Business Shouldn't be a Roller Coaster

Not many of us actually operate amusement parks or make roller coasters, yet many business leaders love to talk about market conditions, Brexit or customers for turning their business into a daredevil ride. Going from the highs of all-hands-on-deck to the lows of 're-structuring' or getting a new logo...; because that's somehow going to bring more business...?!

Yes, world economies have caused us all a rougher ride in recent years but equally, business owners can always do more to maintain better-qualified prospects, more active sales pipeline, and a healthy order book.

Put it simply, better management controls and greater strategic focus will significantly improve your chances of success without worrying too much about macroeconomic factors, a fall in the Yen and, of course, running out of cash because your client's MD went on her annual leave before signing off the cheque run for this month...

So, here a fistful of nuggets...

Business Development is NOT sales!

Before you kickup about how you do things, just humor me for now as I'm trying to make a broader point 😅

It is commonly believed that BD and Sales are one and the same which is understandable from a layman's point of view. But business leaders need to treat them as separate roles/functions before they start having unrealistic expectations and get the whole team coming up with excuses for failure or worse, leave.

Let's explain. Business Development is the job of accurately identifying prospects (person and company), making the right approach, qualifying them for needs, decision-making, and budget before handing over to the sales team to negotiate and close the deal. 

Sales teams objectives would be to negotiate, upsell and seal the deal soon after being briefed by the business development team. Sales gets the job done!

This distinction probably is more relevant to B2B businesses yet it is still important to make it even with a single team given different tasks to achieve more sales.


Build your Pipeline
No kidding. You'd be surprised how many businesses think they're too small to have one or talk about having a sales pipeline but a closer look shows data that is sketchy, littered with duplicated, out of date or otherwise not answering the simple question; where will the next deal come from? and when?

This is not about which platform you use or how cool your dashboard looks... it's about applying diligent and programmatic management of your prospects and deals with accurate data, realistic assumptions, lateral thinking to cultivate and nurture cold leads and, crucially, brutal culling of deadwood. 


What's your Strategy...Really?
Clear and strong strategies sell. They sell because you can show your strengths, methods and values without ambiguity and achieve 'fit' straightaway with those who genuinely need you and would want to buy from you.

Whether you're Amazon or a cafe, you must do something better than the competition... sure you do. Defining that strength, the way you go about your business and why you believe in that is the foundation of your strategy.

Think it through and spell it out as clearly and concisely as possible.

So, up your game and start thinking seriously about refining your strategy to reflect who you really are and what you're really capable of... it's not the aspirational waffle that most have on their websites or brochures.

Start with these and you'll care far less about Brexit... surely that's worth the hassle!?