In the months to come, many organisations will be navigating a rapidly changing landscape, but with change comes the potential for new and exciting ways to achieve the extraordinary.
This, the final article in our Leadership in a Changed World series - Driving Business Development, focuses on how we drive business development within this changed world. What is different, what key trends still endure and how we can utilise this information to drive business development in a whole new way.Driving business development within this changed world relies upon understanding how our new working practices are affecting not only how we work but also how our customers work. Remote working, reduced team numbers, uncertainty and adaptations to business plans are just as real for our customers as they are for us.
According to a LinkedIn annual state of sales survey conducted in December 2019 and January 20201 that tracks how sales are evolving to meet changing circumstances and buyer needs.
We can draw upon the key leadership behaviours discussed in earlier articles to support our customers through the crisis and lead our teams to drive business development.
The disruption of the last few months has reshaped the landscape for sales, it has forced the use of new sales processes as we respond to the immediate challenges while putting a fresh new perspective on enduring sales trends.
A McKinsey survey 2 provides insightful detail into how sales cycles are changing and how as a result we need to take a much longer-term view of sales performance in particular.
On a positive note;
To stay ahead and continue to drive business development despite decreases in opportunities, budget cuts and longer sales cycles we have to focus on longer term measures including;
Added value is an improvement or addition to something that makes it worth more. Added value is not just about giving away or discounting products and services, it is more about demonstrating how your products or services deliver an increased return on your customers investment. This return on investment is most effective as a sales tool when it is closely linked to one, some or all of the key buying motivators.
What drives a customer to buy, (motivators) can be broken down in to four main categories:
Gone are the days where we simply pick up the phone to make initial contact with a new prospect, now it is standard procedure to conduct research prior to making first contact with a potential customer. The use of social media and social networking platforms can assist us to step-up our research and reach out to a customer to begin building a relationship long before we pick up the phone.
One third of customers in the UK 4 state that they are more likely to select a vendor when a seller is recommended by someone in their network. The fastest and easiest way to drive an increase in recommendations and reviews is to simply ask for them. The best time to request a recommendation or a review is straight after delivering a value added service.
The same is true for Google reviews, LinkedIn recommendations and evaluations that collect evidential data on the quality of your service.
Data is particularly relevant with so many uncertainties, unknowns and rapid changes happening around us, one thing we can be sure of is accurate data.
With thorough planning and defined data capture processes, we can aggregate, govern and leverage data to provide valuable insights into past sales, performances and efforts as well as future forecasts. The regular capturing and analysing of data ensure that we are always reviewing what is and what is not working in terms of customer interactions.
Regular competitive analysis - identifying the strengths and the weaknesses of our competition, can help to identify trends, successful tactics, potential gaps and new opportunities in the market that might be underserved or not served at all.
Your competitor analysis should begin with finding out which key players have left the market, who is closed and who is open for business. Also research how your competitors service offerings or approaches may have changed and adapted in response to the pandemic.
As budgets come under pressure and pipelines begin to reduce, shifting our focus to protecting our most important customer relationships will ensure that we have continued access to opportunities as they arise.
Adopting a customer centric approach while we are still undergoing change and fluidity in our sales and communication methods is a challenging task. The contacts you once had may be working unpredictable hours or remotely, recorded contact details may as a result be unreliable and redundancies could mean that your point of contact has now changed.
This last point is more powerful then it first appears. Customers value information that educates and enlightens them and sharing insight is an excellent way to reinforce how you can provide added value that directly links to each of the four buying motivators.
Remote selling is not a new concept by any means, it is almost certainly a process you and your teams are familiar with and are no doubt successful in. However, remote selling was usually supported by some degree of face-to-face contact whether it is through meetings, networking, seminars or workshops. Now we are relying on remote selling and relationship building techniques without any face to face or in-person contact at all. In this virtual and technologically reliant world, trust has never mattered more.
Stephen R. Covey
Earning a customer’s trust requires strategic counsel and active listening to comprehend and respond in
a relevant and constructive way to what our customers and our clients are communicating.
A trust-based relationship is built by demonstrating and providing trustworthiness over time. If you’re the first point of call for a client with a critical business problem, then you are in a strong position to establish credibility and trust. Through the progressive solving of problems and the provision of valuable advice and ongoing support, your customer will come to trust that you understand them and that you have their best interests at heart.
As this last article in our Leadership in a Changed World series draws to a close, now is the time to move forwards, working as a collective and embracing your role as a leader in creating high performance environments and driving business development.
