The Formula for Business Development Magic

I was on the phone with a prospective client and we were discussing her current business.  As she was recalling the good ole days she said, “Back then I don’t what we did to develop business, clients just kind of happened-as if by magic”  She explained that in the old days clients found her, the phone used to ring, and life was good.  After listening to her for a few minutes, I responded, “I hate to the bearer of bad news, in this case, reality, but those days are over.  It is time to get clear about how business development works and to create our own magic. “

Far too often I hear people talk about business development as if the concept is pure magic. Take some predetermined action, shake twice, twirl the magic wand, and voila-business!    Sounds nice but not reality.  The good news, or the bad news if you have been honing your magic skills, is that business development is not magic.  In fact, I dare say it is much more science than art.  Selling/Business Development requires focus, a little math, and some conscious effort.

Let’s start with focus.  As I explained to my prospective client, it is wonderful when clients call us.  In today’s economy, it is not a good business strategy to hope the phone will ring.  So, instead, if you want to grow your business, you must make sales/business development a focus.  Like any other focus in our business, this means bringing strategic thinking, time, and other resources to business development.  Keep in mind, while it is fantastic to have a brilliant strategy, it is far more important to keep selling top of mind than to spend hours conceiving the world’s best strategy.  To start selling you must take some action.  So decide it is a focus and do something.  Maybe you need to take all of your former clients to coffee, maybe your need to take all of your existing clients to lunch, or maybe you need to pick up the phone and call your prospective clients.  You get to decide.  But, make sure you decide.  Make selling part of your business focus and start doing something.

Next comes the math.  You have decided to give selling your focus.  You may have created a full proof business development plan and, if you been reading my blog, you are now also taking some action.  So, it is time to put some metrics around your actions.  Are you getting the right results from the action you have chosen to take?  If not, spend some time analyzing your efforts.  How many prospective clients do you generally have to call to land one client?  Define that number.  How long does it generally take to move a client from the first introduction to a paying client?  How many clients do you need to reach your business goals?  Once you know those numbers, you have your own personal metric for sales/business development success.  For example, if it takes 10 qualified prospects on average to net 1 paying client, 1 month to move prospects from stranger to paying client, and your business needs 1 new client per month to reach your business goals.  Then your personal metric for business development success is 10 new qualified prospects per month.  Obviously your math will look a little different depending upon your business and you may need to take into account size of client, etc.  However, in the beginning just keep the math as easy as possible.  You can refine and make the calculations more complicated as you progress.

Once you have the math, it is time to add in the conscious effort.  So, returning to my example, you now know you need 10 new prospects each month to reach your goals.  Time to apply conscious effort to finding those prospects.  Maybe you develop strategic partners that can feed you 10 referrals (my preferred method), maybe you cold call, attend networking events, mine visitors from your blog,, etc   Your methods are less important that the persistent application of your efforts and the constant meeting of your metric.  Business Development and sales success depend less on your strategy, or even your skills, and more on the consistent effort to meet 10 new qualified prospects.  Of course in this process, you will naturally be constantly refining your skills and finding ways to leverage existing relationships so that less time is spent looking for qualified prospects.  Yet the key to the entire process is having the metric and hitting the metric.

You also must be conscious with your efforts.  This means making sure you have scheduled the time (yes on your calendar) to meet your 10 new qualified prospects each month (yes-each month).  It means you pay attention to what works, what doesn’t work, and your tweak your approach to continue to meet your metric.  It also means that on those tough days when you feel like you are flailing that you find the resolve to measure yourself not by today’s success or failure but by your consistent ability to meet your metric. 

If this economy has had less then a fabulous effects on your business, then it is time for you to take a hard look at your business development efforts.  Are you relying on magic to bring in new customers?  Even worse, are you relying on someone else’s magic to bring you new work?  If any of this rings true-it is time to make some changes.  If you need a pep-talk, call me, I will cheer you on.  But, don’t leave your professional success to magic.  Follow the formula, meet your metric, and you can leave the white rabbits and black hats at home!

Don’t forget your umbrella, I see rain in your forecast!

About Jonelle- Jonelle Vold is a business coach that is passionate about your success.  A mother of twins, former Assistant Dean at a tier-one law school, attorney, and seasoned sales professional, Jonelle understands the challenges of high-level professionals.  Her coaching philosophy is every person has the ability to be a rainmaker by cracking their own personal code and doing business with intention.  You can reach Jonelle at jonelle@jonellevold.com, 520-225-9053, or www.jonellevold.com.   Short-Term-Massive-Action Group Coaching Classes starting on June 1, 2011, jonelle@jonellevold.com for details.