provided an additional source of jobs and the certainty of our professional service to the consultants. Both our revenues increased as a result.

This taught me that alliances with key players in the market can have a strong influence on your success.

A lady discussing business with three stakeholders. Perhaps there is an alliance in the making.
Alliances must be Mutually Beneficial

Assess Your Stakeholders

Take some time to really understand the market ecosystem. Firstly, who does what and why? Secondly, who are the key players within your Sales Ecosystem and how much influence do they have? Thirdly, do any of these influencers align with your organizational mission and values? Finally, is there a gap that can be filled in a way that benefits both parties?

Similar to the exercise for internal stakeholders in my previous post, a matrix can be developed for those stakeholders external to the company.

Who Are Your Stakeholders?

A simple external stakeholder matrix should cover the following groups:

Industry Experts. Technical experts with a strong positive reputation within the industry. Their opinion carries a lot of weight with industry groups and customers. Often a great source of market intelligence, technical advice, and referrals, if they like your company offering.

Key Influencers. Not always the industry experts. These individuals have a large industry-wide network and always know what is going on. An invaluable source of industry intelligence, and vital to have regular contact with at least one of these.  

Consultants. Providing specialist advice is a critical part of any industry, and consultants can be found for almost any topic or service. These can be customers themselves and are often the gateway to more prominent end-user customers. Forming an alliance with a consultant who shares your principles and values your company offering, is an excellent way to get access to specialist skills and a different stream of opportunities.

Government Departments. While not relevant to all industries, government departments provide valuable insights into industry trends and legislative requirements. They can make excellent recurring customers. Proving to these stakeholders that your offering is best-in-class can make your company the benchmark from their point of view. If this becomes the case, government departments can often become a good source of unofficial recommendations.

Industry Groups. Most industries have groups, clubs and peak bodies that form a hub for professionals to network and share ideas. Joining and attending these groups can provide up-to-date news on the industry and face-to-face access to customer contacts. Attending networking events and talks by these groups can place you in a relaxed setting allowing you to form connections with people that would be difficult to contact during their busy working hours.

Choose your Alliances Carefully

Choose Your Alliances Carefully

Looking at your stakeholder matrix it will become apparent which ones should be considered the Key Players. Have a look at my previous post for strategies to nurture these stakeholders. Ultimately, your alliance proposition must be beneficial to both parties. It has to encompass a true win-win relationship.

Think about the external stakeholders in your industry. Are there any opportunities for alliances or closer working partnerships?

I’m always keen to hear your thoughts on this. Drop me a comment below or get in touch via the usual channels.

How the Lewis Model can help me Understand Culture

By Tom on

In my previous post about the External Environment I talked a bit about things to consider when developing business in different geographies. In addition, culture forms a massive part of business in different countries that often gets forgotten about. It is an all too common mistake to expect others to think and act the same way you do. Taking time to understand any differences in culture and behavior and considering approaches to bridge them is very worthwhile. For example, a business development campaign in Australia would take a very different form to one conducted in Indonesia.

The Lewis Model

Social and hierarchical behaviour varies significantly from place to place. Therefore, if company operations span multiple geographies and cultures, read around the Lewis model. It will really help you gain an understanding of how to navigate any potential communication pitfalls. In short, Lewis broadly divides the world’s cultures into three communication styles: Linear-active, Multi-active and Reactive and describes how each style behaves. A summary of each style is provided in the table below.

Linear-ActiveMulti-ActiveReactive
Talks half the time
Does one thing at a time
Plans ahead step by step
Polite but direct
Partly conceals feelings
Confronts with logic
Dislikes losing face
Rarely interrupts
Job-oriented
Sticks to facts
Truth before diplomacy
Sometimes impatient
Limited body language
Respects officialdom
Separates the social and professional		Talks most of the time
Does several things at once
Plans grand outline only
Emotional
Displays feelings
Confronts emotionally
Has good excuses
Often interrupts
People-oriented
Feelings before facts Flexible truth
Impatient
Unlimited body language
Seeks out key person
Mixes the social and professional		Listens most of the time
Reacts to partner’s reaction
Looks at general principles
Polite, indirect
Conceals feelings
Never confronts
Must not lose face
Doesn’t interrupt
Very people-oriented
Statements are promises
Diplomacy over truth
Patient
Subtle body language
Uses connections
Connects the social and the professional
Summary of Lewis Model Communication Styles (from crossculture.com)
Working across geographies – always consider the cultural differences

What Does This Mean

Each of the three groups can be applied to different parts of the world. The Linear-active group comprises the English-speaking world—North America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and Northern Europe.

The Reactive group is located in all major countries in Asia, except the Indian subcontinent, which is a hybrid.

The Multi-active group are more scattered and comprises Southern Europe, Mediterranean countries, South America, sub-Saharan Africa, Arab and other cultures in the Middle East, India and Pakistan and most of the Slavs.

Please remember that these are generalizations. However, understanding them can really help bridge communication across cultures.

Understanding culture can help you work well within a multicultural team

Why This Is Useful

The importance of understanding cultural differences became apparent to me in the first two weeks of starting a new role. I was reporting through to Singapore and we had a huge variety of nationalities working in the same team. Experiencing some urgent technical issues with one of our customers I tried to push things through quickly outside of our regular operating process. To me this seemed the obvious thing to do. Not so to the rest of the team. I met resistance. Moreover, they would tell me that they would help, but didn’t. It was infuriating.

Luckily for me a great mentor of mine, Shirley-Anne introduced me to the Lewis model. I was operating as a Linear-Active whilst most of my colleagues were Reactive. They weren’t happy that I was circumventing the work process and as Reactives wouldn’t confront me about it. As a Linear-Active I was becoming impatient and the logic of bending the work process seemed obvious to me.

Importantly, Shirley-Anne helped me see that what was infuriating for me was also exasperating for the Singapore team. I gained insight into how the team members operated and adjusted my style and expectations to suit. Ultimately, a good outcome was reached for our customer.

What Next

If you find yourself working across geographic boundaries take some time to investigate the working cultures in each. This is important for both your customers and team. Gaining this understanding early will give you a better chance of avoiding any future communication pitfalls.

Check Out Your External Environment

By Tom on

Having gained a good understanding of the inner workings of your organization, it is time to define the external environment of the Sales Ecosystem. Where are the customers and competitors, and how does your company fit?

A simple market analysis gives an idea of market size and customers. However, the External Environment includes much more. At the basic level we want to understand the setting that our team, organization, and customers operate within. This includes looking at the industry, geography, external stakeholders, and of course, those competing with you for your customer base. In this post we’ll have a quick look at the industry and geography. The external stakeholders and competitors will form their own posts in the coming weeks.

Look at your operating industry

Operating Industry

In the context of the Sales Ecosystem your industry comprises the habitat that your target customers operate within. Additionally, this includes their sources of influence. Starting with the broad industry consider the following questions:

  • Who are the visible influencers of this industry internationally, nationally and locally?
  • Which industry bodies are the most popular and the most active?
  • Where do members of this industry go for information and advice?
  • Which segments of the industry are most applicable to your company offering?

Lets take the construction industry as an example. There will be well regarded individuals who regularly talk and interact at the industry level. They will be active on blogs, social media, webinars and industry discussion panels.

Here in Australia some of the construction industry bodies to investigate and interact with include the Australian Construction Industry Forum, Engineering Australia, and Institute of Architects, to name a few. If your company focuses on the engineering side of the industry, Engineers Australia would be an ideal place to start.

Answering these questions around your operating industry will begin to give a picture of the key influencers and most influential organizations. This information is essential in developing your External Stakeholder Matrix. That discussion will be saved for a future post.

Where do you do business?

Geography

Where in the world are you doing business? How does this impact your approach? This is usually straight forward to answer when you are operating within your home country. But, a thick layer of complexity is added if the business is developing overseas.

For each geography in your portfolio develop an overview of the broader environment that your Sales Ecosystem sits within. Determine how business is done there, what the culture is like and how to navigate it. The PESTEL analysis is a simple tool that helps shape our thinking in this regard.

PPolitical
EEconomic
SSocial
TTechnology
EEconomical
LLegal
PESTEL Analysis (Kaplan et al 2008)

 The PESTEL analysis covers the following:

  • Political

What is the political environment like? Is the government stable, are there trade restrictions and is corruption rife?

  • Economic

Is the economy of the area growing? Are companies thriving and do customers have disposable income? Are the exchange rates favorable (particularly useful if you are importing/exporting products)?

  • Social

Is the population growing, and what are their attitudes to safety, health and career? Are they socially aware?

  • Technology

Is new technology and innovation widely accepted and actively encouraged? Are there incentives in the advancement and introduction of new technologies?

  • Environmental

What is the environment like? Does it suffer from harsh conditions, and is it protected properly?

  • Legal

How robust is the legal system and how strong is the focus on discrimination, consumer laws and health and safety?

If you are operating within multiple geographies the PESTEL can give a good feel for the differences. While coarse in its approach it does get you thinking along the right lines.

For more depth on the PESTEL analysis check out this website.

More external environment content coming up…

More on the External Environment

This post focuses on the operating industry and geography and has introduced the PESTEL model as a practical tool. Of course, there is much more to this topic and my next few posts will continue on this theme. We will be exploring, differences in geographical culture, external stakeholders and competitors in more detail over the coming weeks.

In the meantime I’m keen to hear your experiences with understanding the external environment that your company operates within. As usual please get in touch through the normal channels.

A Checklist of Business Development Resources

By Tom on

Prior to accepting a business development role it is important to get clarity on what supporting resources are available. You don’t want to find yourself striving to meet aggressive revenue winning targets with no backup. Make sure to get certainty on the following core resources.

Resources Checklist

Budget. How much money can the business development function access, and what are the allowances for marketing. This is critical if the business development component comprises only one part of your role. How is your time split between business development and your other role elements?

Personnel. Does the business development function contain staff? Define their roles. Identify any additional personnel with hours assigned to assist with administration, proposal writing, customer visits, customer relationships, quoting etc.

Access to marketing. Does the marketing function give you any access to their resources? Determine any guidelines and requirements around the marketing direction desired. What are the policies on social media?

Checking the Checklist

Access to market research/intelligence. Is there systematic market research and intelligence that you can access. If not, think about where the intelligence for your industry comes from and consider ways to acquire it. Engaging an external provider, subscriptions to trade journals or attendance to industry conferences and networking events are all viable. But, are resources available to access these.

Departmental business development meetings. Determine whether the wider team hold business development meetings. If they don’t, are they be willing to start.

Interdepartmental business development meetings. Does the organisation systematically discuss business development? How do business units work together in pursuit of opportunities? Consequently, is there an opportunity to take the lead in implementing regular interdepartmental conversations.

A Seat in the Leadership group. Establish whether the business development function input into the leadership of the business. This is critical if the company is to adjust quickly to changes in the market and customer base. If it doesn’t, you will need to prioritise the leadership team as part of your stakeholder engagement and keep them informed on relevant opportunities and progress.

Define where your Resource Gaps are!

Resource Gaps

Having looked at the core resources you need to draw a conclusion. Are there enough to support the business development and expectations. Subsequently, noticeable gaps must be filled. Where you can beg, borrow or buy the additional assets to plug them. For example, there may be resources from other teams that you can borrow. Younger team members can assist. In exchange, they gain experience and skill in business development which can be hard to come by early in their career.

Likewise, outsource some of the market research by using the gig economy through websites like www.fiver.com or www.upwork.com. There are lots of options available that don’t need full time staff.

Gaining access to adequate resources may require a robust conversation with the leadership team. Remember, the leadership only allocates resources when an adequate return on effort and spend is clear. Make a case around why the resources you need add value to the business development process. Define how each one is going to increase revenue income. For instance, it can be as simple as using a junior member of staff to assist in writing first draft proposals, to free up your time to develop client relationships.

Further Thoughts

Understanding the resources allocated to your business development effort is important. Above all, you must be confident there’s enough to get the job done. If there is ambiguity look for alternative ways to get the resources you need.

I wish I’d had this checklist before going into some of my previous roles. Getting this clarity will set you up for success.

Have you had any issues getting resources allocated? How did you navigate it? As always I’m keen to hear from you drop me a line here. Or catch me on LinkedIn.

Internal Stakeholder Alliances and Strategies

By Tom on

In last weeks post we explored some tips around building relationships with the other teams inside your organization. It is vital to understand your organizational network. Who is responsible for what? Where can you go for additional market intelligence, support or assistance? Who are the key internal influencers and who gets things done?

Taking the time to develop a stakeholder matrix for your organization, will really aid you in the development of your business. Having clear connections with this internal landscape allows you to take advantage of opportunities that might be out of reach for you on your own. The matrix is the first step in securing these connections.

Team member engaging with other stakeholders from his organization.
Ally with the other teams in your organization

Potential Allies

Some of the groups to consider when looking for future alliances include the following.

  • Subject Matter Experts

The technical specialists who know their subject inside out, are often a great source of market intelligence.

  • Team Leaders

It is essential to communicate with the team leaders during the sales process. Touch base with them once opportunities have been won and delivery is required.

  • Key Influencers

Well-respected long-term employees or energetic newcomers, these are the staff members who others listen to and take seriously. Having key influencers as strong allies can help you to gain support for future business development initiatives.

  • Proposal and Quote writing resources

Personnel who are recognized as being particularly strong at writing quotes and proposals. A close working relationship is vital to give proposals and quotes the best chance of success.

  • Market sector experts

Great sources of business intelligence, leads and contacts. Consult with these people to gain an understanding of the customer organizational chart, and to secure personal introductions to key customer contacts.

  • Marketing team

This group will be a primary source of leads. Develop a strong working relationship with this segment to keep messages and customer targeting aligned. If communicated with clearly, this team can add significant weight to the top of your Sales Funnel.

  • Personnel with revenue targets

These are generally the leadership roles within the business. Understand their revenue targets and find out if they are willing to share resources in an effort to reach them. The business developer can really be a savior to these individuals through the development of revenue opportunities, which can directly impact their end-of-year bonuses and the growth of their team.

Multiple teams winning a project together.
Collaboration feels good!

Populating your Stakeholder Matrix

Populating the matrix is relatively straightforward and should comprise the following columns shown on the following table

NameRoleDepartmentInterestInfluenceAction
      
      
Internal Stakeholder Matrix Table Template

Simply allocate Hi or Lo to the Interest and Influence columns and plot on the matrix below. This will allow you to define their category and subsequent actions.

Stakeholder Matrix

Stakeholder Strategies and Action

A summary of the stakeholder actions is given below:

  • Key Player

With a high level of interest and influence, these stakeholders can have a strong impact on your business development efforts. The majority of your stakeholder engagement must focus on this group and it is beneficial to involve members in decision making at times. Action: Engage and consult regularly.

  • Meet Their Needs

The high level of influence has the potential to make this group a valuable resource. Engage and consult this group on areas that are of interest to them. Perhaps on particular market segments or project types. Action: Try to increase their level of interest and move them to become key players.

  • Show Consideration

This group has high levels of interest but limited influence. Consider them as potential supporters. There is an opportunity to make use of their interest and involve them in low-risk areas around specific customers, products or market segments. Action: keep informed and consult on interest areas.

  • Least Important

The low interest and influence levels gives this group the lowest priority with regards to engagement. Action: Keep informed through general communication and aim to increase interest levels over time.

Assign Actions

Once the matrix is complete, assign time and resources to each of the key players. Learn their preferred communication styles and how best to connect with them. Consider the other stakeholder groups and think about how and when to engage them. Perhaps a business development agenda item at team meetings or individual discussions on specific topics. Remember that each internal alliance is different. They all have a role to play in getting the company offering into the market and ultimately solving the customers problems.

Add the most critical stakeholders to the Tactical Action Plan as part of the Aim stage. Ultimately, the Tactical Action Plan will systematize the contact and action with each stakeholder, keeping engagement on a regular cadence.

Assign those Actions.

Other Alliances

Take a step away from the business development capability for a moment. There will be people within the organization who have complementary skills and goals but who sit outside your normal sphere of operations.

This can take the form of teams with different offerings, willing to take a multidisciplinary approach to work-winning. The ability to bid on projects with other teams really strengthens both your proposal. Or perhaps a customer account manager who knows that your offering aligns with their sector of responsibility and feels they can help get your foot in the door. Using their account influence to increase your sales and ultimately reach their targets quicker.

Many of these may have already been identified as key player stakeholders. Think about who these people and teams may be in your workplace. Consider how an alliance might work, it must be advantageous to both parties.

Think about how best to approach them. A simple coffee catch up, and a sharing of capability knowledge and opportunities may be enough to begin with. But if you are both working on proposals together reflect on how to share the effort.

Importantly, make sure to capture these catch ups systematically in your Tactical Action Plan or CRM. Otherwise, your business development agenda will get lost in the thousands of other priorities that each of these people have every day.

Further Action

As an immediate action develop an internal stakeholder matrix for your organisation. Determine the Key Players and make a plan on how you intend to engage with them.

How do you prioritize your internal stakeholders? Let me know in the comments below or drop me a line here. You can also find me on LinkedIn.

Tips on Successful In-house Business Relationships

By Tom on
Technical team and sales team having a coffee

In-house business relationships are a critical part of business development.

Developing a business takes more than having a stellar product or service and a willing customer base. This is especially true when working in an organization with more than one employee. When the delivery of the product or service relies on other people, the moving parts within your organization need to be understood and key relationships developed.

Imagine having discussions with a potential customer with urgent technical questions that you are unable to answer. Having a strong working relationship with the technical team, means they will work with you to solve the customer’s issues.

A great working relationship with other teams means they are more likely to help you with your customers requests. This allows you to respond quickly with the required detail, resulting in the customer receiving a much higher level of service. In turn, this gives you a stronger likelihood of winning or retaining their business.

Communication is Crucial

Developing a relationship with the other teams in your company is not difficult. Keep them informed of what is going on. Let them know if large orders or projects are expected. Communication helps teams plan and prioritize their workload.  It removes the unknown.

Ask their opinion on the subjects within their domain. Usually, this is beneficial to all parties involved. These teams value the interest shown in their work, and you learn from them at the same time.

I have worked for a couple of organizations with strong technical teams who rarely got to meet the customers. I found that chatting to them about customer feedback was invaluable to them. This helped form a two-way relationship where we both got value from our conversations.

Communication with your technical, production and delivery teams is critical. Photo by Ryan Ancill for Unsplash.

Which In-House Business Relationships to Focus on?

Gaining an understanding of the internal landscape of your organization is incredibly important. How do the different departments interact when responding to customers or delivering the product? Who are the key players? What is the status of your relationships with the different teams? Can you call on them for help and most importantly can they call on you? Remember that relationships go both ways.

It is critical to know who the main influencers and departmental contacts within your organization are, as well as gaining a good understanding of the way they function within their positions. Internal relationships and alliances are essential when developing a durable foundation on which to base your business development action. Often a joint effort with another team greatly enhances the company’s offering to the customer. Market intelligence and contacts gathered by team members can make the difference between winning and losing opportunities.

Team laughing together. Building strong in-house relationships is key.
Building strong in-house relationships is key. Photo by Brooke Cagle for Unsplash

Team Mates Uncover Opportunities

Engaging with teammates who have long industry experience, are likely to uncover customer contacts that you would not otherwise have known about. However, never underestimate the work-winning potential of your younger staff, you never know who they may know or who they may bump into. This happened to me as a new graduate member of an environmental team in London.

I was having a beer at the local pub with some friends who also worked in the environmental industry. I was chatting to a friend-of-a-friend, and inevitably work came up in the conversation. It turned out that he worked for a large oil company and was looking for environmental consultants to undertake what he considered to be a small piece of work. We swapped details. The next morning, I went straight to my boss and discussed the opportunity. A few emails and calls later, we were tendering on a multi-million-dollar contract.

What’s Next

How well do understand the other teams in your organization? Who are the main points of contact in the other departments? Who are the influencers? If you can’t answer these questions it’s time to act. Draw a simple org chart of the teams that you interact with or would like to work with more. Identify the key people to talk to and invite them for a quick coffee. Start building these relationships now.

As always I’m keen to hear from you. How have you approached developing relationships within the company you operate in? Let me know in the comments below or reach out via LinkedIn.

Discover The Simple Trick Of Customer Segmentation

By Tom on
Very different lego figures showing customer segmentation in actions

Following creation of your customer matrix it’s a good idea to look at customer segmentation. It is obvious that not all customers are created equal. Business Developers only have a limited amount of time and resources. These must be spent on customers that give the best return.

Therefore, priority of effort must be defined. An easy method is to segment the list into three tiers. A quick way to determine priority level is to focus on both of the following:

  • Potential service spend
  • Target customer’s need for your company offering.
A series of legs hanging over a wall. Each have a different pair of shoes on. This represents the diversity in your customer base.
Your customer base is not homogenous. Photo by James Baldwin for Unsplash

Example Customer Segmentation

Lets take an environmental consultancy servicing the mining industry. They specialize in managing and mitigating environmentally sensitive sites, particularly involving threatened ecosystems.

A company like this might define customer segmentation using potential spend first. Next, they might use the customer’s number of environmentally sensitive projects to highlight the need they have for the company offering. This results in the three priority tiers:

  • Tier 1: $100,000/yr. spend and/or many environmentally sensitive projects.
  • Tier 2: $60,000/yr. spend and/or some environmentally sensitive projects.
  • Tier 3: $30,000/yr. spend and/or fewer environmentally sensitive projects.

Looking through their customer list and placing them into the three tiers becomes a straight forward exercise.

Tiles spelling the word focus. This post should help you focus your business development efforts.
Focus your effort. Pic by Brett Jordan for Unsplash

Focus Your Effort

This division can help you focus your effort on those companies that give you the highest return. Of course, Tier 1 should be the given the highest priority. However, the lesser tiers also have the potential for significant revenue and must not be forgotten. Think about how much effort you will assign to each tier. How often will you contact your target companies? Will it be different for each Tier?

I recognize that this approach can be considered too simple by some. But, think of the customer segmentation as a guide to focus your business development effort. However, there will be times where customer opportunities fall outside of this framework.

In these instances sit down with the team, discuss the likely returns and the effort needed to attain them. Use your customer segmentation to help shape the conversation. Work together to determine how to proceed. Perhaps there are unique strategic reasons to elevate a customer to Tier 1?

How Do You Do It?

As always I’m interested in how you prioritize your customer base. Do you segment into tiers? What attributes do you base them on? Drop a comment below or let me know via the usual channels.

The Most Powerful Question: Who Are Your Customers?

By Tom on
MMan serving happy customer

Who are your customers? is a critical question for every business. I remember starting my first day with an environmental services company as their State Manager. A leadership and business development role that was outside my previous water focused expertise. This was an exciting posting, and I was looking forward to building on the existing customer base. Enthusiastically, I sat down with the small team and asked the question: “Who are our customers?”

I was met with blank stares. I was falteringly told that they had once met with two or three companies, at which point they stuttered back into silence. Not the greatest of starts.

I recognized that there were two ways to respond. First, I could hang my head in despair, throw my hands in the air and admit defeat. Or I could see this as an excellent opportunity to define what our ideal customers looked like. I could identify the low hanging fruit and take action. Of course, I chose action.

You may have the best product in the world and not be able to sell it. You need a willing buyer. The start-up scene is littered with the husks of companies that developed great products that nobody wanted. Effectively it boils down to one simple fact.

If there is no Customer there is no Product or Service.

A company is nothing without customers who use its services or products. Each company has an ideal customer. The characteristics of this customer has to be defined. Each characteristic must be rated in terms of importance to your business and the direction of your future business development growth.

Empty office.
No customer, means no business. Photo by Aldolfo Felix for Unsplash.

Who is Your Ideal Customer?

First, picture what an ideal customer looks like. Who would you love to do business with? Give this some serious thought. Next, dive deep into the characteristics that make up the companies that you aspire to do business with. Ask yourself and the team the following questions to help define your perfect customer:

  • Which industry does the company operate within?
  • What size staff and annual turnover do they have?
  • What work do they focus on?
  • Are there specific products or services they need to be successful?
  • What sort of people work there?
  • Where are they located?
  • How much will they spend on your product or service?
  • Who are the decision makers around implementing your products or services?
  • Who controls their budgets?

This is just the start. There will be many more questions that are unique to your industry and offering. For example if you develop software solutions, you may need to know what operating system the customers use. In the environmental space, you may need to be aware of specific environmental legislation that relates to particular companies.

Who is your ideal customer? Photo by Amy Hirschi for Unsplash

Forming a Customer Matrix

From your final list of questions, determine the top five to ten that are most important to your business offering. These will form the core attributes of your target customers, allowing potential customers to be easily identified and benchmarked. For easy comparison embed these into the customer matrix shown in the table below.

AttributeIdeal CustomerCustomer 1Customer 2Customer 3
Annual Turnover$3M +   
Company type – miner, contractor, supportAll three   
Potential Service Spend$100K +   
Projects with Environmental SensitivityMany   
Limited in-house capabilityNo more than 1-2 in house specialists   
Bureaucracy of Accounts payableLow   
Strong social Licence to operateYes   
Current CustomerYes   
Example Customer Matrix for Environmental Consulting for the Mining sector

Filling in the matrix with existing customers gives you a good picture of who should be retained, and who shouldn’t. It allows you to make a quick assessment of target companies to see whether they are a good fit for your business and whether time and resources should be allocated to their pursuit. 

Use this matrix for new target customers, and for existing customers who both need to be serviced properly to be retained.

Next Stage

Have a go at creating your own customer matrix. Think about what customer attributes are important to your business.

As always I’m keen to hear your thoughts on which customer characteristics are important to you. Drop a comment below or get in touch through the usual channels.

Sharing A few of the Authors Who Influence Me

By Tom on
Man reading a book by an open window.

Writing Business Development Begins Here really made me think about those authors who have had an influence on me. Many of mine have been cited in the book and I thought it would be worth sharing a few. Codifying my thoughts on business development really highlighted a number of books that have shaped my professional thinking over the last few years.

Being curious about the world is an important part of being a successful business developer. Getting into a mindset of constant self development is key. Of course, regular reading is part of that.

Below are three of my favorites.

Story Brand by Donald Miller

Story Brand is a fantastic book dealing with the messaging of your business. Donald Miller leads the reader through a Brand script that frames your customer as the hero. As the business developer you take on the role of guide. Therefore your job becomes guiding your Hero towards greatness.

Star Wars as told by Story Brand.

As a massive fan of all forms of storytelling Donald’s approach really resonated with me. Especially as he contextualises it within the framework of the 7 elements of a story. Following his examples (See Star Wars – one of my favourite films above) I found it easy to apply to my own business.

His mantra – “Confuse and you Lose” also aligns strongly to my way of thinking. Simplicity is king.

Donald’s book really contextualised how to message my marketing. The concepts and thinking have really shaped the way I approach business development.

To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink

Daniel Pink needs no introduction. His bestselling book To Sell is Human changed the way I viewed both sales and business development. He makes the very compelling case that all of us are selling in our day to day regardless of what job we are in. This can take the form of persuading someone to help with a project, convince them of your idea, or influence them to get on board with a particular strategy. Therefore, we have sales in every role and at every stage of life.

Unfortunately sales is often considered to be a dirty word associated with shark-like used cars salesmen. But Daniel makes the point that the easy access of information in todays world has changed all that. The role of sales now is to be honest and transparent. Guiding your customer, explaining the information and helping them make the best decision.

Reading To Sell is Human helped me finally cast off the old sales tropes and see business development as a positive force.

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Extreme Ownership by Jock Willink and Leif Babin showcases the leadership lessons gained from their time serving as Navy Seals. These lessons were truly tested during the Battle of Ramadi in the Iraq war.

As the name suggests one of their key principles is that of Ownership.

As a business developer you have a lot of balls to juggle. Staying systematic, contacting customers and defining strategy all need to be driven by you. To do that effectively needs you to take ownership of all aspects of the role.

This is especially true when things go wrong. Don’t blame others, take ownership of solving the problem.

This level of proactivity struck a chord with me. It inspired me to make the time to write Business Development Begins Here. It also reinforced the need keep aggressive with your level of activity.

Although not explicitly stated the Extreme Ownership ethos is baked into the Triple A Framework. From the business development perspective taking ownership of your assessment, planning and level of activity is critical to success.

Who are your Influences?

Donald Miller, Daniel Pink and Jocko Willink have all deeply influenced the way I work. I can’t recommend reading all three of these books highly enough.

I’m always on the lookout for new books to read. So, which authors have influenced you? Which writers would you recommend? Please share in the comments below so that we can all benefit from their wisdom.

The Mysteries of Market Mapping Made Simple

By Tom on

Market mapping is the process of interpreting and characterizing the part of the Sales Ecosystem that your company lives within—the market. In my experience, this analysis tends to become hyper detailed, filling pages of spreadsheets and a multitude of charts. The amount of hours and cost can become prohibitive, especially for the start-up or small business.

I once undertook an exercise like this for a local start-up looking at the global mining industry. I spent two solid weeks collecting data and compiling a spreadsheet of planet wide mine sites and their statistics. Of course, this resulted in a highly complex dataset. It was so detailed that the CEO had to code an algorithm to interrogate it.

Man looking at complicated market map
The complications of hyper-detailed Market Mapping. Photo by Per Loov for Unsplash.

Luckily for them I conducted this exercise free of charge. If they had been paying for someone’s time I don’t think the application would have been half as appealing.

A better use of my time would have been spent getting a high level understanding of the global industry and then talking to the people within it. You can’t beat real time feedback.

Unless you are a multinational conglomerate with very deep pockets I believe you must keep your market mapping simple. All you require is a broad analysis of the main constituents, enough to allow decision making around industry and segment priorities. 

Simple Market Mapping

A simple market analysis involves the following steps:

Geography. Which region does your business development responsibility cover? Whether it is a particular region within a single country, or a group of countries, the boundaries must be defined.

Site Type. In what sort of sites is your product or service going to be used? Hospitals, contaminated land, mines, factories, water treatment plants, lawyer offices, you need to be specific here.

Site Numbers. Establish how many of the sites identified above are present in your geographical area of responsibility.

Market Size. Consider how much money a site is likely to spend on your offering over the next three years. Average this number out across all the sites for a single year. The total of these figures is the market size that your company is operating within. If you are operating within multiple site types, do this for each and combine the total.

Market Share. Think about how much market share you can realistically attain over the next year. Linking it back to the Planning Hierarchy, what types and sizes of projects you are looking to win?  How many competitors are out there? Will you be playing in a blue ocean with no sharks, or a red ocean full of sharks competing for your customers? If your company is well established, your market share could be at 30% or more. If you are just starting out in a market with many competitors, 1-2% may be more achievable.

Available Market. Using the formula:  Market Share x Market Size = Available Market, provides a good indicator of where the opportunity for your offering is greatest.

Simple Market Mapping is like a compass it will help you find your way.
Simple Market Mapping is like a compass. Itwill help you find your way. Photo by Aaron Burden for Unsplash.

Affordable Research

The research required is often considered an overwhelming task, especially if you are expecting to collect millions of data points. However utilizing market researchers on gig economy sites like www.fiverr.com can get you the specific site data for your region quickly and cheaply. Surprisingly, a hundred dollars can get you a decent data set, listing the relevant sites within your region, in the fraction of the time it would take you to source that information yourself.

Example of a Simple Market Analysis

The table below shows a simple analysis that you would conduct for each of your segments. It allows you to prioritize which segments to pursue. I’ll use the following example to show how it works.

Jen is an experienced water engineering consultant with strong industry connections who has recently decided that she is going to start her own consultancy. She knows her services are in demand in both the water utilities and mining sectors. While she has contacts in both industries she wants to know where she should be prioritizing her valuable business development time.

Lady looking at Map. Going to start her Market Mapping
Jen starting her Market Mapping! Photo by Nick Seagrave for Unsplash.

Using a freelance website, Jen requests all the water treatment plants and mine sites in her region. She estimates that the water treatment plants would be likely to require $50,000 of her services a year, while the mine sites would only need $10,000 per year. There are five water treatment plants and forty nine sites, so Jen created the following table:

SegmentSiteNo. of Sites$ per YearMarket SizeMarket ShareAvailable Market
Water UtilitiesWater Treatment Plant5$50,000$250,00025%$62,500
MiningMine40$10,000$400,0005%$20,000
Example of a Simple Market Map

While the mining segment has a larger market size, Jen determines that the number of competitors and her own network in the mining industry provides a share of only 5%. Whereas, her work is well known and valued in the water utilities sector. Though the market size is smaller, she should be able to capture 25% share for water utilities.

This allows the available market to be calculated providing a very clear picture of where Jen’s business development priorities should be focused. That is not to say that she would not seek opportunities in mining, this could be a longer-term strategic play. However, the immediate low hanging fruit is definitely within the water utilities segment.

Call to Action

I hope you can see that market mapping doesn’t have to be complicated. Why not run through the same exercise I highlighted in the example. It may support you’re current strategy or it may get you thinking differently about where to focus your business development efforts.

As always I’d love to hear your thoughts. Get in touch through the normal channels or leave a comment below.

The Secrets of Product Prioritization

By Tom on

This post explores two ways to help with your product prioritization. A couple of weeks ago I posted about the usefulness of a generic strategy. This works well when thinking about the broader positioning of your organisation. However, a business developer can be responsible for a number of products, service lines or industries, and it can be difficult to determine which to prioritize.

Product Prioritization With The GE/McKinsey Matrix

A quick assessment is made using the GE/McKinsey Matrix . This method plots the company offerings or industries on two simple axes:

  1. Industry or market attractiveness – commercial potential of the market or industry, i.e. potential to make money.
  2. Business unit strength – ability and skill level of current staff to develop that industry or market with the offering being assessed.
GE Mckinsey Matrix

Product Prioritization Strategies

The original form of this analysis is conducted with a high level of detail. However, for ease of use I simply divide each axis into high, medium, or low. Each offering will plot within a general strategy. These strategies are described as:

  • Grow – strong business development effort and investment. Aggressively Hunt for opportunities.
  • Hold – medium business development effort and investment. Farming opportunities from existing customers
  • Harvest – limited business development effort. Act on opportunities as they arise. Do not pursue.

Combining the GE/McKinsey Matrix with the Porters Generic Strategy provides a fast assessment of where the product offering sits and its broad commercial strategy. Therefore, doing this for each of your products or service lines gives a clear direction for your business development effort.

Using the Product Life Cycle

Another tool that aids with prioritizing products within a portfolio is the Product Life Cycle. Plot the product and service offerings on the graph below. Annual sale volume and time product has been in circulation form the two axes. Each stage of the Cycle has its own broad strategy.

Product Life Cycle
  • Introduction – New product. Hunt for new customers and establish brand trust.
  • Growth – Established product. Pursue new customers and ensure quality service to retain existing customers.
  • Maturity – Well established product. Farm existing customers. Accordingly, customer retention is a priority.
  • Decline – Product replaced with different offering. Business development effort is low. In addition, customer retention effort is low.

Understanding where the offering fits on this curve will assist in defining priorities for the business development effort across a portfolio of products or services.

Call to Action

If you look after a portfolio of products or industries print out a copy of the two tools. Plot your portfolio. Does it help you determine where to focus your effort? I’m keen to hear how you go. Put your findings in the comments below or get in touch through the usual channels.

Starting My Journey With Triple A

By Tom on
Road winding away into teh distance signifiying the start of the business development journey

It began with me starting my journey as a hydrogeologist investigating contaminated land and groundwater across London. My first field project involved running three drill rigs in the snow on a bleak windswept construction site. Talk about trial by fire (or ice). The work was fun, varied and as a newcomer to the workforce I was given quite a lot of autonomy.

Fast forward a few years, a few jobs, a huge mine site and a couple of countries later I found myself newly promoted as a Team Leader in a large multidisciplinary engineering consultancy. Not only was I running a team of water and ecology specialists but the expectation was that I start work winning as well.

My Ops Manager kept on asking, “Have you brought in a project with Rio Tinto yet?”

My answer was, “I’m working on it.” And I was.

All of my experience and training up to that point had been technical hydrogeology, project management and leadership. No sales, client relationship or business development assistance was forthcoming. I am not alone in this many of my colleagues in the environmental and engineering industries have experienced the same.

Pilbara Hydrogeology and Dewatering TEamTeam
Me as a mine site hydrogeologist

Where Do I Start?

I honestly didn’t know. I had a couple of contacts in one of the big mining companies and that was about it. Who should I be talking to? What should I talk to them about? Really I had no idea. It was terrifying.

Luckily for me, Jim, our team’s experienced principal, was keen to guide me in the right direction. Together, we planned and tackled business development inside and outside the company. We looked at our main customers and those we aspired to get on the books. I arranged meetings and Jim came with me to the first couple providing useful feedback.

Jim showed me the power of networking within the organisation. This turned out to be vital because our team often supported the outcomes of large projects won by other departments.

For a few weeks, I took colleagues in other business units out to coffee and explained what we did. Most of them didn’t know that we could offer our capability in-house. Building those internal relationships made a noticeable impact to our funnel of projects.

Jim and I also developed a rudimentary sales plan for communication with our customer base that kept us regularly talking to the right customers. It wasn’t just the two of us. We involved the whole team from the graduates up.

Getting that first win!
What a feeling!

The First Win! Really Starting My Journey

Then I had my first win! It was a tiny piece of consulting work for a government department. Not even a rounding error on the company books. But I had found the lead, pursued the opportunity, written the proposal and won it. What a feeling!

I found myself really enjoying the work. Meeting potential clients, finding out their pain points and working out solutions for them was immensely satisfying.

From that point on I started evolving into roles with significant leadership (my other passion) and business development responsibility and never looked back.

Mentor and Mentee discussion
Mentor discussion – Thank You Jim!

Thank You Jim & Paying it Forward

I often think back to the help that Jim gave me as an inexperienced Team Leader and cannot be more grateful. I have taken that start and continued to hone my skills. But the gap experienced by technical specialists thrust into the business development is still present. Whether technical consultants, entrepreneurs or small business owners the transition from specialised professional to client facing business developer can be bewildering.

Which is why I developed the Triple A Framework and written Business Development Begins Here. I have developed the tools and advice that I wish I had been given access to early in my career. I’ve aimed to simplify the world of business development and provide a strong foundation for people to grow from. If I can help a handful of people make this transition quicker, allowing them to gain fast systematic results then this effort has been worth it.

What was your journey towards business development like? Or are you thinking about starting? Please let me know, get in touch or leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Is a Generic Strategy Useful?

By Tom on

If you are representing an organisation in the marketplace you must have a good handle on where your products or services sit commercially. As discussed previously commercial savvy is a critical attribute of a successful business developer.

Porter’s Generic Strategy

Though coarse in its approach, Porter’s Generic Strategy can be a good indicator of where your offering is being presented financially. At its core, the model utilises two characteristics to define your company offering:

  • Scope – Does your offering target a narrow or broad customer base?
  • Competitive Advantage – Is your offering advantage based on being the cheapest, or on its unique differences?

The overall company Scope and Competitive advantage are plotted along the horizontal and vertical axes allowing you to plot your company offering on the matrix determining the generic strategy that it fits into. See the figure below.

Porter’s Generic Strategies

These strategies are:

  • Cost Leadership (no frills, winning on cost alone)
  • Differentiation (creating uniquely desirable products and services to a broad market)
  • Focus (offering a specialised service in a niche market)
  • Cost Focus (offering a no-frills, cheap service to a niche market).

For example, a dams and tailings consultancy servicing the mining industry would plot on the Differentiation Focus. They are offering a specialist service to a niche market. Meanwhile McDonalds sits firmly within Cost Leadership, offering low cost meal options to the mass consumer market.

Are Generic Strategies Useful?

Are Generic Strategies Useful?

I can hear you saying, these strategies are too general. But, while these strategies have do have coarse definitions, it allows the business developer to think broadly about how to approach the target customers. This allows framing of a message suited to their market.

Approaching customers with a Cost Leadership mindset is very different to a Differentiation mindset and would require widely contrasting conversations. I have seen environmental consultancies employ both models to great success. Though the customers and opportunities pursued by each were relatively separate.

For example, a Cost Leadership environmental consultancy might focus on government contracts where low price is the governing win factor. Alternatively, the Differentiation focused consultancy would focus on a specific industry where strong defensible scientific work is required for community engagement and licensing requirements. The latter can justify charging a higher price.

Further Thinking

Consider the business that you own or represent. Where do you plot on the matrix? Does this align with the message that you are sending to customers?

What do you do if you have multiple products that plot in different quadrants? We’ll be exploring this in a future post.

As always let me know your thoughts in the comments or via LinkedIn.

For more detailed information on Porter’s Generic Strategy visit this website.

Five Essential BD Blog Posts

By Tom on
Index of blog posts

I’ve been blogging posts about different aspects of business development over four months now. Managed to only miss one week over the Christmas/New Year period. I thought it it would be worthwhile to give a bit of an index to five of the more popular blog posts so far.

The Blog Posts

Sales Ecosystem Made Simple a quick overview of the Sales Ecosystem and why it is important for business development professionals to understand.

What Makes a Strong Business Developer? explores the key attributes needed to be a successful business developer.

How to Avoid the Technobabble Trap helps avoid confusing customers with technical jargon, acronyms and other technobabble.

Are you Sitting on a Gold Mine? uses the Ansoff Matrix to help find those customers to contact initially.

Introducing Triple A presents the Triple A business development framework. A useful tool that we will be discovering in more depth as the blog progresses.

Writing blog posts.
Writing more weekly blog posts. Photo by Neonbrand for Unsplash

What’s Next?

The reaction to the blog has been great so far which spurs me on to provide even more content. Over the coming month we’ll be exploring more elements of the Triple A Framework. This will include commercial placement of products, prioritising effort, market mapping, planning and more.

Of course there will be more news on my book publishing endeavours as well.

Are there any topics that you would like to see covered? Let me know in the comments, via LinkedIn or on the contact page. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

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Action (26) Action Phase (31) Aim Phase (9) Alliances (2) Assess Phase (17) Attributes (3) Back to Basics (3) Business Development (104) Business Development Begins Here (2) Business Development Plan (2) Business Development Strategy (5) Communication (1) Concept (7) Consultants (4) Customer Meetings (2) Customer Relationships (5) Customer Retention (1) Customers (16) Definition (9) Ethics (1) Experience (2) External Environment (3) Feedback (1) Graduate (1) Influences (2) Inspiration (1) Leadership (4) LinkedIn (4) Marketing (4) Mindset (8) Mistakes (2) Networking (1) New (1) Personal Journey (2) Plan (2) Planning (3) Purpose (2) Sales Ecosystem (3) Sales Funnel (2) Sales Process (1) Service not Sales (2) Strategy (30) Systematic Sales Path (4) Tactical Action Plan (1) Triple A Framework (28)

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