| Lars Tewes, Managing Director of sales performance consultancy SBR Consulting, asks if creating a business development culture in your firm a quantum leap in terms of cultural change or are you closer than you think? |
Selling in the Consulting World –
Building a business development culture is easier than you think |
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| | By Lars Tewes
Last year it seemed as
if many of SBR
Consulting’s clients were
focusing on building
relationships within
their existing customers
and finding ways to add
value. Since the start of
2011, we have already
been having a number of
conversations with
clients and prospects
about their strategy to
embark on new business,
or to be more accurate,
“new, new business”
(rather than “new,
existing business”). This
article will look at how
achievable this is and at
a few ways to ensure it
happens.
Let’s first look at
whether this is an
approach you should take.
Based on SBR Consulting’s
experiences, the
following figures are
pretty realistic.
If we assume you are
selling existing products
with strong case studies
and track record, the
split is likely to be:
selling to current
customers, 70%; selling
to past customers, 40%;
and selling to new | |
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| | customers, 20%.
If you are selling new
products in each of these
groups optimistic figures
would be: selling to
current customers, 60%;
selling to past
customers, 30%; and
selling to new customers,
10%.
Based on these
projections, it is no
wonder that most
consultants shy away from
selling to new customers.
When you add the reality
that first projects with
new customers are often
significantly smaller in
size than some of the
more established
programmes, plus the
additional effort needed
to understand the
particular nuances of the
new client, you can see
why it really does take a
lot of motivation and
commitment to succeed.
However, the cold,
hard facts are that for a
consultancy to grow, part
of your strategy needs to
focus on “new, new
business”. This is
because these will
eventually become the big
projects, the existing | |
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| | business, that takes over
from the inevitable,
natural loss of other
accounts which have run
their course.
If you are going to
make this part of your
culture, take a look at
the senior management
team and how they
perceive their individual
roles in bringing new
business into the firm.
This is where it starts
to get interesting and
occasionally a little
uncomfortable – if
leaders do not change
their picture about what
it takes to win
business.
Let me explain. For
many directors and senior
managers, business
development feels like a
quantum leap, and
something that others
excel at. They therefore
feel that it is not
possible to achieve,
especially since they are
still so busy “working in
the business” delivering
and running projects.
Continued on page
15...
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