Make Business Development Your Most Loved Activity

Some may consider business development as a dreaded activity, but it’s a necessary evil for any size of organization. Non-profits call it “development”; corporations may include biz dev within their sales departments. Wikipedia defines it as “the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships.”

For this blog, I’ll make it simple: Business development is any activity one can do to bring home the bacon. It’s a different animal for products companies versus solutions providers. And we’re focusing on solutions providers who might find it tricky to discover new and exciting ways to generate business.

Behold! Our tried-and-true list of the top ten business development strategies for solutions providers follows:

1. Referrals. Don’t be afraid to ask employees, friends, vendors, past customers, and current clients for referrals. If you bring value to those you serve, others will be happy to recommend you to others or refer their contacts who need what you offer. And while you’re at it, make sure to showcase your best.

2. Sharing. Are you an expert in a certain field or industry? If you are, sharing information that is pertinent to your prospective or existing clients can be a worthy initiative. As you do, make sure you’re making it valuable to your audience.

3. Education. Instead of selling, why not inform or educate? Consider a whitepaper or blog that has the sole purpose of teaching and bringing the reader fresh ideas and information.

4. LinkedIn. Have you ever considered reaching out to your potential clients via LinkedIn? Or keeping up with past colleagues or industry experts on the professional social media site? A personalized note with your value proposition can be an interesting way to harvest new relationships.

5. Handwritten Notes. After almost 20 years in sales and marketing, I’m amazed at how much people appreciate handwritten notes. When I was in my first sales job, I sent a superintendent of a school district a note to thank him for meeting to review the contract I wanted him to sign. The next time I called him to get on his calendar for the school board meeting, he referenced the thank you card and told me how much he appreciated it. And then, he put me on the agenda (and the contract was signed).

6. Telling. When I started my consulting business, a friend and mentor shared a Harvard Business Review article that said, “When You Start Freelancing, Let People Know.” This is sound advice.

7. Gifting. Just today, one of my current clients thanked me in person for the holiday gift I sent. (If you’re curious, it was a bottle of wine from my favorite Sonoma winery, personally signed by the vintner.) Consider not only sending thoughtful gifts at the end of the year, but to celebrate Valentine’s Day (We love our clients!) or even Halloween (My job would be scary without amazing clients like you!).

8. Mini-Campaigns. Go digital. Or traditional. Get a good database and target people that you’d like to work with in the future. Catchy mailers or value-added digital correspondence can be a great way to get in front of the right people.

9. Beyond Budget. I am enrolled in a program at Cornell, and the most significant takeaway so far is the thought of not offering clients what you think they’ll pay for but figure out how to bring them the most value. Let them decide what is best for their budgets, not the other way around.

10. Community. Get into the community. Serve. Network. Learn. Find an organization in your town that grows leaders in your field and roll your sleeves up. Not only will you develop as a person and professional, but you will meet new friends and potential contacts. In Las Vegas, the definitive program is Leadership Las Vegas. I can’t say enough about how it impacted my life for the better.

I hope this list brings you ways to grow your business as you strive to communicate with clients and your target audience—and that business development is now your favorite activity.

A Brand By Any Other Name

Google the word “brand”, and you’ll get 6,020,000,000 results in .66 seconds. A recent Entrepreneur article states: “Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer”. We’ve said before that brand includes the personality of the organization—the voice/tone, language, key messages, and how the organization meets the needs of key audiences. Brand is the essence of what the organization does, its competencies, and its values.

Building a Brand
Crafting a brand is an art…and a science. What we’ve seen works best for our clients is a partnership that begins with a strategy session. And with this brainstorming process, we find it valuable to hit on what best describes the essence of the organization…and what absolutely does not. Sara Smith, a great business coach with whom we’ve worked, can be credited with the phrase “No, not that”. Sometimes, it’s just as important to know what you are…and what you’re not. This certainly applies when setting up a brand and leading to “Aha! This is it!” moment.

Often, the logo is synonymous with brand. However, there are other components of the organization’s make-up that should be considered prior to creating a logo. Is there sense of environmental awareness that the organization wants to get across in the marketplace? This might direct the logo development. Is there a certain audience that the group needs to target? Going after a high-end, luxury market is very different from communicating with a wider audience. These pieces should be considered when building a brand.

Beyond the logo comes the brand attributes, which should be a part of every external communication channel. From digital channels, like social media and website, to traditional marketing collateral, the voice and style of the brand should be consistently communicated. Once this is determined, it’s essential that all ongoing content strategy and tactics tie back to the brand.

Our Brand
When we set out to craft our business’s brand, we went through this exercise for ourselves. What type of niche did we want to work within and how will we communicate with these clients? With our value proposition, knowledge, and skillset, what exactly would we offer to the world? What attributes describe us?

You might notice our lingo is energetic and friendly. Our main color is an attention-getting bright pink; our logo is a sleek bubble. Why? Because our brand attributes include an energetic—bubbly!—approach to bringing solutions to the organizations we support. These brand attributes are not a happy accident; they’re part of a well-thought-out process to share who we are and the value we bring to our clients. And we’re happy to bring this knowledge to your business to help your brand, whether you’re starting a business or refreshing your brand. Click here to chat us up!

7 Tips to Keep Your Brand Consistent on Social Media

I often get asked, “What is branding exactly?” The definition of brand according to the American Marketing Association is “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers”. In today’s social media world, it encompasses so much more. It includes not only the name, design, and symbol but colors, fonts, tone of voice, and overall feel of each profile.

Trying to keep your brand clear on social media can be a daunting task but one that is well worth it. Just let these statistics sink in for a moment:

• The average revenue increase attributed to always presenting the brand consistently is 23%. Source: Lucidpress
• Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. Source: University of Loyola
• Brands that are consistently presented are 3 to 4 times are more likely to experience brand visibility. Source: Lucidpress

Now that you get how important a consistent brand is, what do you do about it? While hiring a professional to help guide you is one way; if that isn’t an option, here are some things you can do now to keep your brand consistent online:

1. Use the same social media handles (or as close as you can) across all platforms so you are easy to find.
2. Use the same profile picture and cover photos so you are recognizable from one social media platform to another.
3. Make sure your “About” section and bio descriptions are relatively the same across all platforms. Don’t say X on one and Y on another; this confuses potential customers.
4. Use the same logo and colors throughout all social media profiles. This includes using similar filters on photos, so they have the same feel to them.
5. Pick 2-3 fonts to use in graphics and stick to them. You may need to create different graphics for each platform but keep the fonts and color palettes the same.
6. Keep your voice and feel consistent. For example, if you are a cutting-edge brand, make sure all copy, pictures, and videos have a modern look and feel on all platforms. Creating templates for each platform for each type of post can make this easier. Keeping topics similar everywhere can also help. A consistent look and voice gives you wider recognition.
7. This does not mean post the same exact thing across all platforms. Each platform works differently, and you need to adapt the media to the platform. Posts can have the same look and voice with some tweaks for each platform. Sometimes you need to experiment to see what works best where.

Keeping your branding consistent will bring you better recognition in the social media world. This will build the trust and loyalty customers—and potential clients—feel for your company.

Want to follow me for more social media tips? You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, or via my website.