If someone wants their business/practice to grow, that’s going to mean having a razor-sharp focus on new opportunities and strategies. That could mean exploring new markets, or nurturing new partnerships. It might mean diversifying to create new revenue streams, or coming up with new ideas to boost profitability. But ultimately, good business development comes down to having good ideas – ideas that broaden the business’ reach, sales, revenues and external relationships.

For whoever runs the business, be it the founder, principal, or CEO, it's important to put business development at the top of the to-do list.

Put time aside for business development
Business opportunities don’t just appear out of thin air (sadly). To come up with an opportunity for a business partnership, or to bring in a big new client, businesses need to do some serious work. So, it’s a good idea to put business development (BD) time aside in the diary.

By blocking out time to devote to BD, that founder, principal, or CEO can step away from the everyday operational tasks and get into a more creative and objective mindset. Questions that person should be asking include: Where do you want the business to be in 6 months? What do you need to do to achieve this goal? Are there relationships you could build to bring this plan to life? Asking these questions and getting a more concrete idea of the answers will form the basis for the BD plan for the business – and that’s the road map that can then be followed.

Work on the BD plan and strategy
Once the founder, principal, or CEO has some positive BD ideas to work with, it’s important to get these goals and the strategy down into some form of plan. As with any kind of growth initiative, the BD activity needs to be well planned, so everyone has a clear idea of what the business wants to achieve.

Each new strategic idea should have a clear timeline and jobs, activities and roles should be assigned to the relevant people in the team. Each project should be costed out too, and a budget assigned so that the founder, principal or CEO can be sure that they’re getting the best return on the investment (both financially and from a time perspective).

Most importantly, though, progress against the BD goals. Must be tracked. Everyone involved should agree on a target, set a date and measure progress and performance against that timeline.

Build relationships with potential partners and customers
Relationships lie at the heart of BD activity. The person responsible for BD might be getting to know the executive team at a possible new partner’s company, or may be reaching out to a new customer audience with a brand-new product. Getting to understand what makes these people tick is so important to warming them up as a potential partner, customer or supplier.

Trust is the real key here. People are more likely to engage with the practice/business when they trust everyone in that business as people and as a brand. So, spending time nurturing relationships and networking with other businesspeople and targets is time well spent.

Record, track and analyse your BD performance
With the goals, targets and timelines locked in, the BD plan can be put into action. But to know if it’s making headway, it’s a good idea to track performance.

Using project management software or a client relationship management (CRM) app, makes it easy to add notes, record progress and tick off the key actions in the project. The financial reporting tools in the business’ accounting software can be put to good use here to track cashflow for the project, increases in revenue and monitor sales and marketing expenses etc.

Get ambitious with BD ideas
No business stands still. The aims and goals of the owner/responsible person will change. The business market will evolve and new competitors will appear. Economic conditions and business opportunities will change. To keep the business at the cutting edge, it’s vital to keep the BD focus alive and well.
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For good BD it is important that a business:

• Defines the goals and has a clear plan of what it wants to achieve
• Aligns the BD activity with the company’s main growth plan
• Logs ideas and potential opportunities and adds them to the BD plan
• Warms up targets and potential partners and keeps notes on progress
• Tracks BD performance against targets, budgets, revenues and timelines
• Keeps revisiting the plan and flexing the BD activity to the current market.

 
If you or one of your clients want to expand your business development activity, get in touch with us. We’ll help you highlight the opportunities and draw up the best possible plan for your BD activities.