When it comes to business development, the most frequent request my clients make is to support them in “building a healthy pipeline of new clients”….driven by the desire to finally bring their business to the next level. But what are the top three mistakes many business leaders do, trying to fill in their pipelines with new faces? Let’s dive right in!
MISTAKE #1 Focus being on chasing new clients
Many companies focus majority of their resources and BD activities on chasing new clients. And despite new client acquisition is of course important, it is your ability to maximize the value from past and existing clients that is vital to growing your business. Why?
- Cash & time: It is 6 times more costly to attract new clients and it of course takes time to build the same level of familiarity, relationship and trust with the newbies.
- Missed opportunity: You can be missing on a (up)sales opportunity that lies right in front of you, being busy attracting new clients.
- Threat of leaving: There is a danger of losing the currently active clients who might simply decide to go elsewhere and stop buying / working with you.
ACTION: Maximize the value from Past & Existing clients. Leverage the power of already established familiarity and trust in order to reactivate the past and grow the existing clients first.
MISTAKE #2 Focus on what you are missing or not doing well
Majority of the clients I work with always start the discovery conversation by what they need to do better or start doing to speed up their business growth. They focus on the negative. On their gaps. On their business flaws. On what they are missing preventing them from growing.
Often, they don’t even think about their past success, their bright spots, in order to understand, analyze and replicate such success, in order to find focus and concentrate on strategies yielding most ROI.
Did majority of your new clients come through your Facebook channel? That is your focus. Did you win most clients through your presence at networking events and event strategy? Go networking then!
ACTION: Run a Bright Spot Analysis. Understand how did you attract new clients successfully in the past and how can you replicate such success in the future.
MISTAKE #3 Not Having a Business Development Strategy
There are so many ways of attracting new clients, right? So which one to choose and focus on, rather than to do a little bit of them all? First, make sure you understand the key four approaches to new client acquisition and then ask yourself:
- About clients: Who are my clients? Where are they (physically & online)?
- About me: What is my capacity? How many clients do I want to acquire?
- About BD: What approach to BD makes sense to me and my business? What is my strategy for each year,…month,…week,…day?
