BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IMPLEMENTATION IS ABOUT YOUR VISION

Perhaps the single most important business development process occurs when a salesperson thinks seriously about a long-term plan and creates a vision of his ideal business.  No other business development process approaches the importance of first being open to extraordinary success and creating a vision.  And the more detail a salesperson can bring to the vision created, the more likely that the business development strategy will succeed.

In Closing the Whales, Chapter 2 is titled “The Best Place to Start: The Long-Term Vision.”  In that chapter, I discuss a recent sales meeting I conducted with one of my clients on the subject of business development and the vital role that a salesperson’s long-term vision plays in the architecture and implementation strategy of his business development.  I suggested to the salespeople that they use their imagination and make a list of ten dream accounts, each of which would spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars with them for their products and services year after year after year.  So in this business development activity, each salesperson began creating his ideal list of ten top targeted accounts.

The next step in this sales team’s business development process involved compiling a complete profile of each account that made their vision lists.  I had created such a file on an ideal account to show them an example.  Business development best practices Number One is going to the account’s website and printing every conceivably important page.  And I had done that.  The file was close to an inch thick.  Smart business development begins with knowledge of a company’s corporate silo politics.  So often a company’s website will provide an inside look at its management team, the individuals titles, departments, bio, the works!  If you are going to use Jigsaw.com or a similar source for contact information, what better place to start.  Fundamentally, business development begins with a vision of a short list of ideal long-term accounts and getting to know the people who make those accounts tick.

To gain an indispensable insight on business development, I highly recommend the very best book written on this subject that I have read, Jill Konrath’s book, titled, Selling to Big Companies.  In her book, Jill provides exceptional business development coaching on the critical element of how to connect with and succeed in the business of selling to big companies, those same companies that make up the great vision of successful salespeople. This book is a great help when starting business development.

 

Start the business development process the right way. Get your copy of Closing the Whales today!