Business Development Strategies for 2011

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1 2011 promises growth. November 2010 Are you ready? Applied Business Development Strategies MARCH 2011

2 Signs of economic recovery are beginning to spread. Economic growth is forecast for this year, albeit slow growth. Many companies have structured lean operations during the past year s downturn and now will be in a good position to add and deploy new employees to address growing business orders. Investment and expansion projects will be taken off the shelf. Companies will become more optimistic and begin to plan more aggressively. Economic development organizations can benefit in times like these by refocusing and increasing their marketing and lead generation plans and activities. Start thinking outside the box to consider alternatives to the business development strategies currently being deployed. For those that have not slowed down on their marketing and business development activities during the past few years, your pipeline should be in good shape to help you get a running start at the upcoming growth. It is time to kick lead generation and business development activities into higher gear and start reaping some rewards. However, it is never too late to start active marketing and business development plans. For 2011, you may want to front-load your pipeline with aggressive marketing and lead generation activities. Here are Applied Marketing s top tips and business development ideas that may serve as good reminders for you and are successfully employed by other economic development organizations. Have a plan and a process Marketing requires creativity, while lead generation and business development require consistent and persistent execution. We all have great intentions, but take the needed steps in technology and resources to ensure that you are regularly touching prospects, sending blasts, making calls, following up when needed, and ultimately doing what you said you were going to do. Get help setting up your plan and process, if needed. Your money would be well spent on a good foundation with meaningful metrics built into the system. The better defined the process, the more likely you are to work your plan and see real results. 2

3 Update your business development database Refresh the important data for your key prospects, including decision-makers and titles, telephone and address information and be sure to add addresses. Update or add other important information about key prospects such as the number of locations of that company, whether the company is owned by a larger company (and who that is) and other information/intelligence that may suggest a project is in the offing. Such intelligence can include sales or employment changes, new product announcements, mergers and acquisitions, layoff announcements and more. Better yet, make this part of your process to do periodically. Do 25 or 50 at a time and it isn t such an overwhelming task. Changes in vital prospect information should prompt you to pick up the phone and touch them again. Rethink your target industries to boost your pipeline If you are like many others in economic development, your business development pipeline may need a boost. The last few years have resulted in significant changes in many industries. It may be time to revisit and rethink your target industries. You will want to consider adding industry sectors that held strong during the downturn and those that expect to rebound the quickest, as well as emerging technologies and sectors. Industries such as Automotive, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Investment Banking, Green, and others might be on your radar. 3

4 Map out your best target markets It is a big world out there and you only have so much time. Map out the markets that hold the most potential and best companies from your target industries and let that drive your business development and travel plans. You know you will want to get in front of prospects to make lasting connections and relationships. This kind of analysis will help you strategically pick the best markets for mission trips and will help you take advantage of other required travel to trade shows and conferences. Think globally and locally Don t forget to include global companies in your marketing efforts. China represents a huge market and opportunity. The European economy is ahead of us in the economic recovery and the exchange rate is attractive. It would be a good time to consider investing in lead development activities abroad such as attending global trade shows or augmenting your prospect database with global executives. You can also attend trade shows here in the United States that attract a global audience and, in addition, many foreign-based companies have offices here in the states. Start by communicating with global companies at home. Your local companies also have connections, sister companies and partners throughout the world. Leverage those relationships. 4

5 Broaden your lead generation tactics Consider expanding your business development activities. Not all executives like to communicate in the same way so expanding the ways you touch a prospect will help you find more qualified leads. In the past, you may have relied heavily on mission trips to generate qualified leads. You can supplement trips by attending trade shows in the same location and making appointments with companies from that region as well as nationally or internationally. Typically these are much easier appointments to make but may have a lower level of qualification. You can also use to expand your lead generation activities. can be an effective way to tell your story and create interest to click through to your web site for a white paper or other materials. You can also hold webinars for potential prospects and promote the event through . Additionally if your travel budget is limited or to fill your pipeline around your mission trips, you can make prospect qualification calls to your target companies. This is a way to reach targets in markets you don t visit often. We suggest a balance between , telephone, and face-to-face activities to reach companies. However it is most important that you prospect regularly and follow-up consistently. Find good partners Get the most bang for your buck and spread the work by finding the right partners to advance your goals. If your budget won t allow you to do the number of trade shows and marketing trips that you want to do, consider joining forces with your neighboring communities, region, state, utility company, and others that could contribute time and 5

6 financial resources to your business development plan. Regional marketing groups are a well established idea in economic development thinking, but think even broader. Join your state when they exhibit at a trade show and participate in the meetings with them but also do your own lead generation calls and appointment setting before the trade show to boost the number of leads. Partner with a local commercial real estate brokerage to make qualification calls on target companies that fit your objectives and their available buildings. Consider outsourcing elements of your business development activities such as lead qualification, appointment setting or marketing implementation to free up your time to do less prospecting and more selling. Attacking business development on many levels gives you the opportunity to be aware and involved in many more plans, networks, and corporate communications. If you would like any more information about these business development strategies, give us a call at Applied Marketing. You can reach us at