What’s all the hoopla about “Business Development“? Don’t we all do a form of this every day when we are asking buyers to buy a home, asking sellers to list their homes with us, recruiting an agent to join our team, or if you are a vendor to the industry, asking the brokerage or agent to purchase a product to increase business? Granted today’s times aren’t like anything we have seen for quite some time, and many companies are streamlining and reviewing job responsibilities across the board. But the buzz word in the halls, on the streets, and at the water cooler is “Business Development.”
So, like my fellow Skirt Natalie, I too turned to Wikipedia for the definition. In the field of commerce, the specialist area of “Business Development” comprises a number of techniques and responsibilities which aim at gaining new customers and at penetrating existing markets.
In the definition it offers techniques that are used to grow one’s business, including:
- Assessment of marketing opportunities and target markets
- Intelligence gathering on customers and competitors
- Advising and enforcing sales policies and processes
- Following up sales activities
- Proposal and presentation management and writing
Okay, the techniques are something that we all know and understand. Most of us go after new business regularly. But, what about current clients, past clients or just the day-to-day operations of business…do we need “Business Development” in these areas as well? YOU BET!
In the early 1990’s I left my job as a Retail Advertising Director for a mid-size daily newspaper in Montgomery, Alabama. Newly married and feeling secure, I decided to go out on my own. So, what was my first step? I started calling clients and letting them know that I was going to be freelancing my marketing skills. I engaged in “Business Development,” right? The first rule is to contact people you know or have worked with in the past. Okay, I rallied up a few clients.
One of the clients I secured was an independent real estate brokerage with 70 agents, and the median age of the agents with whom I was working was 52. These agents had never had to do any marketing on their own. Their company did it all. Now, remember this was in the 90s and not too much different than today’s market. Interest rates were much higher, but a lot like today. I needed to find that agent that was hungry and had no fear to prove to the others that marketing on her own would bring business.
I found the perfect rookie, and she had no fear. She was a wife, mother of two and had a brother who was a real estate agent in another city. With sibling rivalry at its best, I leveraged the fact that he was the number one agent in the state to motivate her. So, when she said to me “I need to develop business,” I jumped at the chance. She asked the more established agents if she could hold their listing for Open House. She asked to advertise them in her full page ad in the local home magazine, and our list of To Do’s went on. We even developed a business plan and marketing plan. She was determined not to live deal-to-deal but instead to establish clientele and make a legitimate living.
To give a prime example, consider her most challenging case of “Business Development. “ In her first year as an agent, she had plenty of experience with the “dog” of a listing. You know the listing – the one that has rotated through the troops in the last two years. It was a vacant home, no furniture, no curb appeal. Ring a bell? And to top off the torture, it was during the Holidays! No potential clients to be found – until we devised a wonderfully effective plan. We contacted several local merchants: boutique stores, a landscaper, interior decorators, a caterer, a florist and others. With their help, we hosted a “Holiday Open House.” Party invitations were sent, ads were published, shopkeepers set up displays of their wares, and the house smelled of cheer when interested buyers strolled through the home. In that four-hour span on a dreary Sunday afternoon when we thought no one could be bothered, this rookie agent developed business. In fact, she obtained six new clients!
One of our goals with both our Blog and SkirtsInDirt.com is to explore the various modes of business development to support your day to day business. Additionally, we hope to provide suggestions and ideas on sales-oriented functions, as well as marketing, customer service, and the dreaded operations of running our business successfully. We hope you’ll find our insight practical and put us to work in your own “Business Development” efforts!
