The Nature of Business Development

Organic business development requires a comprehensive, coordinated 3-part effort. You must have sufficient strength in each of the marketing, sales and customer service areas of your company to attract, acquire and retain customers.

The Venus Fly Trap is nature’s equivalent of a well-run marketing, sales and retention program. Like many plants they get fed both from gases in the air and nutrients in the soil. But it is in catching the “right” insects that will help the flytrap truly thrive rather then just exist. To be considered carnivorous, a plant must attract, capture and digest some kind of animal life.

The plant must first secrete a sweet-smelling sap that is attractive to its’ intended prey (marketing). After an insect lands on the plants’ trap it will close, but not all the way, in about one second. Insects that are too small or too large are released because they provide inadequate nutrition or are “too big to swallow”(sales qualification). Stones, nuts or other inadvertent objects are released in about twelve hours if they don’t meet the flytrap’s expectations (firing the wrong customers). If the plant finds the captive bug to its’ liking however, (the “just right” customer), the trap is shut tight never to open again until the next catch (retention).

Just so you know, successful, natural business development must work together in just the same way, with all three steps to build long-term loyal customers and revenue stability.

Things in nature usually work very well. Design your marketing, sales and retention process just as well to build long-term repetitive success.

Pass the Pixie Dust

We recently worked with some highly intelligent executives at a reasonably successful larger corporation looking for long-term growth. The initial conversations revolved around the strategy, tactics and depth of programs they felt that they needed to re-educate their exiting clients about new products and services as well as making themselves known to new potential customers.

After many meetings over several months they decided they wanted a “quick hit” to increase sales fast and didn’t want a more comprehensive program. They wanted to send one direct marketing piece out to several thousand recipients and needed an immediate return on investment.

We said no thank you.

Oh, we could have taken their money and done a campaign. But, odds are, we may not have gotten the expected results right away and gotten fired anyway, likely the first in a long-line of many marketing firms who would not get the immediate results they said they needed.

You see, the mystery of successful marketing is most often based in consistency, not magic. One anything; postcard, rebate offer, trade show etc. is highly unlikely to net you sustained long-term leads, prospects and ultimately, customers.

In our personal relationships, one event does not define them. Rather, it is an on-going series of interactions and remembrances that keep us connected to other individuals. Greeting cards, flowers, presents, phone calls and many other expressions of endearment help our personal relationships survive and grow.

In the same way, (to those who are receptive to it) you must commit to a never-ending series of communication tactics like newsletters, emails, white papers, direct mail campaigns etc. to interest, excite and acquire new customers, and, keep them for the long haul. Relationships in business are built just like in our private lives, through constant attention and contact.

Just so you know, if you need more business, you need to commit to a sustained, never-ending marketing effort. If you don’t continually engage potential clients about who you are and what you do, you’re making it next to impossible for them to buy from you.