Ten Business Development Techniques to Spur Sales
Business development books are widespread. Marketing gurus congregate at every coffee shop worldwide. What businesspeople wanting to seriously grow their business need are these 10 business development techniques available to implement immediately.
1. Throw Away the Marketing Books, Audio Programs…
Avoid wasting time and resources on missed opportunities…throw away all the guru material.
What works today in business development starts online and ends person-to-person.
2. Maintain Contact Primarily with Email Marketing
Email marketing is a cost effective and powerful business development tool because it provides predictable results and costs little or nothing to use.
Build an email database rather than buying one. The best way to start building a subscriber list for business development is to ask all existing customers and contacts if you can have their email address. Every two weeks, send valuable information to this list to stay “top-of-the-mind.”
Only ask for people to provide their email address and not their whole life story. Make sure people know you will keep their information private. Ask readers to forward your emails on to their contacts. If the content is good enough, they will.
3. Build a Quality-Connected Network
Reality is that the size of your network is not what’s important for business development. It’s the influence of the people within your network that counts! If your network has 100 people that lack influence, the network will have a commercial value close to zero. If your network has 10 motivated influential individuals, the commercial value will be high.
Stop wasting time at chamber of commerce-style networking events, (they really are a waste of time). Start targeting the most influential people in your marketplace. That’s the kind of network a businessperson needs.
4. Professional Website Design
Many businesses are unaware that they could receive stacks of high quality inquiries, phone calls and sales from interested prospective customers; if only they had a professionally designed website that has been professionally search engine optimized for business development.
When a website is professionally optimized, it’s the difference between a billboard in the middle of the desert and a business located right on Times Square in New York City. If people aren’t contacting you, remember the people who were going to contact you visited your website first. What kind of message did it give them?
5. Match Pricing to Capabilities
Businesses cannot promise the marketplace a high quality service and yet charge a bargain-basement fee. Doing so will send people a mixed-message and it will lose business every time.
The public knows that quality never comes cheap – that if something looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Make services as valuable to the marketplace as possible and then charge accordingly.
6. Attract, Instead of Pursue
The most successful businesses gain the attention and interest of potential clients by making themselves attractive. People hate being chased or pursued. Spend a day cold-calling and learn very quickly just how much people hate being pursued.
Most businesses turn the system upside down. They choose to ‘pursue’ new business and, even though people are not responding to their letters, emails or calls; they just keep on pursuing.
7. Research Competitors
Effective business development is impossible unless you research competitors. Know the competitions’ offers, guarantees, prices, fees, etc. in order to make your offering the most attractive. Find out about the competition and then beat it by adding massive value.
8. Joint Ventures and Endorsed Relationships
A joint venture is where two businesses or businesspeople agree to cross-market products and services. Key to joint venture business development success is to find someone credible, who offers a non-conflicting product or service to the exact same profile of person or business as you do.
An endorsed relationship is similar to a joint venture – with one major difference. The person you do the venture with actually gives you their professional or personal endorsement.
9. No Reason but Enjoyment Contact
Give customers a call from time to time, just to see how they are. Don’t even think of trying to sell them something, just engage them as a fellow human being. Become famous within your industry. This kind of reputation is valuable. Offering the best customer service means you will retain existing clients longer and find it far easier to win new customers too.
10. Emphasize Proactive Business Development
The most successful businesses don’t wait until things ‘slow down’ before they focus on business development. Business development is an ongoing function within all successful businesses. Become proficient in handling inbound phone calls and see revenue increase dramatically.
Can you give at least one really good reason why someone should use your company, rather than a competitor? If not, it’s time to add a uniquely valuable dimension to your service. It’s easier, less expensive and the results come faster – when you market a uniquely valuable service, as opposed to an ‘average’ one.
If you find yourself working hard on business development and not getting the desired sales results, stop! Make sure you are doing the right things, then insure you are doing them correctly. Try doing any of the above business development activities – because I already know they work extremely well. That’s a great place to start!
