Business Development

How will you gain new clients and increase revenue?

Finding new customers is an ongoing process in any business. In order to be successful every business needs a plan for brining in new clients. Without new clients – most of us won’t be in business for long. You may have customers today but you need to plan for tomorrow.

Keeping the pipeline full of hot leads, warm leads and cold calls is essential.  I find that most businesses, no matter what they’re selling, can benefit from putting processes in place to develop new business. Business development should be part of everything we do. When you’re networking you’re building potential new clients, when you’re engaging in social media you’re making new relationships and when you’re involved in your communities you’re representing your businesses. Everything you do can be business development – yet that’s not enough – you must have a business development plan.

During a recession many businesses feel the pinch because they had stopped strategically developing new business when times were good. When times are good – there are more customers and they are spending more. When things get tight, money is scarce and people are more cautious. If you don’t make business development a priority activity in your business, a down economy could put you out of business.

Now is the time to make a renewed commitment to developing new business. Add prospecting processes to your business plan, hire outside help or just pick up the phone and start calling. Prospecting can be scary. Most business owners say they are terrified of making cold calls. It is hard, it can be scary and discouraging but it brings results. By practicing telling others what you do and the value you can offer them, you get better at marketing. You get more comfortable selling your business and in turn customers are more attracted to your business.

Confidence attracts new clients. If you show up in all your prospecting activities with confidence, you have already won half the battle.

There are many ways to develop new business. All the activities in this workbook are designed to develop new business. When you combine all your marketing strategies with an effective prospecting process – you’re setting yourself up for success.

Make a plan for how you will handle all leads and how you will cold call or prospect.

Hot leads are the leads that call you. They are HOT because they are ready to buy, have the resources to buy and may have been referred by another client. Hot leads MUST be followed up on immediately. Think about how you will handle this. Think about who will be responsible for returning these calls or making the sales presentation to HOT leads. These leads need to be followed up with within 24 hours. A hot lead will not remain hot is there needs are not met – they want your attention and they want it now.

In addition to following up with hot leads, think through how you will handle them if they say they need to think about it or are looking at a competitor as well. Make a plan for how you will follow up and when.

I call all hot leads to check in once a week. I want to stay in front of them and let them know I’m still here and would love to do business with them. In addition, after the initial phone call I send them my full marketing kit. They can get it on my website but I like to send a hard copy out with a handwritten note thanking them for their time and interest.

Warm leads are people who are considering buying. They may call you or someone you know may ask you to call this lead. Warm leads need more attention. They need to know what you do, what’s in it for them and why they should pick you. It is a good idea to try to meet with warm leads face-to-face if possible. You want to make sure you ask warm leads lots of questions. You need to understand what they are looking for and determine if you are a good fit. If your business can meet their needs, you must show them how. Keep your conversations about their issue and the solution you offer.

After an initial contact with a warm lead, I again send a marketing packet with a handwritten note. I then call warms leads every other week for a month or so. After that I call to check in once every other month. The time between calls depends on the type of business you are in and the product you are selling. I don’t want to be a pest to these potential clients but I want to stay in front of them. I have had some warm leads hang around for a year or so before they bought. Stay close to your warm leads – you never know when they’ll get HOT!

Cold leads are people who don’t know you exist. They won’t come to you – you must go to them. They don’t know you and they may not even need or want what you offer. Cold contacts are made with potential clients to find out if there is a fit between this person and your product. It’s a discovery process.

When making cold contacts, you must tell them up front what’s in it for them. If they give you time, you need to be prepared to share the value you offer and why you are different from your competitors. In addition you want to ask them questions and add them to your contact list.

Building a prospect list is essential to any marketing campaign. If you’re going to use cold calling, you need a list. This is why having a clear target market is critical. If you know who you’re targeting there are many ways to build a prospecting list. You can buy lists from a marketing firm or you can build lists from scratch if you have the time to do your own research. I have used both techniques successfully.

In our construction company we bought lists of our target market. We used these lists to begin our cold calling campaign with a welcome letter. The letter welcomed them to the area and introduced our business. A few weeks later we followed up with a call to the homeowner to introduce ourselves. During this call we often learned whether they had any remodeling plans in the near future. If they did they got put onto our call list and we stayed in touch with them through calls, newsletters and special mailings. If they didn’t have any immediate plans, we kept them in our database and sent them all special mailings.

In my speaking and consulting business I’ve built my own lists. I used the internet to find organizations in my target market. Once I identify an organization, I send them an introductory email. I then follow up a few weeks later with a phone call. If they have any interest in my services now or in the future, I add them to my database and stay in front of them on a monthly basis. If they’re not a good fit, they fall off the list. Remember you choose your clients just as they choose you. If I make a cold call and know there’s not a good fit – there’s no point in continuing to market to that person. 

It’s important to have a good CRM software tool to use when building your list. I use Act for this, though there are other ones out there. In addition, I use Constant Contact for my newsletter subscriptions. This is a secure way to email potential clients.

The key to building a successful business development strategy is to track everything. If you can’t track your success ratio with business building activities – you’ll never know what works and what doesn’t. Business development will be an ongoing process – it’s never complete. It’s work to stay consistently in front of potential clients and follow-up with all leads. Tracking activities will help you see where to focus your energies and keep you on track.

Lastly, business development should be fun. Growing a business is a journey. In order to remain passionate about what you do, you must stay connected and engaged. Making prospecting fun and then standing back to see the rewards will help you to build a solid, profitable business – one that will survive and thrive during any economy.