Corporate Developments: What are the main things within Business Developme...

Corporate Developments: What are the main things within Business Developme...: What are the main things within Business Development that challenge you? Brand awareness? Identifying new approaches to generate bus...

What are the main things within Business Development that challenge you?

What are the main things within Business Development that challenge you?

Brand awareness? Identifying new approaches to generate business? Identifying Business partners and potential providers of Value Added Services? How do you make sure that the implementations you want to bring in actually take off? 

I've been in business Development and sales for over 15 years and It gets increasingly frustrating to Identify new markets, new resources and implement changes. 

An effective way for me is to stay fresh, make sure all customer facing material is up to date, keeping relevant buying reasons fresh in an end clients mind and by working with strategic partners to generate new business. 

Post your successes (and failures!) here to see if we can identify successful techniques to make what we do more effective.

By Charlie Rudd

Sales Director, 

Corporate Developments.

Corporate Developments: Innovation.

Corporate Developments: Innovation.: Defining Innovation How do you define innovation? If I were to ask a room of people (from the same organisation) how they de...

Innovation.

Defining Innovation

How do you define innovation?

If I were to ask a room of people (from the same organisation) how they define innovation, the changes are that each person will provide a different answer. In order for companies to execute innovation through the launch of products or services with value to their target audience, they have to have a clear definition of innovation, which is clearly communicated across the organisation.

A definition of innovation needs to have an alignment with the overall company strategy. Without this alignment and a sense of strategic intent, innovation can prove difficult to accomplish, due to lack of understanding and direction from people who are active in innovation within the organisation.
However, do be aware of a mistake that can be made – viewing innovation as a strategy; instead, innovation should be viewed as an enabler to a strategy.

To aid in defining innovation, it can be useful to think of aspects such as; are you wanting to execute incremental (small changes based on existing products and services) or game changing (completely new changes to the market) innovations?

One of the clearest definitions of innovation I have read is 3M's: The use or application of creativity to generate a new or novel output having value for customers.

What is your definition of innovation?

By charlie Rudd.

Understanding the Sales Force

You are driving down the highway and see an enormous truck in your side mirror.  The truck is moving very fast - twice your speed - and closing in quickly.  You continue to look in the mirror and because of the way your side mirror is shaped, it appears that the closer the truck gets, the more likely it seems that the truck will simply run right over you.  You accelerate a little, keeping watch on that mirror and then it happens.  You miss the sharp bend in the road and drive off the cliff.

This short story is the real-world equivalent to something which often occurs with your salespeople.  There are new opportunities to be targeted, as well as opportunities which already populate the pipeline.  The most promising of the existing opportunities seem to get most of the salesperson's attention.  One particular call causes the salesperson to become so excited that she devotes the rest of the week to developing an appropriate solution, value proposition, ROI, proposal and presentation.  She is so focused on this opportunity that she forgets all about what is up ahead.  Post-presentation and proposal, she begins making follow-up calls and over the course of the next month goes into full-chase mode.  When it finally sinks in that this prospect is not returning calls, has gone missing, and won't be buying anything from her soon, it's too late.  She neglected to continue filling her pipeline, has neglected to line up new opportunities, not stayed in touch with other opportunities in her pipeline and drove off the cliff.

It happens all the time.

It's not the salesperson's fault.

That's what sales managers are supposed to be doing.  Sales Managers must not only help, but hold their salespeople accountable to being focused on the right activities and behaviors, at the right time, on the right opportunities, and for the right reasons.  They must also provide coaching on each opportunity so the salesperson can see what is in front of them and avoid falling off the cliff.

Corporate Developments: Cold Calling Tips: #1 + Communication + Strategy

Corporate Developments: Cold Calling Tips: #1 + Communication + Strategy: Custom-tailored a sale lead generation system for your organization with effective sales guidelines for each industry sector you are targ...

Cold Calling Tips: #1 + Communication + Strategy

Custom-tailored a sale lead generation system for your
organization with effective sales guidelines for each industry
sector you are targeting and a series of unique prospecting
activities.
Develop your business communication strategy - This must
convey your telemarketing services message through a
focused presentation dialogue that uses all the various sales
techniques available to you; your prospective customers and
clients must see enough value in your sales presentation
that they are willing to let you continue with the
conversation, and most importantly, the delivery of the
message must create a memorable lasting experience
associated with the product or service provided.
Your ultimate aim is to make them feel good about your
products or services.