Graeme Davidson speaks

I work for Equator as their business development manager.  We have a fantastic team here that is constantly looking for opportunities in the digital market.

So how does the business development department go about their job, I hear you ask.  Well, business development has a lot of factors combined into one big mixing bowl to make us effective.  And we never stop working, as any company which stops business development is going to be in trouble down the line – it is an ongoing and non-stop process.  So I have compiled a list of all things that we do in business development to make Equator tick.

Research:

I spend a lot of time researching different avenues – this tends to take up most of my time on week nights and weekends.  This is to ensure I have valuable knowledge in many different areas.   Firstly, the marketplace – who’s doing what, when did they last review, who has just moved company, which agencies are providing good (or poor) service.  I also have to research the work that we do within our agency.  I have to know exactly what we have done recently and how we have performed, using what methods.  This ensures that I am able to talk passionately about why our agency performs so well in every discipline that we participate.  And trust me, we do.

Marketing:

Business development involves a lot of marketing our agency to the people and companies that we are targeting.  This could be anything from getting our own website correct to making sure the letterhead is correct on our handwritten correspondence.  Generally, we would involve all departments in this process as we have a large pool of designers and marketeers who provide valuable input. 

Strategy:

Our strategy talks involve everything from sectors to target, internal availability of our employees, likelihood of win success and loss.   It is vital to have a defined strategy in place or we would find ourselves chasing leads that are primed to lead to nothing, therefore wasting our resources.  Every minute of every hour is an opportunity so no time should ever be wasted.  One factor that I have always said is that not only are we trying to get the customer to trust us and choose us, but I am trying to choose a suitable partner to work with.  The more I can cut this down in size, then the better as I won’t waste time chasing the wrong people.   Referral selling is a channel I particularly like, but depending on your organisations set-up, it can be difficult to implement.

CRM:

Invest in a good customer relationship manager.  Try Act! by Sage or Salesforce.  This is an essential part to managing your contacts so that you know what stage in the sales cycle you are at with them.  If you don’t have this in place, then try an excel sheet, but this will be very hard to keep on top of.  A little investment here will go as long way to ensuring you will never lose track of your prospects.

Contacting People:

Use every method possible for this but the main business development tool is still old faithful, the telephone.  Never be too scared to pick it up and get chatting or you’ll never get anywhere.   Of course, there is also email, brochures, exhibitions, letters, social media and blogging.  However, during 9 – 5 all you need is your phone.  And the goal is to meet these people in person, or to get a brief sent onto you.

Networking:

I use as many channels as possible to shout out Equator’s message.  From Linkedin to Twitter, every channel is essential to make your reach that little bit further.  When you are on hold on the phone, type a url you like into Twitter to try to belong to a community.  Or why not check out the history of your prospect on Linkedin.   Read blogs that are relevant to your work and sign up for their email subscriptions.  People will soon begin to notice your name and realise you are in business development.  Get out to exhibitions and awards ceremonies.   They can be incredibly boring, but you will meet people, and even if these people are your competitors, you need to communicate your thoughts on the industry.

Pipeline:

Building a pipeline is part of your ongoing job.  My CRM comes into its forté here, as I can track all contact made and see who needs revisited, who is reviewing soon, who asked me to call them in a month so that we can chat in more detail, where their offices are in case I have to send a letter, etc.   You get the picture.   The business development pipeline is crucial and should be maintained at all times – even if you are having a good month, if you don’t work on the pipeline then the next month will probably be crap.  Trust me, I have learned from these mistakes in the past.

Meetings:

Learn about the prospect before you go.  And if you are going to talk about a specific topic then do a bit of research too.  Say, for instance, you are going to meet someone to talk about their SEO requirements, then do some research on where they rank for relevant keywords.  This will put you in a strong position as soon as you arrive as you are armed with figures.  Oh, and dress nicely too.

Proposals:

Proposal writing should not just be left to the business development department, as parts of a proposal should be researched and written by the expert in that field.  Say for instance I was writing a proposal for web design and development then I wouldn’t dare to talk about either of those subjects.  The reason being is that we have a creative director, and we also have a development director.  These guys know what they are talking about so I need to go to them for their expertise.  Pulling all this information together into a final proposal is the next step.  The proposal has to be concise, plain talking and provide a transparent approach to costings.

Pitches:

The key to pitches is all about preparation.  We gather together the correct team for each individual pitch and fully brief everyone.  Then we have to all work on the pitch itself – who has what job, when to pipe up with your input, when to keep quiet, how to present yourself.  Try not to bore the attendees – if the presentation bores you at any point then get it out!   You need to tell your story, sell your agency – and it has to be done with enthusiasm and excitement, whilst proving that you can do a fantastic job for your potential client.  Business development pulls all the elements together to conquer the world!

Sales:

Closing that deal.  What can I say?  That’s when all of the above comes together and our team has performed amazingly.  If all these factors have been included in the process then business development are almost there.  Now it comes down to the clients thoughts: are we creating a relationship?  Did we pitch to the decision maker?  Did we do our research on our competitors to out-rank them?  Are the costs right for the client?  Have we fulfilled the brief and given the client reason to sign the contract?  By the time the pitch has been done you should know the answer to all these questions which should put you in a stronger position.

Reviews:

After each pitch, we review what went well and what didn’t go well so that we can learn how to perform better.  Whether winning or losing we ask the tough questions afterwards.  Each and every process above should be reviewed periodically to see where you are doing well and not doing so well.  This is essential for business development to be focussed.

I hope you learned something from this.  Please feel free to add any comments on things I have missed, as I am always very keen to learn what you all have to say about different business development processes and techniques.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.