5 Things to Consider When Building a Culture of Business Development
Building a culture of business development at your company can be a hugely rewarding experience for both management and employees. Think about it. Everyone in your organization has a network, whether it’s their business network, social network or given network. By tapping into that, you can build a wealth of prospects while at the same time engaging and growing your team members. There are many reasons why you should consider building a business development culture such as giving employees purpose by showing them that their actions (business development) can help grow the company. It can also unite employees under one common cause, the growth of your business. In addition, it engages employees by giving them new skills that they can use for a lifetime and give them the opportunity to earn positive recognition.
However, it’s not an easy decision so here are five things to consider when deciding to build a culture of business development:
Are you ready? As we all know, a change in culture takes time and effort and lots of it. Deciding to go down this road is not a decision to be taken lightly and unless you are committed to the process you won’t reap all of the benefits. The decision to change your culture needs to come from the top and everyone on the management team needs to buy in. It’s the only way it will work effectively. It’s also smart to have a person internally that will champion this project and lead the team through the process. If you’re ready to make that commitment, then make sure you start off with a good plan in place before you start talking with your employees.
Communication, communication, communication. Did I say communication? It’s probably the most common error that most companies make. Having a good ongoing communication plan is critical to your success. From internal communication about why you’re deciding as a company to do this and how it will be executed to external communication in the form of job descriptions and company vison. There are many different aspects to a good communication plan when you’re deciding to launch this company-wide effort. Make sure you take the time as a team to discuss it.
Rewards & recognition. One of the benefits of having a culture of business development is that it gives every employee (should you choose to set it up that way) the opportunity to get some recognition. Everyone loves to be recognized by the boss. In addition, having a good incentive plan for employees that bring in qualified leads can help drive activity and “good” internal competition. Rewards and recognition can take many forms including company-wide staff meetings, frequent newsletters or updates, cash bonuses, gift cards…the options are endless.
Training. No culture change is effective without some training. Giving your staff members the proper training and resources will make the difference between success and failure. Employees need to know they will have the opportunity to build on their skills so they can be more effective at getting qualified leads. Providing training also shows your team that you want to invest in their personal and professional development, which is another reason for them to stay engaged. This training could consist of developing an elevator speech to networking to simple content strategy and it needs to happen consistently with ongoing support and resources that they can turn to for help
Be patient. Changing the culture of your business takes time, we all know that. If it makes sense, start with a small group and expand. Test the waters and develop a good process and system before rolling it out to everyone. It may take a while for employees to feel comfortable practicing their new skills so start off with some goals that are relatively easy to achieve and build on that success. Talk about it often and continue to offer training and resources throughout the process so it stays top-of-mind with everyone. Think about the investment you’re making in the long run for your business and your employees.
If you plan right, provide training, communication and a recognition program for employees, having a culture of business development can be a game-changer for your company. Instead of just the sales team, you’ll have a team of t employees in the market spreading your brand and developing relationships to generate new leads.
