Hjem

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4
Part I: Getting Started with Business Development 5
Chapter 1: Introducing Business Development for Services Firms 7 Answering the Question: So What Is Business Development Anyway? 7 Recognizing that business is a serious business 8 Understanding how business development differs from selling 9 Breaking business development into bite-sized chunks 11 Placing the Customer Experience Center Stage 12 Deconstructing the customer lifecycle 13 Mapping business development to the customer lifecycle 14 Making Business Development Manageable in a Small Business 14 Dealing with overwhelm 14 Anticipating growth and its impact on your business 15 Taking stock of where you are 16
Chapter 2: Finding Damaging Gaps in Your Business Development 19 Spotting Patchy Business Development 20 Recognizing the tell-tale signs of weak business development 20 Looking for the obvious and the not-so-obvious problems 21 Thinking like your customers 23 Understanding Business Development Challenges for Services Firms 25 Identifying value in a services firm 25 ''You''re the top!'' The owner-led sale 26 Being proactive rather than reactive 27 Taking Stock of Where You Are 30 What you''re not doing - and being okay with it 30 It''s a numbers game: How''s your firm really doing? 32
Chapter 3: Diving Inside Your Customer''s Head 33 Uncovering Your Customers'' Real Needs 34 Understanding what customers need today and whether they know it 36 Staying current with your customers'' needs 37 Powering Growth Using Your Customer''s Viewpoint 39 Focusing on your customer: Why you should care 39 Mapping your customer''s journey 42 Tailoring your solution to your customer''s need (not vice versa) 46 Using influence to get the outcome you want 48
Chapter 4: Using the Lifecycle to Your Advantage 51 Clarifying Precisely What You''re Selling -- and How 52 Being in control 52 Keeping your offer fresh 55 Investing to stay up-to-date 58 Creating the customer experience 59 Considering the Pre-Sales Stage 62 Selling without looking like you''re selling 62 Dating the customer: EDUCATE stage 62 Courting and proposing: PRESENT and PROPOSE stages 65 Confronting reality: CONTRACT stage 66 Handling the After-the-Sale Process 67 Moving from ''Yes'' to ''Done'': DELIVER stage 67 Wrapping up delivery: COMPLETE and EVALUATE stages 68
Part II: Planning for Business Development 71
Chapter 5: Getting Ready for Business Development 73 Developing an Offer that Sells 73 Ensuring that you''re giving the market what it needs 75 Making your specialty really valuable 78 Assessing your competition 80 Accepting that the grass isn''t always greener 81 Developing focus - or it''s all over 83 ''Really? You do that?'' Articulating your offer 83 Presenting Your Offer 84 Finding your customer 84 ''Tell me what you want, what you really, really want'' 85 Who drives the customer? Engaging effectively 87 Getting to the sale 88 Building your contract process 89 Continuing Your Great Work beyond the Sale 89 Understanding the importance of relationships 89 Completing the work 91 Learning from Your Customers 92 Gathering intelligence: The importance of data 93 Evaluating your offer 94
Chapter 6: Building Your Business Development Plan 97 Planning for Business Development Success 98 Winging business development doesn''t work 98 Knowing where you''re going 99 Creating Your Winning Plan 100 Choosing where to start planning 101 Working on metrics 108 Components of your plan: Creating the blueprint 110 Monitoring progress 113
Chapter 7: Putting Your Plan into Action 115 Checking Your Plan before Lift-off 116 Setting milestones, tactics and metrics 116 Identifying initial tasks 121 Calling on helpers 122 Determining your investment 125 Lift-Off! Launching Your Plan 125 Communicating your plan internally 126 Enrolling ''friends'' 127 Making use of friendly feedback 128 Getting the team going 130 Considering a few final thoughts as the plan takes off 131 Managing Risk while Implementing Your Plan 132 Thinking the unthinkable: What can possibly go wrong? 132 Dealing with large challenges 133
Part III: Making the Most of Marketing 135
Chapter 8: Appreciating the Benefits of Marketing for Your Business 137 Working Together in Harmony: Marketing and Sales 138 Enjoying the perfect relationship (not!): Marketing and sales 139 Making your marketing sales-oriented 140 Setting Out Your Stall: Marketing for Services Firms 144 Selecting the best marketing techniques for you 145 Energizing your team 146 Using your network 148 Forming partnerships and alliances 149 Understanding technology and the online dimension 150 Finding some quick wins in marketing 152 Deciding whether Your Firm Needs Branding 154 Understanding the importance of brands 154 Identifying yourself with a brand 155 Marketing your brand 155
Chapter 9: Driving Sales Success with Effective Marketing 157 Revving up the Marketing Engine 158 Appreciating the differences between sales and marketing 159 Ensuring that marketing drives results 160 Tuning up the marketing engine 162 Carrying out the hard work of marketing 165 Setting Accountabilities between Sales and Marketing 166 What am I striving for? Establishing the goal 167 ''How will I know that marketing is achieving its goals?'' Measuring marketing 168 Ensuring that Marketing Generates Interest 170 ''Hey, we''re over here!'' Getting attention 170 ''Over to you!'' Timing lead handover correctly 172
Chapter 10: Creating Your Marketing Plan 175 Preparing To Market Your Business 175 Defining your plan 176 Researching marketing opportunities 177 Choosing your channels 179 Brainstorming your tactics 182 Putting Marketing into Practice 186 Creating your marketing programs 186 Creating your marketing calendar 192 Creating and managing collateral and content 194 Making the Most of Your Resources 196 Breaking the plan down to decide on resources 196 Satisfying marketing''s appetite: Who does the marketing? 197 Making marketing accountable 198
Chapter 11: Automating Marketing - More Leads with Less Effort 199 Introducing the Automated Demand Generation Game 200 Understanding the buyer''s journey 201 Providing insights for your prospective customers 202 Attracting an audience 202 Asking whether Demand Generation Is Right for You 203 Deciding when to consider automated demand generation 203 Gathering the required resources 205 Adding Automation to Your Marketing Armory 206 Choosing your infrastructure tools 207 Building your database 210 Designing demand generation programs 212 Testing and evaluating your programs 216 Making the phone ring 218
Chapter 12: Forming a Winning Team: Marketing and Sales Cohesion 221 ''We Can Work It Out'': Sales and Marketing Join Forces 221 Reassessing roles as your business grows 222 Laying out the connections between marketing and sales 223 Setting common goals and targets 225 ''Come On, Come On, Let''s Stick Together!'' Marketing and Sales Can Collaborate 227 Clearing up misunderstandings that threaten unified business development 228 Acting to support unified business development 230 Helping marketing and sales to get on 231
Part IV: Seeing What Sales Can Do for You 235
Chapter 13: Becoming the Leader of the (Sales) Pack 237 Appreciating the Importance of Sales Leadership 238 Getting clear what your business sells 238 Establishing a sales process 240 Tooling up for sales 246 Setting goals and metrics 248 Building and Leading Your Sales Dream Team 249 Creating your pack of sales maestros 250 Using people outside the pack 251 Enrolling people to execute your sales strategy 251 Delving Deeper into Leading the Sales Process 253 ''Put that it your pipe and smoke it!'' Managing a sales pipeline 253 Working your sales process 255 Engaging in collaborative selling 259 Avoiding knee-jerk reactions to problems 259 Taking the right action at the right time 261
Chapter 14: Taking the Lead: Selling Under Control 265 Okay, You''re In! Qualifying Leads into Prospects 266 Getting your interactions right with customers 266 Handling leads, whatever the source 267 Determining who to sell to 269 Gathering the tools to help qualifying 269 Taking the meeting 270 Gating prospects through your sales pipeline 273 Pitching Your Services to Customers 274 What prospects want: Understanding customer mentality 275 Limbering up to pitch 279 Writing good proposals 280 ''Let''s dance'': Pitching on the day 282 The inquest: Assessing how