How to achieve more with your business development?

Posted by efficiencycoach on Tue, 27/07/2010 - 17:35 in Blogs 560 | report

Everywhere I hear conflicting reports of how sharp, severe or protracted this recession is going to be... or is the economy starting to recover? At the moment, I don't know what to believe, but know that there is a general downward pressure on fees and prices, and a reluctance for businesses to part with cash for non-essential stuff.

So this set me thinking, how to do you achieve more with your business development?

1. Have a marketing and sales strategy

Unless you know what you are trying to do, and how you will get there, you might as well not pass go. Business development is not like monopoly you don't get £200 for just passing go...

2. Get your branding right

Unless you have thought of a unique product or service, other people will offer exactly what you do. Branding yourself so that you will stand out with your target market - and be memorable is key.

3. Outsource if necessary

Maintaining a consistent market presence takes time and energy. Choose what low value tasks you can outsource, to free up your time to close down deals. For example, outsourcing SEO or social media tasks works very well.

4. Polish and perfect your copy

Your marketing copy, i.e. the stuff you write in your PR, blog, ads is vital. The words that you choose do make a difference - a well crafted piece is often the difference between a phone call or no phone call.

5. Integrate

Make sure your overall business strategy connects and then that your planned marketing & sales strategy is working towards achieving your overall business goals.

6. Look after your cash flow

It is envitable that you will need to invest some physical cash in your business development. Watching your cash flow and making sure that it's healthy and positive is vital to good business efficiency. Working with a good accountant or VAT specialist will help you keep your cash flow positive...

7. Get a coach

If you have followed all of my suggested tips it is likely that you will have a large amount of stuff to do. Rome wasn't built in a day, and if your resource is limited then you wouldn't be able to do everything overnight. A good business coach will help you prioritise your workload and give you the support to get everything done - but without falling apart in the process.

If you are about to enter a difficult negotiation OR think that you could achieve more for your time, money and effort in negotiations – give me a call on 01234 48 0123, drop me a line on heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk or take a look at my website: www.theefficiencycoach.co.uk

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The Joined Up Networker

I help professionals and firms become the Go-To-Expert. Unusually for someone with an Engineering Degree, I accidentally became a writer and used my knowledge on social media to write the current best-selling and award-winning book on networking, The FT Guide To Business Networking. (75 five star reviews on Amazon - and read the 1st chapter for free here) People frequently talk about me as someone who really knows her stuff – which may be the reason I have, over the last decade, worked with over 300 partners, coached and trained over 1000 professionals at every level of the UK’s most ambitious professional practices. After nearly 5 years for working for BDO LLP, I realised I loved the intellectual challenge of working with accountants, so made working with accountants (and lawyers as I am a glutton for punishment) my sector specialism.

I was honoured to be a judge at the British Accountancy Awards in 2011 and 2012, plus I am a member of the Accountant's Club Global Advisory Panel.

I’ve always loved a challenge which is why I have solved the problem in my next book, which has perplexed many accountants in practice – ‘How to make partner and still have a life’. Click on the link to read the 1st chapter for free.

The Excedia Group was founded by myself and Jon Baker to bring clarity, perspective and knowledge to help our clients achieve their business goals. Over 75% of our work comes from professional service firms - both large and small, helping them get more clients via referrals utilising networking and social media. Over 30% of the Excedia group’s clients are small professional practices of between 1-50 employees.

My work splits into about 50% Executive & Business Coaching with Partners, Practice Owners & Potential Partners, with the rest split between training, consultancy and writing.

I adore writing, (as well as helping others achieve their business goals without selling their soul) which is why I blog regularly at Partnership Potential, Joined Up Networking, How to make partner and still have a life and venture-Now

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