By Mike Ames, Founder Flair Business Growth Consultancy
This ebook has been written for people who have to sell into medium to large firms and feel they are not winning the amount of business that they would like. Whether you are a full-time sales person or a professional services provider such as a lawyer, accountant, banker or consultant who also has to win new clients, this book will help you to be more successful.
Let’s have a look at what you can expect as you read through it. To be a truly professional business developer you need to provide answers to 8 key questions; these are: –
1. How can I make time for BD? – Whether you are a full-time sales person or BD is just one aspect of your job it is vital to find the time to court new clients and look after old ones. And I mean every day.
2. Who should I target? – The world is full of potential clients (a good thing) but we only have a finite amount of time so how do we focus our efforts to get the maximum results? Too many people spend vast amounts of time on the wrong prospects. Rookie mistake!
3. How can I make contact? – So you know who to target but where can you meet them and begin the process of converting them from prospects into clients. Oh, by the way, I am really not a fan of cold-calling; in my opinion it’s a mugs game so we won’t be doing that.
4. Why should they choose me? – I get two opposing views on this one: those that think as soon as the prospect claps eyes on them the deal is as good as done and those that feel they are unworthy and no better than their competitors. Ours is a third and more realistic view.
5. How can I turn a lead into a sale? – There is a massive difference between starting a conversation with a potential client (an absolute doddle) and engaging a prospect in a dialogue where both parties actually want the transaction to take place. We explore the latter.
6. What tools will I need? – This is your basic sales course material plus a few extras. If you are going to be a great business developer you need to have mastered some fairly simple tools and techniques. Relax. They aren’t hard and you can easily do this.
7. How can I make the most out of my current clients? – The Americans have a very sweet expression for this: Sweating the Asset. Perhaps a little harsh but it does sum it up quite well. Account management is all about maximising the ethical revenue (only selling people what they need) and keeping the competition at bay.
8. What can my firm do for me? – You can answer the previous seven questions yourself to a greater or lesser extent but are there any things that your firm could do for you that would help you to become even more successful? Here’s a clue: there are loads of them.