In today’s business environment sales is often described as business development. The term might soften the perception of sales, for those that cringe at the thought of talking with strangers about products and services, but more importantly it is a comprehensive approach to sales. Business development includes more than lead generation and cold calling and it is a process that applies to everyone in a small business.
 
Consider business development as the action plan in a culture where everybody sells. Since Business development includes activities such as expanding client relationships to broaden and increase services, the entire organization can, and should, have a role in the process. In every small business, no matter the industry, sales is not the responsibility of only a few members. Although a smaller number may lead the process, sales holistically and strategically belongs to everyone.
 
When working with high level professionals who are experts in their respective fields, and have business growth responsibility, we recognize unique sales related challenges. Most often these challenges are born of a single approach to sales. We can identify the characteristics of top sales people, and this is a smart strategy in organizations with sales teams, but a smaller company faces a different scenario. In the case of small business there is often one to three leaders with a ton of responsibility to sustain and to grow market share and revenue. To make lasting progress we take a good look at the growth goal and then validate the way each leader is equipped to make a measurable contribution. Critical to the success of small business sales is the realization that business development is not the same for everyone, nor does it process at the same rate. Once we know the true and reliable strengths of each leader, we can integrate the abilities of the balance of the team to expedite an efficient process for developing new business. We see team engagement rise significantly using this method of sales.
 
While ROI will be achieved, it will last, and engagement will be sustained through validating and aligning the strengths of the entire team, the speed of ROI is dependent on team’s commitment to personal contributions. The speed of ROI is a direct result of cultivating a business development process that is based on unique execution of leaders and their teams.
 
We talk a lot about the analogy of muscle memory in getting things done at work. If you are serious about meeting you sales goal, stay the course so your team will continue to stretch until the threat of slipping back into thinking, sales belongs to sales people, is a distant memory. We urge you to consider business development as everyone’s action plan in your organization. Contact us today at Firepower Teams for more information!