5 Business Development Don’ts

In my over 25 years experience in business development for Financial institutions, IT enterprises, Law Firms and Medical Practices there is an unfortunate, common repetitive pattern/tendency that costs unnecessary money and reduces efficiencies considerably.

This tendency can simply be defined as “unproductive” business development practices. While it can be stated simply it is NOT a straightforward problem in the least. Not appropriately, consistently and diligently creating and implementing a business development plan can and does cause significant financial and productive leakages to a business entity. For a small or growing company, business or practice, such a business development oversight can and often is very detrimental in many ways.

I have identified 5 of the most common unproductive business development practices. I hope that, if you can identify any or all of these within your business entity, you recognize the red flag and take heed.

The 5 Major Business Development Don’ts are the Following:

1) Don’t Randomly Advertise. Sounds weird, but it is NOT. One of the most common mistakes and seemingly harmless ones is to advertise a company, product or service without a clear target.

Unless you are a large entity, advertising expenditures should be seriously confined for specific targeted campaigns. Brand recognition advertising for smaller and or new practices is NOT an optimum use of resources.

2) Don’t Just “Get” Business- Instead Get the Right Business.

A common mistake in small to medium size companies is to “accept” any client even if the fit is not perfect, i.e. a client project that is not cost effective or a “difficult problematic client” or a client whose request is out of the range of expertise.

This can be a seemingly difficult situation, especially, if there are cash flow issues within a company. However, ultimately, saying no to these clients is the most cost effective solution.

3) Don’t Leave Your Business Growth to “Chance”

Many small businesses and medical practices get “caught up” in servicing clients when ample clientele is at hand, thus, ignoring future business needs. For small to medium size businesses this is one of the major causes of cash- flow problems. There should always be a consistent everyday effort to bring in new clients. This ensures a constant source of new clients as they progress through the customer life cycle.

4) Don’t Ignore Your Previous Clients

One of the biggest sources of potential revenue for any business, medical practice or law firm is satisfied past clients. There are three ways that these clients can generate new revenue for a business: firstly, by cross-selling other products or services that are complementary to what they bought last time; secondly, by up-selling services or products that enhance their growth or customer satisfaction; thirdly, referrals. Satisfied customers are one of the greatest sources of new business. However, in order for this to be successful you must cultivate a “relationship” with your clients via warm calling, holiday cards, emails, gift certificates etc and you must ASK! Previous Clients are the quickest most effective way to gain new clients… do not ignore this financial resource at your fingertip!

5) Don’t Confuse Business Development/Sales/Marketing

Sales and Marketing are quite distinct from Business Development. Simply put Sales represents the completion of a client prospecting stage, Marketing is the means to communicate value and awareness of a product or service, while Business Development represents the holistic/big picture for business growth. More specifically, business development concerns the tasks, processes and preparation for business/opportunity growth. Business Development is in essence the means to obtain the plan and targeting for growth. Having this plan/bigger picture helps to refine the client/service/product penetration and thus expedites and streamlines the sales and marketing efforts.

Ironically, most sophisticated and large companies have well funded business development departments, however, it is the start-ups, small and medium size enterprises that actually need a business development team or process the most.

It is my sincere expectation and desire that should you identify any of these “red flags” in your business it will start a thinking process and adjustment of your entity’s activities and strategies.

When it comes to commercial real estate sales and leasing, expansion of the sales team will give you some opportunity as an agency and as an agency principal with commissions and listings. In seeking to expand, you really do need the right people. Here are my thoughts on that.

The commercial real estate industry is quite unique and requires dedicated knowledge and experience. Finding the right people to fit this need is quite a challenge. Make sure that you have a people with the right character and diligence to drive the business forward. Every potential candidate for employment should be scrutinized for business skill and new business generation.

When you choose the wrong people you will typically have one or more of the following problems:

• Call prospecting will not be successful and is likely to be overlooked. Many salespeople will avoid the prospecting process at each and every opportunity. They expect business to walk in the door. Call prospecting is perhaps the most important part of the business model for the agency and for each salesperson.
• The conversions of calls to meetings, and meetings to listings or opportunities will be low. It is necessary to track the numbers of calls and meetings on a person by person basis. When successful conversions are not available or are not occurring, it is time to consider whether or not you have the right staff. Spending too much time with the wrong people can be a costly experience.
• The level of trust established between clients and staff will be low, and not give you the levels of referral business that you need. Referral business is a significant part of commercial real estate agency activity. It will only occur when you have the right people creating the right networking and connections with clients.
• The database in your business is likely to be neglected when it comes to the actions of average salespeople. Only the top operators usually maintain the database to a significant level of accuracy. The database is the foundation for future opportunity within your business and without it you will find listings and deals will be harder to convert.

When you locate and employ the right people, you will find that the quality of listings will improve and the conversions to successful transactions will lift. It is wise to work on your sales team members individually given that they are unique characters and require individual attention to reach their budgets and to optimize conversion.

It should also be said that some salespeople are variable in their business focus and outcomes throughout the year. Constant attention to KPI’s will track this problem. A successful and good commercial real estate business is built on the back of excellent people that are well-managed and committed to the task of new business generation and customer service. Employ the right people from the start.

Understanding the need for grants for business development:

The need for capital is something that every entrepreneur faces at one time or another. Governments around the world have realized the importance of subsidies for industrialization and now in business development are available in all countries. The volume and scope of assistance offered can vary and is generally observed that if the federal government does not include direct subsidies to small companies, many state development agencies do.

The different types of financial aid are designed to help entrepreneurs start or expand a business and to encourage them with egg. There are a number of special resources that provide comprehensive assistance to identify and select the appropriate agency for economic development, online and offline.

The application procedure:

Resources to ensure that the contractor is able to access the funds requested in the best financial resources. Grants for business development is available as a fine array of very attractive loans to start or expand a business. Resources, the resources to take care of the growth of the company access to more capital for the proper functioning of existing machines and get ready to meet the objectives in the long and short term. There are individual grants also available. Grants for business development through a formal application and awarded on an ongoing basis. When the businessman is, he is advised of the receipt of all required documents and the decision is usually made within 30 days.

Grant evaluation:

Grants for business development, assessed on the basis of some predefined criteria. The applications are scanned business financing in depth is required to address the needs and support the use of the number of opportunities for the effective exercise of the Company the amount awarded and the award actually meet the business needs identified. Assessment of business development grants also includes a careful examination of the potential effects of the general fund business growth, especially if it is mentioned in another state or country economic booster.

How are grants for business development sourced?

Grants for business development are primarily federal and state grants broadened as the title suggests, the development of enterprises. Funds may be used by the contractor for any business. Government grants are funded by taxes and subsidies extended through various government programs and agencies. The money available to the government for redistribution through subsidies to companies is enough to cover all business and pursued expansion costs Freshers many in various industries. There are also a variety of federal grants and foundation grants for business development in affluent societies.

Business grants – government gifts to entrepreneurs:

Government business grants for business development to give farmers access to seed and viable way to finance growth, which will become an important requirement to increase the demand for the product or service. The money for scholarships for business development enables business growth, to thrive and flourish. Awarded to, machinery and equipment, restructuring, additional working capital, a large recruitment and training of high level and inventory. Who can? Well, someone already has, or wants to start a legitimate business venture operating grant! The government has offered money to entrepreneurs, regardless of the company. This eliminates the need to tap banks and other lenders.

Recipients of the grants for business development:

Millions of subsidies for business development is extended to women, people with low income and minority entrepreneurs. Funds are also available as a start-up grants to businesses or existing businesses to grow, to ensure the continued success of risk. There are also companies that have prospered by giving subsidies to companies investing in real estate. Grant applications are available from federal, state, local governments and territories and advice.