M4D Business Journal 105 - Invest in Business Development Again

Why Business Development?

Business Development (BD) has become a hot management topic; it has entered architecture and engineering offices as the answer to a rapidly changing business landscape in which competitive advantages have become temporary by nature.

Thought leaders agree that every company should invest in BD, as it will help the business achieve tactical and strategic goals, such as acceleration of revenue growth and acquisition.

Top challenges

What gets in the way? The key challenges for Business Development can be increased competition, finding time to nurture client relationships, limited business development resources and time, lack of intel for opportunities to position for a win, identifying new prospects, hiring the right people, more restrictive spending environment, among others.

These challenges are all interrelated: the challenge of limited business development resources is followed closely by increased competition and the difficulties of developing strong relationships with potential clients. Increased competition is a recurring issue in architecture and engineering practices as tighter budgets encourage new strategies for differentiation.

Thought leaders agree that every company should invest in BD, as it will help the business achieve tactical and strategic goals, such as acceleration of revenue growth and acquisition.

Other relevant and widespread challenges canbe avoidance and confusion. Some companiesavoid BD altogether or simply ignore it, as theywant to ‘own’ every function and only rely onthemselves. The reality is that resources areconstrained and partners are in a position to helpachieve goals.

Confusion comes when companies invest in BD without a clear understanding of why they are doing it and what specific goals they are trying to achieve. When there is a lack of a plan, efforts are wasted as the business can’t close partnerships (deals make no sense) or the company closes partnerships but they all fail(again, because they don’t make sense).

In today’s business landscape, BD efforts tend to deliver the most success when an attempt to benefit both clients and prospects is at the core of the effort.

Tips to improve the process

Building meaningful connections requires astrong investment of time and money; contactswill see through pushy sales attempts andone-sided relationships that provide nothing intheir favour. In today’s business landscape, BDefforts tend to deliver the most success when anattempt to benefit both clients and prospects isat the core of the effort.

A great relationship-building strategy is totransform standard company events intounique business development opportunities thatinterest clients while creating mutually beneficialrelationships.

Other practical tips include:

• Reorganise roles of marketing and businessdevelopment

• Start early

• Schedule BD time and treat it as a priority

• Plan the work and work the plan

• Find what you love

• Do what comes naturally to you

• Empower your staff

• Share the load and the data

• Leverage outside resources

• Be selective: quality versus quantity

• Nurture your network

• Focus on client needs

• Truly differentiate

How to make it fun again

When you think of business development, what comes to mind? Exciting, riveting and motivating? More often you think frustrating, complicated, necessary evil. But why? And how can you get excited about chasing the win again?

Different things will work for different people, but some of the most important aspects to making business development fun are being prepared (have the pitch ready); use BD tools; research and seek relevant advice; build relationships and follow them up.

Conclusion

Many architecture and engineering businesses have achieved performance improvements by investing in resources to sustain a focus on strategy development and strategy implementation. They have invested in setting up a professionally managed business development function with responsibility for capturing new business opportunities and bringing continuity and alignment into their strategy management process.

MANAGEMENT FOR DESIGN

Management for Design provides integrated business systems and services to the design industry across Strategy, Finance, Information Technology, Human Resource Management and Business Systems.

By working with Management for Design our clients are enabled to focus on what they are great at and to control and build their businesses. For more information visit www.m4d.com.au or phone 03 9645 8834.