True new business development happens when sales people actively develop relationships with new prospective clients, whom they hope to sell to.
The internet has taken a lot of the hard work out of the ‘hunting’ part of sales. For many sales people, ‘business as usual’ means relating with current clients to keep them happy, making sure that their changing needs are met. It also means networking, report writing, tenders and proposals. ‘New business development’ is often now interpreted as ‘responding to enquiry from your company website’.
Three true new business development campaigns Magnify has helped with stand out for a very strange reason. Each campaign has involved researching the best people to contact, preparing sales collateral, planning the sales process, approaching the prospective new clients, building relationship, and creating opportunities for our clients to start conversations that lead to large sales.
These three campaigns all have this fact in common – you could count on one hand the number of times a prospect has said – ‘We get a lot of these calls’.
It used to be that every sales person worth their salt was beating a path to the prospective clients’ doors. Not now. Sales people are so busy doing all their other activities, that true new business development has been left by the wayside.
So, a couple of thoughts from this:
Firstly, if you’re not doing new business development, it’s worth brain-storming to find a way to do it. Your competitors are probably not doing it, so you instantly look proactive and professional to your prospective new clients. These prospective new clients are probably not quite ready to buy – if they were, they’d be part of that website enquiry you’re so busy dealing with. Clarify your target market, do your research, get your offering right, then step out. You have an incredible opportunity to build relationship and be ahead of the game when those prospective clients are ready to purchase.
Secondly, if you are doing new business development – get very excited! You have already set yourself and your business apart from the competition in a very positive way. You are proactively doing your best to see your sales grow. You have a wide-open field of possibilities ahead of you, and you’re probably one of the few people in your industry positioned to be ready for when those customers eventually purchase. Your approach means you are on track to grow sales.
Finally, now that you’ve read this far – you might be thinking about doing some new business development, or perhaps doing more. Congratulations! There are some great resources you can check out to up-skill. Don’t be afraid – smile as you think about all those new customers you’re about to meet!