Written
by Meg Prater @Meg_Prater
Business
development. It’s usually confused with sales,
often overlooked, and only sometimes given the strategic focus it deserves.
Having a business development strategy, however, is crucial to long term
success and ensuring that everyone in your company is working toward a common
goal.
But
how do you develop a business development plan? Pull up a chair and stay
awhile, I’m diving into that and more below.
Strategic
Plan
Business development is the practice of identifying, attracting,
and acquiring new business to further your company’s revenue and growth goals.
How you achieve these goals is sometimes referred to as a business development
strategy — and it applies to and benefits everyone at your company.
It’s
not unusual to mistake business development with sales, but there’s an
important distinction between the two. Business development refers to many
activities and functions inside and outside the traditional sales team
structure. In some companies, business development is part of the larger sales operations team.
In others, it’s part of the marketing team or sits on its own team altogether.
Business Development Strategies
1.
Understand your competitive landscape.
2.
Choose effective KPIs.
3.
Develop long-term customer relationships.
4.
Implement customer feedback.
5.
Keep your website content and user interface fresh.
6.
Speed up your response time.
Ready
to dive in? Here are the key business development strategies you’ll want to
implement.
1. Understand your competitive landscape.
Before
you can develop a strategic plan to drive business growth, you must have a
solid understanding of the competitive landscape in your industry. When you
know who your ideal customer is and what problem they are looking to solve with
your product or service, research who else is providing a viable solution in
your industry.
Identify
other companies operating in your space. What features do their products have?
How competitive is their pricing? Do their systems integrate with other
third-party solutions? Get crystal-clear on what the competition is offering so
you know how to differentiate your product to your customers.
2. Choose effective KPIs.
How
will you know if your business development efforts are successful? Ensure you
can measure your goals with relevant, meaningful key process
indicators (KPIs) that reflect the health of your business.
The result of these metrics should give you a strong indication of how
effective your business development efforts are.
3. Develop long-term customer relationships.
Do
you engage with your customers even after the deal has been closed? If not,
it’s time to develop a plan to keep your buyers engaged. Building long-term
relationships with your customers pays off. For businesses in the US, 40% of revenue comes from repeat
customers, and returning customers are cheaper to convert. In
fact, it costs five times more to convert
new customers than it does to sell to returning
customers.
Not
only are repeat customers easier to sell to, they can also provide valuable
feedback and insights to help you improve your business. Additionally, customer
testimonials can be used for valuable content that can attract your next
buyer.
4. Implement customer feedback.
If
and when you have customers who are willing to provide feedback on your sales
process and offering, make sure you hear them out and implement it. Your
customers offer a unique, valuable perspective because they chose your product
over the competition — their insights can help shape your strategy to keep your
business ahead of the curve.
5. Keep your website content and user interface fresh.
When
was the last time your company had a website refresh? Can you ensure all links
are working, that your site is easy to navigate, and that it is laid out and
intuitive for those who want to buy from you?
Keeping
your website up-to-date and easy to use can make or break the sale for
customers who know they are ready to buy. Don’t make it too difficult for
potential customers to get in touch with you or purchase your product directly
(if that suits your business model).
6. Speed up your response time.
How
fast your sales team responds to your leads can make or break your ability to
close the deal — in fact, after sending an inquiry 78% of customers buy from the company that responds first.
If you notice your sales process has some lag time that prevents you from
responding to prospects as soon as possible, these could be areas to prioritize
improvement.
Now
that you understand what business development entails, it's time to create a
plan to set your strategy in motion. When we refer to a business development
strategic plan, we’re referring to a roadmap that guides the whole company and
requires everyone’s assistance to execute successfully and move your customer
through your flywheel and
close deals.
Strategic Plan Template
Let's
review the elements you need to create a rock-solid strategic plan.
1. Craft your elevator pitch
What
is your company’s mission and how do you explain it to potential clients in 30
seconds or less? Keeping your elevator pitch at
the forefront of all strategic planning will remind everyone what you’re
working toward and why.
Some
people believe the best pitch isn’t a pitch at all,
but a story. Recent studies show
5% of meeting attendees remember statistics and 63% remember stories. Others
have their favorite types of pitches,
from a one-word pitch to a Twitter pitch that forces you to boil down your
elevator pitch to just 140 characters.
Find
the elevator pitch that works best for your reps, company, and offer, and
document it in your business development strategy.
2. Include an executive summary
You’ll
share your strategic plan with executives and maybe even board members, so it’s
important they have a high-level overview to skim. Pick the most salient points
from your strategic plan and list or summarize them here.
You
might already have an executive summary for your company if you’ve written
a business proposal or value proposition.
Use this as a jumping off point but create one that’s unique to your business
development goals and priorities.
Once
your executives have read your summary, they should have a pretty good idea of
your direction for growing the business — without having to read the rest of
your strategy.
3. Set SMART goals
What
are your goals for this strategy? If you don’t know, it will be difficult for
your company and team to align behind your plan. So, set SMART goals. Remember,
SMART stands for:
·
Specific
·
Measurable
·
Assignable
·
Relevant
·
Time-based
If
one of your goals is for 5% of monthly revenue to come from upsells or cross-sells,
make this goal specific by identifying what types of clients you’ll target.
Identify
how you’ll measure success. Is success when reps conduct upsell outreach to 30
clients every month, or is it when they successful upsell a customer and close
the business? To make your goal assignable, ensure everyone on your team
understands who is responsible for this goal: in this case, sales or business
development reps.
This
goal is relevant because it will help your company grow, and likely contributes
to larger company-wide goals. To make it time-based, set a timeline for success
and action. In this case, your sales team must achieve that 5% upsell/cross-sell
number by the end of the quarter.
4. Conduct SWOT analysis
SWOT
is a strategic planning technique used to identify a company’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Before
conducting a SWOT, identify what your goal is. For example, “We’d like to
use SWOT to learn how best to conduct outreach to prospective buyers.”
Once
you’ve identified what you’re working toward, conduct market research by
talking with your staff, business partners, and customers.
Next,
identify your business’ strengths. Perhaps you have low employee turnover, a
central location that makes it easy to visit with prospects in person, or an
in-demand feature your competitors haven’t been able to mimic.
Your
business’ weaknesses are next. Has your product recently glitched? Have you
been unable to successfully build out a customer service team that can meet the
demands of your customers?
Then,
switch to opportunities. For example, have you made a new business partnership
that will transition you into a previously untapped market segment?
What
are the threats? Is your physical space getting crowded? What about your market
space? Is increasing competition an issue?
Use
SWOT results to identify a better way forward for your company.
5. Determine how you’ll measure success
You’ve
identified strengths and weaknesses and set SMART goals, but
how will you measure it all?
It’s important for your team to know just how they will be measured, goaled, and
rewarded. Common key performance indicators (KPIs)
for business development include:
·
Company growth
·
Revenue
·
Lead conversion rate
·
Leads generated per month
·
Client satisfaction
·
Pipeline value
·
Reach
6. Set a budget
What
will your budget be for achieving your goals? Review financial documents,
historical budgets, and operational estimates to set a budget that’s realistic.
Once
you have a “draft” budget, check it against other businesses in your industry
and region to make sure you’re not overlooking or misjudging any numbers. Don’t
forget to factor in payroll, facilities costs, insurance, and other operational
line items that tend to add up.
7. Identify your target customer
Who
will your business development team pursue? Your target market is
the group of customers your product/service was built for. For example, if you
sell a suite of products for facilities teams at enterprise-level companies,
your target market might be facilities or janitorial coordinators at companies
with 1000+ employees. To identify your target market:
1.
Analyze your product or service
2.
Check out the competition
3.
Choose criteria to segment by
4.
Perform research
Your
target customer is the person most likely to buy your product. Do your homework
and make sure your business development plan addresses the right people. Only
then will you be able to grow your business.
8. Choose an outreach strategy
What
tactics will you use to attract new business for your sales team to close? You
might focus on a single tactic or a blend of a few. Once you know who your
target market is and where they “hang out,” then you can choose an appropriate
outreach strategy.
1. Networking
Will
your business development plan rely heavily on thought leadership such as
speaking at or attending conferences? Will you host a local meetup for others
in your industry? Or will your reps network heavily on LinkedIn and social
media?
2. Referrals
If referrals will
be pivotal to your business’ growth, consider at which stage of the buying
process your BDRs will ask for referrals. Will you ask for a referral even if a
prospect decides they like your product/service but aren’t a good fit? Or will
you wait until a customer has been using your solution for a few months? Define
these parameters in your strategy.
3. Upselling and cross-selling
Upselling
and cross-selling are a cost-effective way of growing your business. But it’s
important this tactic comes with guardrails. Only upsell clients on features
that will benefit them as well as your bottom line. Don’t bloat client accounts
with features or services they really don’t need — that’s when turnover and
churn start to happen.
4. Sponsorship and advertising
Will
your BDR work with or on the marketing team to develop paid advertising
campaigns? If so, how will your BDRs support these campaigns? And which
channels will your strategy include? If you sell a product, you might want to
feature heavily on Instagram or Facebook. If you’re selling a SaaS platform,
LinkedIn or Twitter might be more appropriate.
5. Outreach
What’s
your outreach strategy? Will your BDRs be held to a quota to make 25 calls a
week and send 15 emails? Will your outreach strategy be inbound, outbound, or a
healthy combination of both? Identify the outreach guardrails that best match
your company values for doing business.
Strategic Plan Example
Let’s
put all of these moving parts in action with a strategic plan example featuring
good ol’ Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
Elevator pitch
Dunder
Mifflin is a local paper company dedicated to providing excellent customer
support and the paper your business needs to excel today and grow tomorrow.
Executive summary
At
Dunder Mifflin, our strengths are our customer service, speed of delivery, and
our local appeal. Our weakness is that our sales cycle is too long.
To
shorten the sales cycle 5% by the end of Q4, we need to ask for more referrals
(which already enjoy a 15% faster sales cycle), sponsor local professional
events, and outreach to big box store customers who suffer from poor customer
support and are more likely to exit their contract. These tactics should allow
us to meet our goal in the agreed upon timeline.
SMART goals
Dunder
Mifflin’s 2019 goal is to decrease our sales cycle 5% by the end of Q4. We will
do this by more proactively scheduling follow-up meetings, sourcing more
qualified, ready-to-buy leads, and asking for 25% more referrals (which have a
15% shorter sales cycle already). We will measure success by looking at the
sales pipeline and calculating the average length of time it takes a prospect
to become closed won or closed lost.
SWOT analysis
Strengths: Our
strengths are our reputation in the greater Scranton area, our customer service
team (led by Kelly Kapoor), and our warehouse team, who ship same day reams to
our customers — something the big box stores cannot offer.
Weaknesses: Our
greatest weakness is that our sales team has been unable to successfully
counter prospects who choose big box stores for their paper supply. This
results in a longer than average sales cycle, which costs money and time.
Opportunities: Our
greatest business opportunity is to conduct better targeted outreach to
prospects who are ready to buy, ask for more referrals from existing customers,
and follow-up with closed lost business that’s likely coming up on the end of
an annual contract with the big box store.
Threats: Our
biggest threat is large box stores offering lower prices to our prospects and
customers and a sales cycle that is too long resulting in low revenue and slow
growth.
Measurement of success
We
will measure success by looking at the sales pipeline and calculating the
average length of time it takes a prospect to become closed won or closed lost.
Budget
[Insert
budget breakdown]
Target customer
Our
target customer is office managers at small- to medium-sized companies in the
greater Scranton, PA area. They are buying paper for the entire office,
primarily for use in office printers, custom letterhead, fax machines. They are
busy managing the office and value good customer service and a fast solution
for their paper needs.
Outreach strategy
Networking,
sponsorships, and referrals will be our primary mode of outreach. We will focus
on networking at regional paper conferences, HR conferences, and local office
manager meetups. We will sponsor local professional events. And we will
increase the volume of referrals we request from existing customers.
A
strategic plan for business development is crucial to have your team aligned
and working toward the greater good of your company. Not tapped out on
planning? Check out this sales plan template,
or this free template for building a successful business plan.
Originally
published Jan 29, 2020 1:00:00 PM, updated January 29 2020
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/strategic-plan-template?utm_campaign=Sales%20Blog%20-%20Daily%20Manual%20Emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=82639226
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