Don't Forget to Build a BD Strategy!

Last week I was having lunch with a couple of friends at the Capital Grille (I love that place) and like many of you, I love to get a fresh perspective on things, especially when it comes to sales and business development.  It's the beast that feeds the engine and as we all know it's not easy.

So after the difficulty of selecting one of many tasty lunch entrees our discussion lead to strategy and our thoughts turned to the fact that in most organizations, there's usually a sales or marketing strategy but too few in business development. And I mean, a strategy behind building executive level relationships with their prospects and channel partners.  It seems easy enough, right? Yet many companies don't take the time to build out a plan that can get them in front of decision makers using multiple tactics to build solid, long-lasting relationships. It's a necessity at the highest level and in my experience I don't see many companies give it the time or attention it deserves.

Look at it this way...think about how much time and money you spend in marketing your products and services compared to the time and resources your spending on the activity to get your team in front of the right decision maker.  Is your marketing helping you develop relationships? A good business development strategy can leverage your marketing efforts to ensure you're not wasting time or money reaching the wrong people while using specific tactics to build high-level relationships with prospects and channel partners.  We all know, clients buy from people they like and trust and you can't build a trusting relationship without a good business development strategy.

I encourage you to take a look at your marketing and sales strategies to see if you have the tactics, systems and accountability in place to build deep relationships with your prospects so you too can close more business.