Step Towards Business Development

Once you are sure about everything you can offer in terms of products/services in your company, you must learn about your competition in order to understand where you stand, compared to others. This is a step towards business development and it will also help you determine your desired market positioning. Business development comprises of several tasks and processes generally aiming at developing and implementing growth opportunities within and between organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Determine your company’s top competitors – set up a criteria or mechanism for comparison, choose different variables for the comparison- this could be in the form of strengths, weaknesses or price, product quality, exposure, brand reputation, etc.

Since you are still new to the industry, competitors do not know you yet. Use that to visit your competitors’ showrooms, if any, anonymously, like any regular customer and collect valuable input to use in your research. Do not think this as unethical, after all, we all learn from watching.

Connecting

• Identify your main target audience sectors, then categorize the main companies you want to approach within these sectors.
• Email your marketing material to existing and potential clients, within your target audience, to raise awareness about the latest products that you have added or new services that you are providing.
• Conduct cold calls with the desired company and arrange meetings to identify their current supplier or service provider, find out why they are currently working with that supplier/ service provider and if they were happy about their current provider, tailor your sales pitch based on the given feedback, to win the business.

• Use one of the several email tracking tools available online to find out when a certain person has checked your email.
• This helps you know that the client must have had a need for your product/service and perhaps you should give a call to your client.

Reconnecting

• Build a healthy business relationship with your clients, using emails, phone calls, face to face meetings and technical presentations of your product.
• Spending the entire day inside the office will not be the best use of your time. You need to spend time out there, meeting people related to your market.
• Conduct warm calls to your existing clients, in order to assess the company’s current situation, and to understand if you are doing something that is making the client or customer unhappy; also do this to assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and ensure your clients are not being tempted by other competitors.

• Attend industry related networking events, exhibitions, seminars, conferences and trade shows, to be in contact with new, potential clients.
• Attending networking events can be of great value to you, you get to meet new people and learn new things about your market. If not done well, advertising campaigns can lead to your brand being perceived to be unprofessional or not so elite.
• You may try to get a booth at an exhibition for added advantage, however, make sure it represents your brand in an attractive way, to build a good market image and reflect the company’s brand identity. Remember that anythinng you display or sell here directly affects the image of your company.
• Your aim should be to try and find out what are the projects that your competitors are targeting within your market segment, assess if you can develop an offering that can win those businesses from them, and plan a strategy to achieve this.
• Attend as many industry related events as you can, make sure you follow up with a thank you email to everyone you meet, within a week of your meeting.

Did you know that people are 80% more likely to remember about your product or service if they watched a video? HyperEffects provides you with extravagant and enticing videos that will attract your potential clients and retain your current ones. Their custom-made videos offer state-of-the-art production and unique perspective, to give you the status you deserve. And remember, do not give up easily. 80% of B2B sales are conducted after the 5th encounter!

I am going to write about some more helpful business development strategies. Keep coming back for quick tips to improve your business and don’t forget to leave your comments, they are my inspiration!