From the category archives:

Business Development Strategy

How to Use Linkedin to win new business: poll results

28 January 2010

As you might know, as (apparently!) a Linkedin Expert, I’ve been asked by Cisco Webex and Linkedin to do occasional blog posts related to the European Business Awards they’re running.
One thing I was interested in finding out was how people were using Linkedin to win new business. Many people, myself included (in this article on [...]

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Focus, Focus, Focus

12 January 2010

One of the big weak spots in my own business development is focus. I’m a great starter, not a great finisher.
As soon as I hear of a new, promising approach I love to check it out, research it, try it out for myself. It makes me a great resource for deep up-to-date knowledge on a [...]

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Get More Clients with the Client Breakthrough System

28 November 2009

For the last few weeks I’ve “secretly” been running an e-book and email training course for consultants, coaches and trainers on how to attract and win more clients. Well, secret in the sense that I’ve not mentioned it here.
The Client Breakthrough System is to my knowledge the most comprehensive – yet free – ebook and [...]

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Keep out of the “Muddy Middle” when Selling Professional Services

16 June 2009

For many decades, perhaps the most successful client development strategy for both professional service firms and individual professionals has been one of focusing on a small number of high value clients.
As Andrew Sobel points out in “All For One”, a consultant or accountant only needs a handful of good clients to make a great career. [...]

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Referrals: You’ve got to have a System

13 June 2009

We all know that referrals can be the most powerful and profitable source of new clients. Yet most of us find that we’re simply not generating enough referrals of a high enough quality to reach our practice growth objectives.
What’s the problem here? Are we mistaken in our assumption that referrals are such an effective business [...]

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Three Painful Truths for Business Developers

12 December 2008

Painful Truth #1 – Your Customers are Busy
No, I mean really busy. Business executives today are overloaded, overstressed and over-sold-to.
We used to live in a world where business opportunities were in short supply. Today, business executives are bombarded hourly with offers from sales people offering to slash their costs, double their profits, turbo-charge their web [...]

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Book Review: Making the Number – How to use Sales Benchmarking to Drive Performance

7 December 2008

Making the Number is a new book focused on Sales Benchmarking by Greg Alexander, Aaron Bartels and Mike Drapeau. The book sets out a clear methodology for benchmarking sales activities and performance and shows readers what to measure, how to measure it, and how to use this information to improve sales performance.
There’s a lot to [...]

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The Importance of Good Follow-Up

20 October 2008

We all know that good follow-up is vital in sales. According to the Gartner Group, almost 70% of leads are mishandled in some way. So great follow-up will give effective salespeople a huge advantage over less rigorous competitors.
But how many times have you come back from a meeting or networking event and received this sort [...]

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Topgrading for Sales: A Review

18 July 2008

The folks at the Topgrading team (http://www.topgradingforsales.com/) kindly sent me a review copy of their latest book: Topgrading for Sales – so here’s the review.
A quick caveat: Topgrading focuses primarily on recruitment – and I’m far from an expert in that area. In fact, in my 15+ years working in consulting organisations I managed to [...]

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Becoming a Trusted Advisor

5 July 2008

It’s the holy grail of Professional Services – to become a trusted advisor to your senior clients. To be viewed – and sought out – as a source of valued advice and support.
The benefits from a business development perspective are clear: the professional who is the first port of call for a client with a [...]

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The Myth of Goal Setting

26 June 2008

One of the most often repeated stories to back up the importance of setting clear goals and targets is the “Yale 1953 Goals Study”. The story takes many forms – but essentially says that in 1953, researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. Twenty [...]

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