MODERN BUSINESS
development success of your business or organisation .
1Make sure that everyone ’ s job description contains at least one thing that requires them to contribute towards your company ’ s business development effort . Across your business , there are three categories of business development you want your people to deliver . Firstly , professionalism , meaning customers can be confident that your people know what they ’ re doing . Secondly , pipeline , meaning your team is opportunistically positioning themselves to help customers with new work when it arises .
And finally , preferred supplier , meaning your business is strategically positioned to win the big contracts you really want to win . The primary owner of the professionalism category is your operations team . When it comes to the sales pipeline , it ’ s your line managers , who are in contact with customers at a more strategic level . And when you need to be seen as the “ preferred supplier ”, that responsibility rests squarely with your executive team .
Invest in training and
2 development that builds business development skills , confidence and knowledge across the organisation . People at every level need to be able to do at least three things : to identify the value they create for customers , to write persuasively on their area of knowledge for bids and tenders , and to contribute their best thinking to retaining existing business . More senior staff also need strategic pursuit and proposal leadership skills .
Reward people for contributing
3 their knowledge and time to important bids . Proposals have become a “ five to nine ” job for most people . Recognising that they have made a contribution towards important bids will go a long way towards preserving their goodwill for important pursuits and bid projects that require them to go above and beyond the requirements of their day job .
Encourage strategic , crossfunctional teams to work on value
4 creation projects . This means giving them the time and space away from the rigours of their “ day job ” to do so .
5
Convene customer-specific teams to develop customer reengagement strategies . According to Bain & Company , a 5 % increase in customer retention yields profit increases of 25 % to 95 %. Businesses are often very good at developing innovation , best practice and continual improvement ideas that benefit themselves . Turning this process around to focus on your best customers will be a game-changer for your retention rates .
Robyn Haydon is the author of three books on business development : her Winning Business series includes Winning Again ( customer retention ), The Shredder Test ( winning proposals ) and the recently-released Value : how to talk about what you do so people want to buy it . Visit www . robynhaydon . com
42 ModernBusiness September 2016