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Increase Sales Opportunities with these 3 Ideas Everyone is looking for ways to improve business development efforts. There are countless ways to strategize and innovate. I prefer to keep things simple. While these three ideas are not necessarily easy to accomplish, they are so basic that they are often overlooked. 1. Where have you had success? Look at your client data. What is similar about your most profitable clients? Are they in the same industry? Same company size? Is there something about the company management or culture that is conducive to the products and services you provide? Write a descriptive profile of the ‘perfect’ client and then go find as many prospects that you can that have those same attributes. 2. Aim for larger targets. This can be tricky at times and definitely depends upon the products or services you offer. While an entrepreneur can give you a quick decision without committee meetings and long, drawn out contract negotiations, larger organizations tend to have larger budgets. Generally speaking, of course. If you offer management consulting services for $15,000 per month, you will probably have more success at earning larger firms as clients than you would with a sole proprietor. 3. Offer an entry level product or service. In a way, this is the opposite of the idea outlined above. This can be the smaller ‘bread and butter’ business that is consistent while you work on landing those larger clients. Offer an abbreviated version of your service/product. For example, instead of your full service $15,000 per month management consulting, offer a $1,500 version that provides step by step do-it-yourself instructions and 4 hours of in person or phone consultation. This gives clients with smaller budgets the opportunity to benefit from your expertise, build a trusting relationship with you, and make it easier for them to justify purchasing at your full rate in the future. Business development does not need to be overly complicated. If you are not already using these three ideas, consider whether they could improve your business development results. Be sure to let us know what your experiences are and how these help you create success! |