I am not an expert in mailouts…but is it unreasonable to suggest that they add a touch of personalisation by enclosing a list of NT locations within an hour or so of my address? I get that this would cost more, but that tiny bit of extra effort would probably have pushed me that little further and made it easier for me to decide to join.

Though I still may do….just need to take the time to find out what NT properties are close to me (that are good for kids and dogs of course!)

#justsaying

Before we simply assume this to be true think about this. Managing and using all of these extra channels requires more time than ever, and with everyone using them it is also noisier than ever. If new business isn’t your day job, then it won’t ever be your priority, won’t get done consistently and the data gathered almost certainly won’t be kept up to date and managed to ensure it is relevant and useable.

Outsourcing new business development to experts ensures it is done as a priority and done consistently; it will be done well and all data will be managed and kept up to date yielding huge benefits to your organisation on an ongoing basis.

If your organisation is good then referrals will always come in. Great. Just think though if you work with a proven new business resource you will also have a healthy pipeline. Double great.

I have been thinking about the differences and the questions we all need to be asking.

BRAND

Traditionally channelled predominantly through marketing activity (advertising, pr, design, direct marketing etc)

Now everyone that touches your organisation is a conduit of your brand to your many audiences (customer, stakeholder, employee)

Questions; can people easily understand, engage and ‘feel’ your brand? Do they want to? Is the infrastructure in place for people to be advocates should they want to? Is it easy? Are the channels open for everyone to communicate your brand? Are people communicating it how you want them to? Can you harness the power of the love people have for your brand?

PEOPLE

Traditionally organised into divisions with communication and knowledge sharing across each department being predominantly at management level

Now everyone can be (or is) connected across the organisation. This holds the potential to vastly improve business processes and increase the share of knowledge raising productivity as a whole.

Questions how are your people communicating across your organisation? Is there infrastructure to support this and learn from eachother?

This whole experience has really given me a lot of opportunity to think about what I want to do when I grow up! Like most people I have fallen into what I do rather than following a calling, I have done what I have needed to live life, without work being my life. This has all changed now. I want my work to be a part of my life, not a necessity. I want to do what I love and love what I do. Whilst doing a lot of sitting and watching the world go by (albeit out of a hospital window), reading (mainly fiction for pure escapism), spending a lot of time with my children (without one eye on my phone or laptop) I have realised with great relief that I am not far from this place already.

A lovely person helped me rewrite my bio – an objective view point is very valuable when you are looking inwardly! Here is a snippet:

Kaeli gets under the skin of organisations to develop their revenue and brand potential and connects people with propositions; she knows how to develop sales and marketing that reflect the core values of an organisation.

Business development is my core skill …this can mean many different things; sales, marketing, product development, propositions etc. The above snippet sums up nicely what under the business development umbrella I am good at. Extending an organisations core values held by an organisation to connect with people that will genuinely benefit from engaging. Not making a quick sale, not broadcasting, not cutting prices, no multibuy deals and no complicated small print. Just good, honest business development that benefits everyone.
So this is the basis on which I am moving forward – what I have always done but with more meaning, more value and with the aim of making the world a nicer and hopefully better place.

It is the same with new business development. I want to focus on the relationship between businesses and their new business professional, whether they are inhouse or an external partner.

Everybody needs to remember that new business professionals cannot simply go away and ‘work their magic’. You can’t put them in a box and hope that new clients will land on your desk.

I help my clients with i) how to communicate what they do, ii) define who it is that will find this product or service meaningful and relevant, and ultimately want to buy it and iii) the actual process of communication. This is what new business development is about: communication, the vehicle, the bridge between the product or service offered by the business and its future customers. Sometimes, I also advise my clients on where they should focus their business, specialism’s etc. if it isn’t engaging enough.

New business professionals need their clients (or the rest of their business) to continually back up the proposition, support what is being communicated and add credence to the messages being shared with your audiences – be your business’ brand in all you do. Today your future customers can find out so much about you and your competitors in so many ways, and the content found at all of these touchpoints needs to reflect the proposition. New business professionals can write and manage this content, but to keep it fresh we need input, feedback and most importantly communication from the rest of the business. It is amazing what can trigger or spark a new lead – the key being ‘trigger’ and ’spark’. There needs to be an ongoing process of feeding through new content, new information, fresh ideas, news, trends. This can be something as simple as a regular conversation, inclusion into management meetings or simply making time for your new business professional.

When my clients have open lines of communication with me and actively input into the new business process the results are much improved.

So please remember to involve your new business professional as much as possible, support their activity…. the more you put in, the more you will get out.

I have now been loyal to one for well over 12 months. I use them a minimum of twice a month, usually 3 or 4 times. So for arguments sake say 50 times in the past year; approx shop value of £90 = £4500. The question I have been asking is – where is the reward for my loyalty? Surely it is common sense that if you get in early with the reward to say thank you, this would reduce the need to chase down lapsed customers….and we all know it is cheaper to keep a customer than find a new one! I even went so far as to drop an email to them making a suggestion along these lines – got no response (unless you count the automated ‘thank you for your message blah blah)

So, the trigger for this post: a friend of mine strayed from said provider (was wooed by a £10 voucher from another party) for about a month. She returned to the original supermarket as felt they offered a better service and get this…. GOT A FREE BOTTLE OF WINE to say thank you for coming back.

I was utterly dismayed at this when…an email dropped into my inbox today entitled: Saving £5 at XXXXX is as easy as 1-2-3. Oh at last I thought: some reward for me. But you tell me – is this easy as 1-2-3? Is it convenient? Is it worth it to me?

Here are the instructions:

Place an order for delivery between Tuesday 25th January and Thursday 27th January 2011.*

We’ll send you an email containing a £5 off voucher on Monday 31st January 2011.

Use the voucher to get £5 off your next XXXXX order for delivery between Tuesday 1st February and Thursday 3rd February 2011.
(*minimum spend £75)

So as a loyal customer I CAN get £5 off; but only IF I order twice in a 10 day period, enter a code at checkout and spend a minimum of £75.
Suffice to say I was quite disappointed. Am thinking of trying someone else but am not sure anybody has got it right. Pity.

Incidentally, by putting it down on paper (figuratively speaking) I noticed something. I studied physics and will never forget something my A-Level physics teacher said to me – ‘Physics is 4 lines of Maths and 1 line of Physics’ (I was always better at Maths than Physics!) So perhaps seeing this pan out: ’selling is 4 lines of listening and 1 line of speaking’ (I am also better at listening than speaking!)

1. As a research tool. Understand who your target market is: Until you do this there will be no focus. You need to define the criteria that will in turn define your audience; from organisation through to the people within that organisation.
The criteria for the organisation can be hard data such as industry, turnover or location; or soft data, for example: trends, issues or growth strategy. The softer data has always been more difficult to find and this is where social media can be absolutely brilliant. It takes some practice, but listen well, search well and you will find that elusive group of prospects that need what you have.

2. As a database tool. Follow your target market: Find the organisations on Facebook & Twitter and follow/like them. Find the people on LinkedIn (but do not attempt to connect to them until you have actually interacted with them – this will do much more harm than good) and save their profiles if you have a premium account (I highly recommend this), or bookmark them if not.

3. As an information feed. Listen to your target market: What are they saying? Who are they talking to? What interests them? What news and articles are they retweeting, or reposting, or writing? What groups are they members of on LinkedIn? What lists have they built and what lists are they on? There is a wealth of information available now and absolutely no excuse or reason to have to ‘cold’ call people anymore.

4. As a networking tool. Join the right conversations: Conversations that are relevant to you and your organisation, that you can add value to, with questions you can answer, or simply something you are interested in – join in. Join relevant groups on LinkedIn – please don’t stalk prospects – make sure the group actually is relevant!

5. As a sales tool. If you must sell something, sell the problem not the product/ service: The best way to generate interest in your service or product is to simply talk about the problem it can solve (Seth blogged on this back in August)
When you find active conversations or articles talking about issues relevant to your service and product, offer advice, give something to your audience (please don’t just put a link up to your website!) Start a conversation about the problems your product can solve and again give advice. If you have defined your prospects well enough, the subject will immediately resonate with them; and if they are interested in how to solve it, they will actively seek you out.

I liken it to having children. You won’t ever understand them and you cannot ever be in control. They are always going through ‘a phase’, you never get it licked, they are constantly changing? You have to guide, be responsive, adaptive and not controlling – if you try to be control and find a ’solution’ you will get very frustrated as what works one day will not work the next. Like trying to hold on to water. This is how it is in marketing and business now thanks to the social revolution. Just like with children it is about relationships, not spreadsheets, lists or hefty documents. We can’t have 5 or 10 year fixed strategies and plans. What we can have is direction, ambitions and hopes.

Go with it; every day is a new day and brings with it new things that you cannot predict. Be flexible, seek out and embrace the new opportunities that present themselves. Deal with the tantrums, the slammed doors and the tears and enjoy the fun and achievements that come with them.

I am struggling with my ‘job title’. I am concerned it could carry negative connotations and assumption.

What is your opinion? I am currently billed as ‘business development’ on LinkedIn etc… What is your immediate reaction? Positive, negative? Neither?

All comments greatly welcomed….I am open to new suggestions – an alternative or nothing?

Thank you

I got thinking today about how one particular ‘type’ uses Twitter – I am sure they REALLY don’t get it. Those are the ones that have heaps of followers, but follow barely any.

Twitter is classified as ‘social media’. I wanted some clarity on this, so bear with me: The definition of social is ‘relating to human society and its members’; definition of relating is ‘being in a relationship with’ and the definition of relationship is ‘a state of connectedness between people (especially emotional)’. Definition of connected is ‘being in close association’. Terms such as these: ‘relating to’, ‘state of connectedness’ and ‘close association’ suggest to me it should be a two way dialogue, a conversation, interaction…..social!

These organisations are using a social media platform in an advertising way. They are talking at their audience and not connecting with them. They are pushing their message and not listening. They are not leveraging the information available to them, information that offers immeasurable insight into their followers.
Somebody has gone out of their way to actively tell them that they like their brand and want to connect with their brand, but still they don’t reciprocate. Is this shortsightedness, is it fear, is it the easy way or is it simply #fail?