What does business development actually mean?

‍

Okay, so it’s a term you hear banded around more and more, Business Development. In the main, I have found that most Business Development Managers (BDM’s) are from a predominantly sales and marketing background therefore this is where the majority of the focus lies, however, this is only a fraction of what makes a business successful. 

‍

Why would we need to continuously pump money into advertising if we only have the ability to handle 10 clients at a single time? 

‍

Saint Business Development are experts at making businesses within the UK successful! This is done through the ability to see and understand every tool your business needs to succeed. It is well known that every business is different and a cookie-cutter template won’t make it here, our solutions are built around you.  

‍

Picture someone who is presenting your company and building relationships with your clients using every tool they have at their disposal in order to push you further in sales and long term success.

Developing the Business

Most companies we work with don’t have any sort of business development strategy in place. But for the ones who do, there are countless teams with no correlation of what the true goal is. I’m talking about a collection of marketers, sales advisors, media agencies all working to create a strategy with zero communication between them.

This has potential consequences, spending large sums of budgets on launching a product only to find out no one spoke to the sales team. They could argue too many voices but a slight input could have given the sales team a real foot in the door to engage with clients where the media team never considered it. Sales are hard and needs all the help it can get to execute the final payment. 

Management Level

Business Development is quite rightly pulling away from the sales orbit and becoming a separate sector on the organisation structure of companies and is causing businesses within the UK to dominate.

I have found they have taken over what we used to call and I hate to say this, a rep position, but they now have much more responsibility and respect. They are now at a management level, interlinked with the input into marketing and the direction being offered up to those at the board level with multiple skill sets. This means consistent oversight from the companies message to monitoring the deliverability of the service/product.

They understand and drive for the highest level of operating capacity possible with the best service and are not just sales driven anymore. 

In essence, the customer service level has increased massively compared to years ago, BDM’s are now real professional operators, the like with which you would interact with such as at a top hotel manager or floor manager. They really are the heart of the business and make sure every detail is being paid attention to.

Don’t get me wrong, you still get a sales rep, just as a BDM but you will soon tell the difference. 

The BDM will still carry out a presentation or meet clients like a rep, the difference is the mentality of the company, are the sending a rep or a polished BDM.

Director Level

A Director may also hold this role in a more senior capacity as this connectivity to the board members and other critical/confidential information will then be used to give feedback or plotting on the last phase of a Business plan or recent campaign. This person would have a very broad knowledge of all aspects of business and Director responsibilities with the ability to delegate to the BDM, Media, Sales and so on.

How does this help me?

So the above paragraph lavishes all the love this BDM has for the service or product they deliver.  It’s this passion, knowledge and standards that sets them apart from their competition.

The BDM knows the needs of the client, they even know the last promotional email that went out, they need to know the numbers the company requires to break even, they need to care about the company.

So now to relate this to the construction industry?

Our client base is mainly smaller construction companies, so how does this fit into the sector and what is the benefit for them. Is this just something for successful companies?

What Saint Business Development brings

A brief outline of our fantastic services and what they resolve:

🔎 Cashflow management - not just forecasts but what’s going on now and to help you pick up on the main indicators plus what we need to look for going forward

📈 Sales - we help develop your skills to deliver from calls to presentations.

📚  Marketing - the real long term investment - keep the work coming in at the pace you need.

🔗 Organisation - help you identify key roles and create a balance for your business and life.

🧠 Business plans- we provide internal, commercial and finance application plans including pitch delivery.

We use all of this information to run within our systems, giving you the best solutions & feedback allowing you to have a powerful 360° view of your business.

We offer a full Business development service - if this is of interest to you then please call for a 15-minute consultation, completely free of charge.

Remember - We also offer a FREE business report for every package client for every service they have with us, we also call and you speak to your dedicated business manager to discuss the key points in your report every quarter.

Business Development Services - so what happens

There is no one-off answer of what you or your business needs, yes we cover it all from cashflow - sales - business plans- it’s not all financial, the biggest wins are often a change in mindset and what your actual role entails... We start to plan together with the next move, sometimes in life people just get a bit stuck. 

Within this article I aim to be as transparent as I possibly can, this is rarely seen as it’s not the most appealing sales tactic, but the truth. Running a business is extremely hard work and I think anyone who owns one can agree with that. We are here to be that help in hand in order to guide you to the next steps which might have been a complete blur at your current stage.

We review your Company and produce a plan of action with key points that need to be addressed.

The idea of working with us is to turn that overwhelmed feeling on its head, restoring your time and peace of mind. Business development is more than a business growth platform, it reinvents the traditional business owner to control their business, not to be controlled by it. Implement Business Development into your business and change your future.

We would like to encourage you to learn the tricks, variables and techniques, we do not hide these.

Free quarterly business report and call

We get in touch with our Clients every quarter and provide analytics of their business alongside a call from their dedicated business manager, all free of charge. Does your accountant, media or admin team do this? Do they call with any tips on your performance or just to see how things are going? Saint go that extra mile, we ensure customer satisfaction in the services we provide are perfect.

If I see a successful company they usually have a good accountant, however, most see their accountant as an expense or a grudge payment that comes around every year. With Saint it is more than that, it is an investment that pays back.

We listen to your passion as a company, where you want to get to, the lifestyle you want, why you started.

The point being your accountant should match your passion, you can sense from my writing I am passionate about what we deliver for our clients.

Is your company just limping along, if so am I right in guessing your accountant has the same amount of passion for your company as you, it’s low and it’s just not fun. We want to bring that energy back. As we say, Saint is successful at making other companies successful. 

Someone giving you a business report with no narrative is just another job to work out, if you are too busy then you are not ready to digest it, let alone act and even if you did act, how do you know it’s working, so we do it together.

An example of internal BD

Adding a BD mentality, it pays off because you pull ahead of the pack, your client can sense the goodwill and confidence you have built into the business when they decide they want you for the job.

We put all of your services effectively into place which then gets brought together for a quarterly evaluation with a condensed report which shows and demonstrates where exactly our services are proving effective. 

If for example, you have a Media account for your website and also have a Virtual Assistance with us, we then compile reports for you to grasp a full understanding of the key identifiers of your business and how our services are helping it. 

Key information such as what was the increase in phone activity, time saved, visitors received, leads generated and so on.

What you bring

Most importantly we need you to have a passion for your company - a real passion, our most successful clients have that, they have either had it to start with or had to fake it till they make it.

If I had to say the fastest improvement factor in Business development of a company or person it would be to have belief and confidence, even facing a bad situation with a positive mindset will make every outcome 100x easier to reach. I am not saying lie to yourself but you would be amazed at the few days of taking positive action has.  

It’s infectious, our clients are wealthy but also very grateful as people for their own success they built not us. You can feel the energy they have, it’s positive and they help others so much with introductions and so on.

It will make things possible in your organisation, it finds weak spots and makes you face them, it finds negative people and moves them on, it gives others hope to be brave and honest. It’s not 85% mindset, it is a 100% mindset. Where there was fear there is energy, where there was doubt there is now action.

With this newfound refreshed energy we then start to apply the new learnt techniques and actions in a measured approach so you learn and see the improvements and then know how to apply it yourself making you more and more confident.

Success

Only together we can help your business grow. People do not realise business owners are a certain breed, they are not working for someone, they are not scared of taking risks. They are individuals, with a whole lot of passion.

If you feel like you are now ready to take action, call Saint and let’s start building something special. You know more now than you did when you first started, you have face challenges before. By working with Saint, we help you progress your business in meaningful chunks and you simply become more braver, self confidence and successful.