Dr. Earl R. Smith II

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29 Responses to “What is your greatest challenge when it comes to business development?”
1.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:39 pm e
Steve Chastain: Developing a selling strategy with no money for marketing, especially for startup firms. How do you sell your product when there is no money to tell people about it.
2.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:40 pm e
Gunther Sonnenfeld:
1. Finding & choosing the right opportunties (viability)
2. Proper use of internal resources
3. Networking
These are all hurdles, mind you, that also come with very little money for support. The strategies we’ve used to buffer these issues are:
- development of a substantial online presence through co-ops, partnerships and database mining
- viral initiatives that cost little or no money
- online networks such as this
- offers to do strategic pro bono work
- building a consultancy practice
- getting involved in key equity/rev share deals
All of these seem to be working on various levels, although time will tell. We’ve only been around for 18 months and we have yet to see the true/full value of many of our account relationships. Without real money behind our marketing/PR efforts, email marketing seems to be the least successful.
3.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:40 pm e
Steve Walsh: Focus, focus and focus… When you’re small its easy to not have the discipline to choose your opportunities carefully and map your target profile. As you grow, the issue then becomes one of the scalability and viability – both of the business development processes and of the chosen target group / business model.
4.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:40 pm e
Bill Florence: #1 Staying lean – very easy to get into the overspending mentality.
Strategy – being very creative in finding no/low cost alternatives.
#2 Back Office duties – This can quickly absorb critical time and budget that could be used for marketing/sales.
Strategy – back to #1, by outsourcing BO tasks to remote and on-site contractors on part-time, as-needed basis. Paperless office. Make maximum use of the interest.
#3 Scope of sales – Keeping sales efforts within the defined scope of companies products and/or services and not offering a ‘custom fit’ for every client (unless of course that is the service). I have seen overselling cripple companies.
Strategy – Strong hands on sales management style and well defined sales training and guidelines.
5.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:41 pm e
Alex Lightman: 1. Creating new and novel products that can serve as “gateway” sales for related services, including customization, training, maintenance/updates, and complementary products and services.
2. Being able to publicize the sales of products, and not get trapped in customer requirements to keep silent about a product to avoid giving competitors access to “the competitive advantage.”
3. Explaining this story to Wall Street and other investors so that it maps onto their understanding of what makes sense in today’s market. (This relates specifically to newly public companies, and/or those that have new products in a new market that is new to most people).
The strategies that have worked are to set up an amazingly skilled development team in the Philippines to create new products, and to encourage them to use their unique skills (in their case, SMS volume leadership and international money transfers via mobile phones), and to do conferences/summits to present new ways of thinking as well as new products. The strategies that didn’t work were to try to buy/acquire companies that had new products, which turned out to be more expensive than building products in house, and giving too much information to entrepreneurs pretending to be press or writers, only to find them quoting me in their decks to raise money to compete with me.
6.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:41 pm e
Wallace Poulter: The biggest challenge in Business Development is matching the Business Development people to the companies mantra and goals. There are, and I’m making a broad generalization here, two kinds of business development people. Those who are purely sales driven and those that are partnership management driven. It has been my experience from stops as diverse as Apple, LucasArts and Sega that partnership management style business development is by far the best for long term growth and stability. Indeed the logical extension of such success is the creation of partnership management as a separate entity away from straight sales allowing each side to work to their potential.
The pure sales driven business development role has its place of course.
Your responsibility as a CEO is to hire the correct type for the company goals and corporate structure. Having a CEO and or other Executive Management with one style and Business Development with the other is usually a significant factor in lack of success.
7.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:42 pm e
Chris Travers: 1) Perseverance. How to keep going for an extended time period when the progress doesn’t appear to be there and you are running out of money. This is, however, the most important one.
2) Being wise about money. Frugality is power, no matter how tempting it is to abandon it.
3) Consistancy in execution.
I even struggle with the last two sometimes.
As for selling strategies, I recommend taking a PR approach first. Advertisements work best as reminders, and so it is usually better to focus on PR first. Also focus more than anything else on delivering value. Customers are the best source of PR once you have gone through the standard press venues.
8.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:42 pm e
Andrea Beltrami: I’m sorry for my poor English
1) Learn to be focused on the core business
2) Positive thinking 24 hours a day
3) Display all our Vision
9.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:43 pm e
Aurobindo Banerjee: Apart from all other issues the major challenge in Business Development is CLIENT SERVICING.
How do you manage to add new clients to your wish list if you are not able to service your old clients well.
To be precise, If you make one client satisfied and keep him happy automatically new client connections will be flowing in.
10.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:43 pm e
Yuying Mesaros: I second Steve, Andrea and Gunther on FOCUS. That’s our biggest challenge. In the beginning it’s very easy to run after money whereever it presents an opportunity for being acquired. That said, you have to do a certain amount of it to keep the company going and morale up.
So our challenges:
- Focus
- Chicken and Egg problem, what comes first? marketing, PR/branding, sales
- Consistency
11.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:43 pm e
Shelli Strand: Key to a consistent business development strategy is staying active, even when current client work is keeping your schedule full. Nothing is worse than being so busy that you rest on your laurels. Then it takes you everything you’ve saved from the ‘gravy’ times to get back in the black after the busy push is done.
Also, work seems to flow in more easily while you are already busy. Instead of being afraid of being overloaded – that’s the time to expand with freelance resources.
12.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:44 pm e
Chue Moua: Business development requires alot of time for relationship building and also utilizing existing relationships to build upon. What I found to work was utilizing strategic business partners to help introduce our company to decision makers where it opens doors to everything else.
A solid business plan is very important and being “focused” on your vertical market would help; thereafter, PR becomes alot more easier to execute. It’s a matter of getting the message across to your target and following up with a resource that already has strong relationships in your industry.
Networking: Joint marketing campaigns with business partners, joining executive or entrepreneur groups (depending on your market), and finally being active in your non-profit community!
I advertise on Google, Overture, etc. and found that many people that click through browsed through my careers page which is driving up my advertisement costs. Advertising on search engines has not yet landed us a good opportunity as my business does not surround selling ebusiness services.
This is simply from my experience from a small business and hope there are other alternatives! I’m looking for a biz dev executive as well to help offload that responsibility off my shoulders. Please visit our website at http://www.clearkite.com for more details.
13.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:44 pm e
Algernon D’Ammassa: Really appreciate this question, as I am in the process of beginning an unusual business and what I am learning is that focus comes up in just about every aspect:
1. Clearly defining the services we provide
2. Clearly indetifying the markets to whom we need to communicate
3. Clearly addressing them
14.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:45 pm e
Jon Baldwin: Too many ideas, too little time – picking out those gems that CAN be implemented – and staying focused long enough to get them up and running. I’ve found that I can become tremendously board with something that “works”, and I want to find something new and exciting – something I can “fix”. “Fixing” is more fun than “working”.
Finding that new marketing angle can be a challange in some industries. I like to create marketing based on the “pizza hut model”. Some wacky new program or product to get our customer’s attention. “stuffed crust” “crazy breadsticks” “hot brownies”. Those guys are always coming up with something NEW – but are still just selling pizza.
15.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:45 pm e
Sukhjinder Singh Gill: The key to business development is to do it first before you start building your product you should have done market research, and in doing that lined up your beta customers. This way the moment the first beta launches there is a customer waiting to test it, and give you feedback and good reviews. In essence you should have solid market research that provides the right business model and pricing, and a solid marketing plan that targets the right customers. Test your ideas, and concepts out first when doing market research and drop ideas that don’t pan in the market space.
16.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:46 pm e
Ajay Mishra:
1. Mind Share
2. Cost of selling
3. Knowing whom not to sell to
17.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:46 pm e
Errol van Engelen: Specifically as a small supplier in the services industry, the three main challenges are:
1) Midsized and large organizations work with midsized and large providers, so as a small supplier you can’t get in.
2) Lack of Focus, small companies have a plan B and plan C, etc in case something doesn’t work.
3) Many midsized and large organizations work with a selected set of preferred suppliers or main contractors. Small companies will have to take on a role as a subcontractor.
To end this answer more positively, there’s one strategy that could open the door for small companies:
- Network yourself/your company into the larger organization by connecting to someone who’s working on his MSc, MBA or PhD, and who is impressed or intrigued by your offerings. This person is fully trusted by the companies’ management and he may open up the door for you.
- Be sure that you are well connected to industry associations, so you don’t have the problem after your presentation, that people still think you’re ’small’.
18.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:47 pm e
Norbert Steinhauser: The greatest challenge I face in business development is getting agreement from the complete team on what the right strategy should be. The typical problem: ask 3 people you will get at least 5 different opinions.
A close follower is then the implementation. Defining strategy is as such an easy thing but as soon as it comes to implementing, the fun really starts. It’s old military know how: no plan will sustain first contact with the enemy. Hence whatever you do will be different to what you planned to do.
Now, mix the 2 points above and you know that this is a really big challenge. You have a hard time defining a strategy and a hard time implementing it. No wonder the typical VP Business Development is in a specific role only for a few months…
How do you resolve this? Look at what the really successful companies are doing: yes, they focus but they also are very flexible. Focus on the goal you want to achieve but be very flexible with the means to achive that goal. Like with any good strategy, first define your goal, then define where you are today and lastly allow for a couple of different routes to achive your goal.
I had the biggest successes once I started sketching alternative routes as well as what if scenarios.
Typically, I see this similar to climbing a mountain. You know where you stand and you know you want to get to the summit. But you do not know what the weather will be once you get started, nor if the rock is solid or soft, etc. Hence you have to allow for alternatives and the unexpected.
19.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:47 pm e
David Nason: 1- obtaining the necessary capital for growth and expansion
2- employee issues (HR, etc)
3- lack of planning / information
20.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:48 pm e
Rohit Talwar: Time, time, time!
Time to follow up the initial contact
Time to follow through and generate the proposals
Tme to chase and close the bus once proposal submitted
21.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:48 pm e
Ray van den Bel: The biggest chalange is always about effectively reaching the other person. For that to happen you will have to know the other person’s communication style.
Here is an article in which you might be interested. It is about webstrategies, but those are just real (life) networking strategies:
22.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:49 pm e
M. Spada:
(1) Balancing the revenue opportunities that materialized against the strategic targets for the business.
(2) Staying focused on building relationships while others focused on traditional advertising/marketing.
(3) Knowing (and feeling comfortable) turning down engagements (new clients and organizational expansion) that didn’t fit.
23.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:49 pm e
Ed Barks:
1. Keeping the pipeline full of qualified prospects. It is easy to find suspects, but mining for true prospects takes lots of time and diligence.
2. Keeping nose to the grindstone, and making those calls and sending those e-mails and mailers. Sometimes it seems easier to carve out time for other matters at the expense of these vital business development initiatives.
3. Separating the wheat from the chaff when seeking resources on how to successfully develop business. There are too many resources consisting largely of shopworn “motivational” aphorisms. Pawing through them proves highly frustrating, not to mention a true waste of time in most cases.
24.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:49 pm e
Joel Broyhill: The key for any successful business development executive is the ability to gain the trust of a prospective buyer. This is done by not selling too, but rather serving as a valued consultant to the prospect — taking a vested interest in learning about prospects and partnering with them on the best solution. With all of this said, and it was mentioned below, to gain and maintain trust a company MUST commit to 100% delivery. Any BDM is only as good as what is delivered behind them — if that delivery fails, the trust of the BDM quickly erodes along with any repeat or new business. Long before revenue, companies should establish goals of 100% delivery and 100% referenceable clients. Position your business development executives to earn the trust of prospective buyers and empoyer them to maintain that trust with existing clients.
25.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:50 pm e
Craig Holland: In the realm of startups, your biggest challenge is always going to be selecting the right clients/attracting the right kind of business and FOCUS. Just because you can attract a ton of business, doesn’t mean you should.
The best way to mitigate this process is spending 8 hours every couple of weeks laying out short term goals and strategies. If you have the potential for attracting 4 clients, but your team can only realisitically handle 2 in the short-term, run then numbers. Put everything down on a spreadsheet, project forward, and then decide which has the greatest upside and potential for long-term growth.
With limited resources, the last thing you want is for your technical teams to be doing work without any long-term upside. This brings down morale and puts you in the bad position of having to make “emergency hires”.
26.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:50 pm e
Roger Sinasohn: Time. There’s never enough. Given that I’ve got a family to support, I need to keep the day job (and the night job). Whatever’s left I like to spend with the wife and kids, although I do seem to need a few hours of sleep every night. I’m working on that, though. (Or, more accurately, my kids are working on that.)
You can’t buy time, but given enough money, you can avoid the need to sell it (i.e., quitting the day job.) My wife has agreed that if I’ve got 2 years’ salary in the bank, I can quit to work on the business full-time, but right now the only way that’s likely to happen is the ol’ lottery (which, it seems, one must buy a ticket in order to win — highly unfair, if you ask me.)
If I could get past that, there is the fear — fear that I’m not good enough, that no one would ever be interested in my services, that I’m just full of it. Hopefully, I could overcome that by just forcing myself to go for it and surrounding myself with people who are very supportive but not afraid to slap me with a big reality check.
Of course, this is for a start-up, not an established business, so my apologies if you were looking for answers in regards to the latter.
27.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:51 pm e
Anders Hjort:
1. Understand your market
2. Realise why your the customers love your potential competitors
3. Realise why your customers will love your company product, solutions, services or the experiences you want them to buy from you more…ask them, meet them in the line of sight, enroll them to find out if they understand and buys easily into your valueproposition.
Then you will know if you have a good likelihood of winning more for some time…
28.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:51 pm e
Alan Zucker:
1. know who you are, and what you can really offer and deliver
2. have the right people to follow through
3. find the right clients
strategies ? really characteristics….patience, focus, empathy, patience
it all works over time
29.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:52 pm e
Jacob Kaldenbaugh: Depends on how you define Business Development:
1. Generation of new lines of business – getting people who are good enough to both strategically define the business and execute it through to scale.
2. Creating significant partnerships – having others ink deals that don’t give away half of the house just because they’re only focused on their half of the house.